Ornamental Fisheries and Aquarium Keeping: Insights from the Indian Aquarium Industry

Author Biography

Dr. Atul Kumar Jain has 38 years of experience in fisheries and aquaculture. He served as a scientist at the Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, a premier institute of fisheries research and education in Asia, for 23 years, where he was involved in aquaculture research, extension, and teaching. During this period, Dr. Jain served as an associate, Co-Principal Investigator, and Principal Investigator in several national and internationally funded projects on aquaculture development in semi-arid agro-climatic conditions, inland saline aquaculture, and ornamental fisheries. He later became a techno-entrepreneur and established a tropical freshwater ornamental fish breeding farm in 2006. Subsequently, he developed a research and skill development training center to promote ornamental fisheries, i.e., Ornamental Fisheries Training and Research Institute at Udaipur in Rajasthan, India. The institute has been recognized by several government agencies and organizes entrepreneurship and skill development training for ornamental fisheries development. Dr. Jain is associated with various government agencies for formulating schemes and policies to promote ornamental fisheries development in India. Various colleges, universities, institutions, state fisheries departments frequently invite him to deliver lectures on different subjects of ornamental fisheries or as a subject matter expert. He was also a team leader of the “Project Monitoring Unit” appointed by the National Fisheries Development Board (Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India), Hyderabad, and responsible for monitoring government-funded ornamental fisheries development projects in India. He is the author of two books, “Best management practices for freshwater ornamental fish production” and “Policy issues for ornamental fisheries development in India”. His mission is to promote ornamental fish-keeping hobbies that will directly contribute to ornamental fish production and the aquarium trade. Dr. Abhinika Jain Rane is a fisheries professional having a Ph.D. in Aquaculture (Fisheries sciences) with six years of research, training, and entrepreneurship experience. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Fisheries Science from one of the oldest colleges of Fisheries in India, at Ratnagiri, Maharashtra in 2013 and subsequently a post-graduation in Aquaculture from Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab. She worked on the color enhancement of ornamental fishes through feed enrichment during her post-graduation. She continued with her passion for research on ornamental fisheries and worked in a project on an exploratory survey of a river system of Sothern Rajasthan, India, to find out indigenous ornamental fish resources studying molecular taxonomy and genetic diversity. The study was helpful to report five new species of ornamental fishes for the first time from this part of the country, which had domestic and export importance. She also worked as a Senior Research Fellow for three years in a World Bank-funded project at Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, India, that focused on developing aquaculture technologies on salt-affected land and generating livelihood opportunities for local farmers. Her mission and objective are to walk on the path of entrepreneurship and skill development in the ornamental fish industry to develop more livelihood opportunities in this field. To strengthen her capabilities and achieve her goal, she did a Post Graduate Diploma in Tribal Development Management from the National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj (Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, Government of India) Hyderabad. She is one of India's three Certified Master Trainers for skill development training for qualification packs in ornamental fisheries developed by the Agriculture Skill Council of India (National Skill Development Corporation, Government of India). She is presently working as a techno-entrepreneur for ornamental fisheries development and associated with Ornamental Fisheries Training and Research Institute, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, as a researcher and teaching faculty engaged in developing training manuals, study material, technical reports on ornamental fisheries. She was also a co-author of the book “Policy issues on ornamental fisheries development in India” and a training manual for a certificate course for aquarium traders designed by the Agriculture Skill Council of India. Dr. Archana Sinha, Principal Scientist, ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Barrackpore, Kolkata has work experience of more than 32 Years in the field of fisheries and aquaculture research, education, and extension. She completed several research projects and developed technology for fisheries and aquaculture, especially in ornamental fish breeding and culture, fish nutrition, and physiology. She was a course teacher for M.F.Sc., Ph.D., and Diploma course on Ornamental fish and also guided students for their Ph.D. thesis. She published more than 70 research papers, four books, 15 book chapters, 25 Training manuals, and technical manuals, especially on ornamental fish breeding and culture. She developed a course module on ornamental fish breeding and culture for ICAR-CIFE (Deemed University), Mumbai, Skill Development Programme of ASCI, New Delhi. She is recognized as an expert for Ornamental fish breeding and culture by ICAR, New Delhi; NFDB, Hyderabad; MPEDA, Kochi; NABARD, Mumbai. She has organized more than 100 short-term training and capacity-building programs on ornamental fish breeding and culture for unemployed youth, women, farmers, and entrepreneurs for the development of ornamental fish culture. She has been conferred with several fellowships and Institutional awards such as of Best Scientist award by Hiralal Chaudhuri Fisheries Foundation, Mumbai; NATCON Environmental Conservation Award by Nature Conservator, Muzaffarnagar; Gold Medal for outstanding research & academic contribution in the field of fisheries (ornamental fishes) by Zoological Society of India, Bodh Gaya.