Mercury in Tilapia - most sources on the Internet show tilapia to be low
in mercury. Dr Mercola states "So here is my list of safe fish:
Summer Flounder
Wild Pacific Salmon
Croaker
Sardines
Haddock
Tilapia" http://www.mercola.com/2001/apr/25/mercury_fish.htm
Also "Lowest
* salmon
* flounder
* sole
* tilapia
* trout
Source: Mercury levels in seafood species. U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Office of
Seafood, May 2001."
So I'm not sure where you are getting your facts from.
Also tilapia are easy to raise if you are in a state that allows you to
import and raise them. They are easy to propagate as they will
willingly make babies when the water gets warm enough. I managed a
solar green house at the Museum of Science in Boston for a year in 1987
or so. We had two circular tanks raising tilapia. They can gulp air at
the surface if the oxygen layers get too low, so if your air bubblers
pumps quit they can survive until you find this out. I had a whole tank
of catfish die on me the day before Christmas when the air pumps to
their tank went out. You could easily raise a batch of tilapia to
edible size and have a batch of babies to winter over until the water
would be warm enough to start all over again. We fed them lettuce
clippings and fish chow but there might be a less expensive way to feed
them.
I enjoy eating tilapia. I will cook it with either a salad dressing
marinade or a coating of mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese on it.
Christy