# Tilapia buttikoferi diet



## eric (Jan 1, 2002)

Can anyone tell me what they eat in the wild and cite a source or two?


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Sadly, most of my sources are in storage atm but I do remember an article on them in AFM by Dr. Loiselle stating they are primarily snail eaters (makes sense with those large lips). Dr. Loiselle theorized that is why they are so aggressive to each other, since they live in an area of the world that has very few freshwater snails.


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## bernie comeau (Feb 19, 2007)

Yeah, read that somewhere, that snails make up a fairly large part of T. buttikoferi's diet, at least in some parts of it's range, though I can't seem to find where I read that. According to Anton Lamboj, in his book, The Cichlid Fishes of Western Africa: "Generally speaking, Tilapia buttikoferi is not specialized, but prefers an herbivorous diet."


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

small fishes, worms, insects and snails.


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