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Freshwater aquarium fish, an important food source in the tropics
mongabay.com
May 5, 2005


Those fish in your home aquarium may be important food sources in their native lands. According to figures recently released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Fisheries Department many fish typically kept by aquarium owners figure significantly in the daily nutrition of people in tropical Africa, Asia, and South America. There's something to consider the think about the next time you pick up new pets at your local fish store.

In South America many of the larger catfish (algae-eating Plecos and shovel-nosed catfish), characins (like Pacus and headstanders), and cichlids (Oscars, peacock bass) are widely harvested from rivers by local people. The Oscar, a popular ornamental fish in aquaria worldwide, is fished extensively in its Amazon home. In 2002, FAO estimates that around 183 metric tons of Oscars were taken out of rivers and streams in South America. In comparison, in Africa some 12,567 metric tons Mormyrids -- a family which includes the elephant-nosed fish -- were harvested from inland waters in 2002.

	Arowana dinner. The Arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum) is a popular tropical freshwater aquarium species. You can learn more about the Arowana here

Overfishing is a problem in some freshwater habitats -- even the enormous Amazon river suffers from over exploitation of its fisheries. For example, the Arapaima – which in the past was regularly found to exceed 10 feet in length (3 m) – is rarely encountered today at a size greater than 8 feet (2.45 m).

Commercial Fishing in the Amazon: A case study

In the mid 1980s, the FAO Fisheries Department did a case study on fishing in the Amazon. The study, contained within Management systems for riverine fisheries by Thayer Scudder and Thomas Conelly, found a rapidly developing commercial fishery which involved both traditional fishermen and outsiders. The growth of the Amazonian fishing industry in the case study coincided with the completion of the Trans-Amazon highway in the early 1970s which caused the population of newly connected Amazon towns to burgeon. The resulting population increase produced new demand for protein that was met by the expansion of fishing operations on the Amazon and its surrounding tributaries.

The authors note that "During the same period, more sophisticated types of fishing gear, most importantly nylon gill and seine nets, were introduced into the area. In addition, with the growing local and export market for fish products, ice plants were opened to help in the preservation of fish for long distance shipment... [and] large-capacity motorized fishing vessels were also introduced." The result, a significant increase in the productivity of the fisheries. However, this gain was short-lived. The authors conclude that "though there is apparently no evidence that heavily exploited fish species are in danger of extinction over the region as a whole, local depletion of commercially important species has become a problem and the productivity of fisheries in the Amazon has dropped significantly after an initial boom during the late 1960s and early 1970s."

The expansion of commercial fishing activities may have also affected the catch by subsistence or artisanal fishermen among the local indigenous communities.

To learn more about the FAO's findings, take a look at http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/DOCREP/003/X6848E/X6848E00.HTM



Below is capture production data for some selected aquarium species and types of tropical freshwater fish. All figures from the FAO's Review of the State of World Marine Fishery Resources.

REGION / SPECIES	(All figures in metric tonnes)	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
AFRICA
Nile tilapia	Oreochromis niloticus	177,072	157,714	188,056	175,846	204,350	205,353	207,572
Tilapias nei	Oreochromis (=Tilapia) spp	157,482	169,253	171,638	196,812	210,928	218,209	213,412
Mouthbrooding cichlids	Haplochromis spp	10,472	13,053	13,077	10,731	11,699	9,695	8,759
Cichlids nei	Cichlidae	21,500	21,500	21,500	40,341	40,500	42,033	42,392
Knifefishes	Notopterus spp	10	1	144	33	39	22	19
Elephantsnout fishes	Mormyridae	...	4,481	18,781	16,030	7,691	24,509	12,567
Aba	Gymnarchus niloticus	1,108	3,952	7,685	5,887	...	...	9,097
Upsidedown catfishes	Synodontis spp	9,267	11,560	13,384	12,856	12,571	13,737	12,827
Snakeheads	Channa spp	92,186	2,589	2,038	2,990	2,951	3,313
SOUTH AMERICA
Velvety cichlids	Astronotus spp	308	177	141	251	188	183	...
Cichlids nei	Cichlidae	8,565	8,356	7,785	7,375	8,145	13,611	13,946
Arapaima	Arapaima gigas	457	465	210	338	273	204	...
Cachama	Colossoma macropomum	4,991	3,600	3,014	3,921	5,928	4,693	4,068
Pirapatinga	Piaractus brachypomus	397	...	166	648	324	487	...
Characins nei	Characidae	115,490	102,456	101,018	92,195	93,360	44,935	44,974
ASIA
Knifefishes	Notopterus spp	3,880	3,455	3,599	3,845	4,255	3,820	3,800
Glass catfishes	Kryptopterus spp	17,560	15,938	13,943	15,927	13,110	13,522	14,980
Pangas catfishes nei	Pangasius spp	541	522	917	1,061	1,274	1,100	1,200
Climbing perch	Anabas testudineus	3,905	3,754	4,637	6,340	6,730	5,800	6,300
Snakeskin gourami	Trichogaster pectoralis	30,792	21,728	22,422	23,776	22,456	21,357	20,940
Kissing gourami	Helostoma temminckii	12,611	18,376	16,598	23,320	18,771	19,429	20,140
Snakehead	Channa argus	169	120	...	28	...	...	...
Striped snakehead	Channa striata	30,966	28,646	21,520	23,784	26,839	24,998	25,988
Indonesian snakehead	Channa micropeltes	11,614	10,117	8,253	8,787	8,149	6,357	6,440
Snakeheads	Channa spp	127,429	136,830	185,453	86,877	92,245	90,270	77,200
Scats	Scatophagus spp	169	95	20	40	61	55	30

Related links:
Tropical freshwater aquarium fish
Freshwater aquarium fish under threat in the wild
FAO's Fisheries Department