Ornamental-fish breeding for the world's aquarium trade, raised in tanks rather than taken from the reef

A first step

Choose 2 freshwater species that the aquarium trade buys and that breed in tanks, and set up a small hatchery in a few tanks. Record how many young survive to a saleable size and how long it takes. Then send photos and a price list to 3 exporters of aquarium fish and ask what size and volume they would buy. A sample order of tank-bred fish is the proof.

Who pays first

An aquarium fish exporter whose buyers abroad ask for fish bred in tanks rather than caught from the wild.

What leaves today

Fish taken from the reef sell once and leave the reef poorer; bred fish sell again every season, and the breeding skill stays on the island.

The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.

In the book

• Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
  An ocean eight times the size of the land

More from cluster 13

• 251Sailing charters and a yacht marina at Galle or Trincomalee, with the crew trained here
• 252Diving schools at the wrecks of Trincomalee and the reefs of the east, certified to international standard
• 253Sport fishing charters with catch-and-release, sold to the Gulf and Europe
• 254Sea-cucumber and seaweed farming in the northern lagoons, for the buyers in Hong Kong and Singapore
• 255Tuna graded, loined and vacuum-packed at the harbour for the sashimi market, not sold whole
• 256Crab and prawn from the lagoons as a branded chilled export, with the lagoon's name

All 20 ideas in this cluster