St. Peter's Fish ??

The name St. Peter’s fish originated from Gospel of St. Matthew ( 17:24-27 ) where Apostle Peter would find a silver coin inside the mouth of a fish in order to pay the Temple Tax.  The name of the fish was never mentioned, but it was most likely to be a Tilapia fish.

²⁴ When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” ²⁵ He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” ²⁶ And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. ²⁷ However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel.[g] Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

Tilapia

There are some 24 fish species in the Sea of Galilee, of which 19 are native and 5 exotic ( Ben-Tuvia, 1978 ) ^{Table 1}.  Tilapia was one of the major commercial catch, and it is a bi-parental mouthbrooder.   Being a mouthbrooder means the adult fish carry their offsprings inside their mouth.  So, a Tilapia has a mouth large enough to accommodate a coin.

Tilapia is the common name for nearly 100 species of cichlid fish from the Tilapiini tribe, of the Tilapia genus.   The name ‘Tilapia’ was from the Tswana word ‘thiape’ which means ’fish’.  It was named by Scottish zoologist Andrew Smith in 1840.

The Sarotherodon and Oreochromis split off into their own genera in 1852 and 1889 respectively.  They are still commonly called ‘tilapia’ regardless of the change in their actual taxonomic nomenclature.

Therefore, there are 3 species of tilapia in the Sea of Galilee : Tilapia zilli, Sarotherodon galilaeus, and Oreochromis aureus.