Starter Kit. Idea 260 of 500. Cluster 13
Ornamental-fish breeding for the world's aquarium trade, raised in tanks rather than taken from the reef
The mechanism, from the book
An ocean 8 times the size of the land, and a fishing fleet that sells its catch on the beach. The Maldives built a tourism industry on the same ocean, with a fraction of the land.
The 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.
Ask first
- National Aquaculture Development Authority. Ask whether a tank farm breeding ornamental fish must register, and what they inspect.
- Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Ask what papers an exporter needs to show the fish were bred, not caught.
Check before you spend
Registration of the tank farm, the health certificate a buyer's country asks for with live fish, and a clean water supply you can rely on.
Find out these three numbers
- What does an aquarium importer abroad pay for each bred fish?
- Which kinds of fish sell best and breed well in tanks?
- What does sending a box of live fish by air cost?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.