An aquarium with colourful fish swimming among skilfully arranged underwater plants make a delightful showpiece. In fact, the culture of ornamental fish for aquariums has been a rewarding industry.

Take for example, Late Rameshchandra Harvey, Mr Anna Vinayachandra, Mr Ronald D’Souza or Dr Ashwin Rai from Dakshina Kannada, who have been involved in rearing ornamental fish.

Mr Rameshchandra Harvey of Mangalore was one of the pioneers who popularised aquariums in the State. In fact, it was he who took aquariums to new heights in Karnataka. The Harvey Nursery in Mangalore has more than 40 varieties of ornamental fish such as Guppies, Platies, Angel fish, Black Molly, Koi Karp, Tiger Barbs, Blue morf, Golden shower horn, Albino Oscar, Siamese Fighting Fish and so on.

According to Mr Sunil Harvey, the nephew of Mr Rameshchandra Harvey, Mr Harvey’s association with ornamental fish started when he came to Mangalore from Baindoor in the early 1950’s and met Pailoor Lakshminarayan Rao. After 1953, he started rearing ornamental fish as his hobby, which became his livelihood and remained his hobby till his last breath.

His passion for ornamental fish made him manufacture acquariums. “My uncle would teach his young customers (children) the symptoms of disease in fish, ways to identify them and also about the care and maintenance of fish in an aquarium,” he says.

Mr Anna Vinayachandra from Bellare, a former MLC, is another pioneer in the culture of ornamental fish. He has been breeding ornamental fish for over 20 years now. There are nearly 40 tanks in his estate where he breeds these fish. “I owe my interest in ornamental fish to Pailoor Lakshminarayan Rao. I started breeding Siamese Fighting Fish, Angel, Gaurami, Platies,” he says.

There are more than 10 varieties of ornamental fish in his farm. They include the Japanese Koi Karp, Angels (diamond, marble, tiger, golden), four varieties of Swordtile, Black Molly and Karimeenu. He also cultivates water plants which, according to him, will cool the water in the tank and also provide shade to the fish.

Interest in fish culture, made the duo — Mr Ronald D’Souza and Dr Ashwin Rai, both alumni of Fisheries College, to venture into self-employment and start Aquatic Biosystem in May 2007 in Moodjeppu on a trial basis.
“We started fish culture in earthen pots in coconut plantations. We also started the practice of net cage culture,” says Dr Rai. Later, the duo set up a hatchery of 800 sq ft wherein 30 aquariums breed fish. “And we started breeding Angel, Gaurami and Gold Fish,” he informs.

“In a year, we realised that there was a good demand for ornamental fish. The demand for healthy fish with a good appearance is high,” he adds.

On the success of trial ornamental fish culture, the duo purchased 1.5 acres of land in Bodanthila village in Vamanjoor and set up a hatchery in 2,500 sq ft land. The hatchery has a centralised aeration system, water filtration and cement tanks. A total of 192 aquariums have been set up in the hatchery and they are planning to set up 400 more in future.

The duo get orders for ornamental fish from Bangalore, Coimbatore, Cochin, etc. In fact, the demand in the domestic market itself is huge to satisfy. “We are now planning to expand the market to foreign countries also,” says Dr Rai.

According to him, strict quality control is the key to success. “If the fingerlings are not in bright colours, we discard them, instead of selling them. This helps in maintaining quality,” he adds.

Maintenance

Mr Harvey says aquariums are easy to maintain, provided half the quantity of water is changed once in 15 days. However, one should take care to ensure that leftover food does not remain in the water. Feeding is generally done twice a day or according to requirement. Water change is a must for maintaining water quality conducive for the health of fish.

The general belief is that ornamental fish are very expensive. While fish like Guppies, Platies and Molly cost anything between Rs 10 and Rs 40 per pair, fish like Angels, Koi Karps, Lion Headed Golden fish and Oranda gold fish are available for Rs 150 to Rs 200 per pair. There are also fish which cost over Rs 25,000 per pair!