It is generally believed that tilapia is a freshwater fish evolved from seawater ancestors, so it belongs to euryhaline fish and can live in fresh water, brackish water and even seawater. Different kinds of tilapia also have different salt tolerance. Mozambican tilapia can live, grow and reproduce in the sea; The highest salinity of Oreochromis aurea is 19, but it can grow at 36 ~ 45 or even as high as 53.5 after domestication. The salt tolerance of Nile tilapia is worse than other tilapia, and it can only tolerate 20 ~ 23 salinity. Onion hybrid fish can grow at the salinity of 18. Under normal circumstances, the tilapia varieties cultured at present have little effect on their growth when the salinity is lower than 5, but with the increase of salinity, the growth rate gradually slows down. In addition, the tolerance of young fish to salinity is worse than that of big fish. Because tilapia cultured in salt water has no earthy smell when cultured in fresh water soil pond, the quality of adult fish is better.

Tilapia has strong salt tolerance.