The effect of growing conditions on chemical composition, cholesterol percentage and characterization of total lipids was determined for Nile Tilapia and Pargo, both species of river water and seawater, which present high consumption and are very well appreciated in the Brazilian Northeast. Tilapia fishes were analyzed under three different conditions: I- Tilapia growing in river water; II) Tilapia adapted to sea water; III) tilapia "reverted' in river water. The percentage of moisture, ash, protein total, total fat, cholesterol, neutral lipids and phospholipids were determined. Cholesterol levels were respectively 10.05; 8.22; 8.75 and 12.75mg/100g in tilapia samples I, II, III and Pargo fish. Neutral lipids changed from 59.0 to 68.9%, and phospholipids from 17.1 to 31.0% in tilapia fishes, also Pargo presented variations from 59.5 to 72.5% for neutral lipids and from 25.1 to 34.1% for phospholipids. The total recuperation of phospholipids changed from 85.4 to 97.7%. The fat content in tilapia changed from 0.59 to 0.99%, while in Pargo it was 1.18%. Neutral lipids were predominant in both species. Even when submitted to stressing conditions Tilapia presented excellent nutritional qualities and low percentage of cholesterol, qualities which were also observed in Pargo fish.
nile tilapia; pargo; cholesterol; lipids; chemistry composition; fish
