Resources of ornamental fishes

Abstract

Among the fishes of Lakshadweep islands, those of ornamental value (aquarium fishes) are very abundant: of the 601 species of marine fishes belonging to 126 families reported from these Islands (Jones and Kumaran, 1980), at least 300 species belonging to over 40 families are ornamental fishes. In addition to the taxonomic account of fishes of Lakshadweep islands by Jones and Kumaran (1980), information on ornamental fishes of these islands is restricted to the works of Pillai er a/. (1983), Madan Mohan efa/ (1986). and Kumaran and Gopakumar (1986). There is, however, no information on the relative abundance or areas of abundance of different species of ornamental fishes from different islands. There is considerable demand for live ornamental fishes in several countries (Tomey 1985, 1986) and the present export market price of each fish, depending on the species, ranges from Rs. 16.10 to Rs. 272.25 with an average of Rs. 90.60 in Netherlands and from Rs. 4.96 to Rs. 148 with an average of Rs. 34.85 in South East Asian Countries. In West Germany, each specimen of some of the species of ornamental fishes from India can fetch from Rs. 99 to Rs. 810 (Anon 1986). In view of the demand for the ornamental fishes and the possible earning of foreign exchange through export of live ornamental fishes and also in view of the lack of adequate information on distribution and abundance of different species in different islands, a survey was conducted during January-March 1987 and the results with reference to ornamental fishes are presented here.