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 Marine Biology and graduated as M.Sc. in 1976. She joined the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, Kerala University, Trivandrum under the guidance of Dr. N. Krishna Pillai. Her Ph. D work was on a unique fish, the Indian blind clariid fish Horaglanis krishnai Menon that dwells in the subterranean wells at Kottayam, Kerala and received her Ph.D in 1982. She progressed to become the Junior Assistant Professor in Aquaculture at the College of Fisheries, Kerala Agricultural University, Panangad during the year 1984. In 2002 she became Professor. She pioneered research on Indigenous fresh water Ornamental Fishes of the Western Ghats of India and developed captive breeding technology for 15 prioritized fresh water species including Sahyadria denisonii popularly known as “Miss Kerala”, first of its kind in India. Sahyadria denisonii is a much sought after ornamental fish in the international market. She was instrumental in conducting innumerable training programmes on ornamental fish culture for the rural people at state level and national level. Based on her experience, she is by default a valued resource person on ornamental fish culture at the state, national and international levels. She has published about 100 research papers including 50 in peer reviewed journals. She has authored/co authored the many books/chapters; 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, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. She was instrumental in developing Kumblm Panchayt (where KUFOS is situated) in to an ornamental fish village where 300 families were trained for ornamental fish culture. For this work she received the International Award as one of the Eleven laureates of Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF) Geneva, Switzerland 2010for the "Women's creativity in rural life". The award consists of US$ 1000 and a certificate. She retired from service of Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean studies, Cochin after 32 years of teaching, research and extension activities. At present she is the Director of the Department of Aquaculture, Sacred Heart College (Autonomous), Mahatma Gandhi University, Thevera, Cochin, Kerala.
