For many years, Saint Peter’s fish, also known as Nile perch or the more inclusive Latin name of tilapia, was only available in Israel and at some gourmet restaurants worldwide. In the late 1950s, however, Tel Aviv University zoologist Prof. Lev Fishelson changed all this. He developed a hybrid of Saint Peter’s fish that was highly tolerant to salt water as well as high temperatures. This made it ideally adaptable to growing in ponds in arid desert areas where the available underground water is usually unuseable because of its high salinity.