Tilanggit, anyone?

There’s money in tilanggit, an up-and-coming dried fish.

Tilanggit is coined from two fish species – tilapia and danggit (rabbitfish, popular in its dried, boneless form).

Actually, it is tilapia juveniles processed into value-added product or form similar to boneless danggit, said Executive Director Rafael D. Guerrero III of the Los Baños-based DOST-Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD).

To produce the juveniles, tilapia fingerlings are stocked at 10 square meter in ponds fertilized with organic materials (e.g., chicken manure) or chemical fertilizers at recommended rates and methods for producing plankton, the natural food of fish.

PCAMRD said it takes 45-60 days to grow the fingerlings to the desired juvenile size of at least 10 grams each for processing.

In processing the juvenile fish, they are split open with a small knife or pair of stainless surgical scissors. The entrails and gills are removed while the vertebral column and large bones are extracted with a pair of forceps. The fins are also clipped.

After washing the processed fish, they are dried under the sun with an improvised solar dryer for two to three days until they become brittle dry.

One cropping season can produce a net return of P27,400, according to PCAMRD. – Rudy A. Fernandez