Black chin tilapia eggs are tough and can hatch after being dried for 2 months.

Samut Songkhram, Shocked by the black-chinned tilapia eggs, they are more durable than expected. They were left out to dry for 2 months and they still hatched. Villagers said they had no way to fight back. Reporters went to a sea bass pond in tambon Phraek Nam Daeng, Amphoe Amphawa, Samut Songkhram Province, and met Mr. Wanlop, 59 years old, a shrimp farmer for over 17 years who had converted his pond to sea bass. He took reporters to see the black chin tilapia fry in a pond of almost 200 rai that had emerged in large numbers. They then released water into the net and in less than 2 minutes, they obtained 18.5 kilograms of 1-inch black chin tilapia fry. Mr. Wallop said that before this, he raised shrimp on 520 rai of land. Then in 2011, the black chin tilapia started to spread, so he started to experiment with raising sea bass in a 20 rai pond first. He put 5,000 in and then closed the pond and killed them. When the time came to catch the sea bass, there were less than 1,000 left, but he got 9 tons of blac k chin tilapia. He then realized that releasing 3-4 inch sea bass could not compete with the black chin tilapia, so he has been adjusting his methods continuously. Mr. Nattapol, 40 years old, a shrimp farmer in Moo 4, Tambon Yi San, Amphoe Amphawa, Samut Songkhram Province, said that 10 years ago, he raised aquatic animals naturally on more than 500 rai of land. He was able to catch local fish such as shrimp, mullet, catfish, tilapia, and natural fish. But in 2011, when the black-chinned tilapia started to spread, it ate all the shrimp and fish larvae. All shrimp and aquatic animal farmers went bankrupt. In the past, he had fought with the black-chinned tilapia for a long time by catching all the fish and drying the pond for more than 2 months until the soil was dry. Then he brought in a backhoe to push the pond, adjust the bottom of the pond, and dry the pond again. He thought that he would kill all the black-chinned tilapia, but when it rained, he found more black-chinned tilapia larvae. So he analyzed tha t the black-chinned tilapia spit out eggs and left them in the pond. They are very hardy and can withstand the sun. When water comes in, they hatch and come back. He didn't know how to solve the problem, so he stopped raising them quite a bit. Source: Thai News Agency