Aquarium Fisheries in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh

Keeping ornamental fishes in aquarium is now become a common practice, especially in urban areas. But in Bangladesh, this practice is still not much popular to the people of all categories, and still confined between rich and upper-medium class people. A place decorated with a well set up aquarium can easily attract people of all ages. Nowadays, this aquarium business established as a highly profitable and luxurious business.

Though Rajshahi is a comparatively large and major city of the country but shops for aquarium is not developed to such extent. There is one shop in Manichattar area of Shaheb Bazar and another one is in Rajshahi New market. This small number of shops resembles that aquarium practice is not highly developed in this city. However these shops are playing a vital role in the fulfillment of the demand of local aquarists. All the shop proprietors collect their goods from Dhaka city. Different types of aquarium accessories are available in these shops. Some of these are as follows-

• Aquarium of various shape and sizes; aquarium stands;
• Aquarium fish and other ornamental species;
• Different types of aerator, filters, toys, fish feeds etc.;
• Medicines and other necessary chemicals; and
• Other necessary accessories.

Availability of aquarium fishes and other species:

Availability of twelve (12) exotic aquarium fishes in Rajshahi was listed by Mohsin et al. (2007) (Table 01). 2 native or indigenous species (common carp and kholisha) were also recorded by the mentioned authors.

A recent survey (January – August 2009) has revealed that availability of aquarium species in the local shops varies with season. This survey recorded 17 exotic ornamental fish species, 2 species of indigenous fish (gray fatherback and Bengal loach) and 1 species of turtle are usually sold as aquarium pet (Table 02).

Aquarist info:

People of any ages likes aquarium. In Rajshahi 57% aquarist are students, and remaining 43% are teachers, lawyers, and clinic boys etc. (Mohsin et al., 2007). Rectangular and ball shaped glass made aquariums are found as 69% and 29% respectively whereas 2% aquariums are belongs to other type (Mohsin et al., 2007).

However, nowadays, many people are being interested in rearing fish in aquarium in Rajshahi city. According to the local aquarium shop keepers, this culture is becoming popular day by day and their current sell-rate is much higher than the previous couple of years.

Conclusion:

Aquarium reflects the mind of aquarist, how creative or luxurious he is. An aquarium can be valuable asset for teaching too. It allows people or researcher to study the biology and chemistry of aquatic system, and interactions among animals, plants and their environment is a small unit (James, 1981). This growing business venture needs more care and support. Fish species used in an aquarium should be breed locally so that the retail price of fishes goes down to the limit of general people.

References:

• Mohsin, ABM , Md. Emdadul Haque, and Md. Nazrul Islam, 2007, Status of Aquarium Fisheries of Rajshahi City, J. bio-sci 15:169-171.
• James, D.E., 1981. Carolina’s Freshwater Aquarium Handbook, Carolina Biological Supply Company, Burlington, NC/Gladstone, OR, p. 4.

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