Ornamental fish culture and aquarium keeping – A small scale livelihood option in India

Title : Ornamental fish culture and aquarium keeping – A small scale livelihood option in India

Abstract:

Aquarium keeping is the second largest hobby in the world and is becoming a stress relieving hobby. About 7.2 million houses in the USA and 3.2 million in the European Union keep an aquarium at their houses. The number is increasing day by day. Most of the ornamental fishes are tropical fishes and about 65% of them comes from Asia. In India, as per the estimate of Marine products export development authority(MPEDA) there are about one million aquarium hobbyists. Indian market can be categorized into domestic market and export market. The export market is dominated by indigenous ornamental fishes of India and the domestic market is contributed by the exotic fishes. The domestic market is estimated to be about $3.26 and the export market is about $ 0.38. the annual growth rate is about 14%.

In India, especially in Kerala, more than a hobby, ornamental fish culture has become a livelihood option. Because of the adequate climatic conditions, availability of water and unemployed youth most of the tropical fishes are bred and cultured in Kerala. Many of the scientific institutions and government are promoting this by giving training and financial support. In the present paper a case study is presented. The rural people Kumbalam village, a village in the Ernakulam district of Kerala, were trained for the culture of ornamental fish farming, including glass tank construction, fish breeding, larval rearing, live feed culture, aquatic plant culture, aquarium set up and fish feed preparation. They started doing either of these activities at their homes and started earning small income which helped them to improve their socioeconomic status. The details are presented in the paper.

Biography:

Dr. T.V. Anna Mercy studied M.Sc. Marine Biology at Cochin University, Kerala, India. She received Ph. D from Kerala University in 1982. Her Ph. D work was on a unique Indian blind clariid fish Horaglanis krishnai Menon that dwells only in subterranean wells at Kottayam, Kerala. She became the Junior Assistant Professor at College of Fisheries, Kerala Agricultural University, Panangad in 1984 & became Professor in 2002. She pioneered research on Indigenous fresh water Ornamental Fishes of the Western Ghats of India, developed captive breeding technology for 15 prioritized fresh water species including Sahyadria denisonii , which is a much sought after ornamental fish in the international market. It is popularly known as “Miss Kerala”.  She has published about 100 research papers including 50 in peer reviewed journals and authored/co authored many books. Presented research papers on different aspects of  ornamental fishes in several international conferences at Brazil, Oregon, USA,  China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Iceland, Netherland, China, Srilanka, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and  Australia.