4 - Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture

National Workshop-cum-Training on Biolnformatics and Information Management in Aquaculture
A successful economic enterprise requires lot of dedication, hard work, sincerity
and timely marketing of the produce. So also in ornamental fish, the success
depends on the investment, species selection, demand, and proper marketing.
The model economic analysis of the various types of the ornamental fish farms
presented here are indicative, and average estimation. The actual profitabil~ty
varies from the place to place depending on the condition and efficiencies in the
operation and management of the farm. As the enterprise involves live
specimen, the involvement of the risk is higher. At the same time, the
ornamental nature of the product provides opportunity to harvest comparatively
higher prices than food fishes. The demand creation and arousal of the interest
of the people can fetch the entrepreneurs' higher prices. Therefore it is always
advisable to make a proper viable project prior to establishing any ornamental
fish breeding unit with due consultation.
Considering the proven success of involvement of women in development of
backyard enterprise in farming of ornamental fish in West Bengal and Kerala, it is
necessary that due encouragement is given for creation of women SHGs for such
enterprise. It may be interesting to note that, Malaysia with similar climatic
condition like that of India has been able to grow the industry only with small
backyard units at individual levels. Thus, development of ornament fish farming
in any region, not necessarily requires very large-scale enterprises, but a few
successful clusters of back yard units in different regions. In this regard special
packages may be provided to these SHGs and unemployed youths or ex-service
men for establishment of such enterprise.
6. New initiatives
6.1 Breeding indigenous species of ornamental value
Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar has successfully bred
16 indigenous ornamental species from NEH, Eastern and Southern region. They
are barbs, danios, rasboras, catfish, eel, black carp and chameleon fish. College
of Fisheries, Panangad, Kochi has bred 15 numbers of indigenous ornamental
fishes from Western Ghats. They are also barbs, danios and rasboras of Western
ghat prioritized fish species. College of Fisheries, Raha, Assam has bred a few
fishes from Assam, of which peacock eel is important.
6.2 Cities involved in trade and farming
Kolkata has been the largest exit point for ornamental fish export, followed by
Mumbai and Chennai. These metropolitan cities are also the major breeding
centres for freshwater ornamental fishes. In the recent years, people in the
States of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and other places have started
producing ornamental fishes. According to 6n estimate, presently there are 350
full time and more than 2,000 part time fish breeders in the country. It has been
observed that most of the aquarium breeding centers and the related trade have
been confined in and around the metropolitan cities like Kolkata, Chennai and
Mumbai, primarily due to ready urban market and availability of international
airport facilities for import and export business.
6.3 Ornamental fish village at Udalrampur in Amtala, West Bengal
This village is known to be an ornamental fish village, where over 200 families
are involved in ornamental fish breeding as backyard activity with a market
facility at a weekly market at Ghalib Street, near Hathibagan. There are about