“It’s no longer the bane of fishpond owners because somehow it has increased in size and costs much less than tilapia,” said Nelson Bien, chief of the law enforcement and regulatory division of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Central Luzon.
The BFAR Research Center said the Gloria fish or the black chin tilapia (Sarotherodon melanotheron) first appeared in the waters of Bataan several years ago, but it was not known who brought it into the country.
In 2013 during the presidency of Benigno Aquino, headlines referred to the fish as an unwanted predator in fishponds and was referred to as Gloria fish after ex-president, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo.
BFAR officials said then that the Gloria tag was unofficial and was apparently based on the diminutive size of the fish, as well as on the seeming dark mole on its side. Mrs. Arroyo has a mole on her right cheek and stands only about five feet.
But in a forum here, Bien said that in recent years, the Gloria fish, which used to grow only about four inches long and weigh only 50 grams, has evolved to grow almost as big as an ordinary tilapia which is popular among Filipinos.
“It’s now being sold in markets at prices half of tilapia, so more and more people are buying it,” Bien noted. Local folk have referred to the fish as Gloria tilapia for its resemblance to St. Peter’s fish or tilapia.
He noted that prawn growers now harvest Gloria fish so as to transform them into feeds for their prawns.
The Gloria fish used to be considered pests because they grew and increased in population rapidly, thus displacing the other fishes being cultured by fishpond owners.
“Now that they grow bigger, they are harvested for sale in the markets and are thus no longer regarded as pests,” Bien added.
Arroyo was placed under hospital arrest during the presidency of Aquino for alleged graft. She was exonerated by the Sandiganbayan during the term Pres. Duterte’s whose amnesty off er she had declined.
