Aquarium fish escaping to water bodies could impact aquatic biodiversity — Experts

Our Correspondent
Imphal, Nov. 27 (EMN): The unintentional release or escaping of the fish from aquarium to the water bodies could give a major impact to the native fish biodiversity in freshwater ecosystem of the region, said fish experts.
The concern of the fish experts came to light during a daylong national interface meet on “Innovative approaches for development of freshwater aquaculture in Manipur” at ICAR Manipur Centre here on Tuesday.

The National interface meet was organised jointly by the ICAR-Central institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneshwar; ICAR-Manipur centre; Manipur Fisheries department; and Central Agricultural University Imphal.
In the recent past there are reports of escaping aquarium fish to river, says Prof. W Vishwanath of Manipur University’s Life Science department. There are also reports of escaping aquarium fishes to Ganga (river) and water bodies in Tamilnadu. “So we’ve to be very careful,” he said.

Expressing the need to encourage fish production based on native species, he appealed to explore the hill streams of the state for cold water fishes.
During the last few decades, river ecosystems in Manipur have been suffering from heavy human intervention, resulting in habitat loss and declined fishery of local fish species.

Introduction of the exotic carps in the Loktak-the largest freshwater lake in Northeast, in the sixties, created competition with the local fishes and subsequently the population of the local fishes including the state fish Pengba creates has been drastically reduced.

In India, over 300 alien fish species including 291 ornamental species, 31 aquaculture species and 3 larvicidal fishes are recorded, according to a study report.
Fishery Director Bidyarani Ayekpam said the department is preparing a roadmap to produce self-sufficiency fish for the state’s population by 2020 under the initiative of the Chief Minister N Biren Singh.