The Philippines is having a hard time exporting its aquaculture produced food fishes due to the high cost of feeds making it difficult to compete with its Asian neighbors. Fortunately, the production of ornamental fishes involves only the hatchery and nursery operations where less feed is required. This advantage makes the freshwater ornamental fish one commodity that has the soundest export potential for the country.
Another advantage of producing freshwater ornamental fish is its high selling price as compared to its food fish counterpart. For example, the cheapest aquarium fish being traded is the ordinary swordtail. Its wholesale price is about Php 3 each as compared to the price of tilapia fingerlings at Php 0.40 and milkfish fingerlings at Php 1.00 each. Nice six inches koi costs as much as Php 100,000 each and the red arowana fingerlings at Php150, 000 each. Ordinary goldfishes wholesales at Php 8 each while the ordinary male guppies sells at Php 15 each. The time, effort and cost to produce these ornamental fishes are almost similar to producing food fishes.
Producing the freshwater ornamental fish can be a backyard enterprise. Since the marketable size of most ornamental fishes is only around 1-2 inches size, little space is needed. One only needs a few aquaria to breed them and some small cement tanks to serve as nursery tanks. There are at present several backyard ornamental fish farms located right in Metro Manila and in some major cities in the country.
