MANGALORE: The stretch splitting from main road to the hatchery, in Bondanthila on the outskirts of Mangalore city, is yet to be asphalted. Inside the shed, the gurgling sound of water flowing in cement tanks and the soft sound of a centralised aeration system are the only indications of some sort of activity. Standing in the middle of this maze are close friends Ashwin Rai and Ronald D’Souza who come across as aquarium hobbyists for the uninitiated.Looks are always deceptive, for Ashwin Rai and Ronald D’Souza have come a long distance from being mere aquarium hobbyists to being the proud owners of South India’s biggest scientifically-run fish farm, ‘Aquatic Biosystems’. The hatchery spread over 1.5 acres out of the total 3.8 acres of land has 500 breeding tanks (aquariums), 200 growing ponds and 130 huge outdoor tanks, each of 14,000 litre capacity.“On an average, we breed 50,000 to 60,000 ornamental fish every month,” Ashwin Rai and Ronald D’Souza said. Their bonding begun from primary school onwards when they discovered common passion for ornamental fish keeping. The friends never forget to give credit to the Association of Aquarium Owners launched by Pailoor Lakshminarayana Rau and R J Harvey for sustaining their interest with a series of activities.Resisting the trend to opt for professional courses, both followed their heart in enrolling for Fisheries College after completing PUC. Before their careers followed a similar path, Ronald D’Souza was working in a shrimp industry in Goa and Ashwin Rai was researching on Fish Biology for his doctoral degree. Once he obtained his doctorate degree, he sought out Ronald D’Douza and revealed his plans to jointly launch a commercial hatchery.With Rai’s marketing skills and Ronald D’Souza’s operational knowledge, many saw them as odd partners. “As I hail from a family background without any entrepreneurs, it helped me focus on the operations part, “D’Souza explains on how they turned the drawbacks into strengths. In May 2007, they launched Aquatic Biosystems at a period when the Internet was yet to evolve. There were no model fish farms in close vicinity either, Rai says.Backed by their parents, the youth begun a pilot project with 30 small tanks and aquariums in Moodajeppu. They evolved some methods the hard way by initiating fish culture in earthen pots placed in coconut plantations and launched the practice of ‘net cage culture’. Buoyed by the market’s response, they concentrated on breeding ornamental fish of export quality like Angel, Gaurami, Gold Fish, colourful guppies and soon shifted to the present location.‘Hatchery is technology-intensive’From the start, they had focused on constantly improving the strains. “Many who visit us as part of their field study, think breeding ornamental fish is easy. But a farm without science and technology will result in weakening of strains,” informs Rai. Besides cross breeding for gene-improvement, they also introduce new fishes after being ‘quarantined’ (isolated for three months). “Such strict quality control methods has helped us in establishing a reputation,” Rai informs.Aquatic Biosystems breed 18,000 to 20,000 Angel fishes which come in different breathtaking colours from black to the rare diamond angel eyes. In good conditions, the fishes spawn once in fortnight laying 200 to 1,000 eggs. “The low survival rate of eggs between 20 to 50 per cent does not encourage many people to breed,” Rai says. A fry stays in an aquarium for over four months before being sold to customers.The fishes are fed three times a day with imported fish-feed. A huge chunk of their earnings is reserved for buying quality feed, they reveal. Today, the infrastructure set up at Aquatic Biosystems is worth more than a crore. Yet they scale down the adoption of technology in the unit as only 50 per cent. Even with an annual net income of Rs 50 lakh, the farm is yet to achieve break-even as profits were being ploughed back to improving the ‘system’.Packaging fishes, a delicate jobTheir ornamental fish are exported to Belgium, Germany, Mauritius, France, Singapore, Japan, Hongkong through their clients in Bangalore, Kerala and Kolkota. Before the ornamental fish are packed and sent to far-off places, they are ‘conditioned’ (starved) to prepare them for the journey, Ronald D’Souza informs. Then they are packed in polythene bags depending on the size of fishes and delivered to the doorsteps of clients through buses.TrendsThe prices of ornamental fish are never stable and go through cyclic ups and downs. During holidays and monsoons, the sale of ornamental fish dips. “Yet we are able to strike a balance because of our understanding of the market,” Rai reveals. The high-end fishes like red tail cats, shovel nose, discus, sting rays do command a good price. The farm too was breeding high-end fishes like Discus. But later it was abandoned as the market was small, D’Souza informs.The therapeutic value and an awareness that keeping aquarium is no longer a luxury has been contributing to an annual 20 per cent increase in the demand for ornamental fish, Ashwin Rai and Ronald D’Souza say. Today, there are many in India who own aquariums in the range between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 22 lakh. All said and done, the ornamental fish breeding industry in India is 30 years behind other countries like Hong Kong. A model fish farm Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Fisheries College and Krishi Vignan Kendra who together conduct about 150 trips to Aquatic Biosystems in a year, are unanimous in their opinion about Aquatic Biosystems being the best in Southern India. “Looking at the logistic problems faced by the fish farm, we believe that the aquarists turned entrepreneurs are in a wrong place,” sources in Fisheries College told Express.Without the cargo facility in Mangalore and with KSRTC discouraging transportation of polythene bags carrying fishes, they have succeeded in exporting ornamental fish to many foreign countries. The Customs Department delaying the approval for ‘unescorted cargo’ has put a spoke on their expansion plans. The biggest challenge, according to them, is ensuring a steady supply of ornamental fish to clients.“The government has failed to link up existing fish farms,” Ashwin Rai informs. He cites the case of a local youth who with their assistance ventured into breeding ornamental fish. He failed to meet demands and had to shut down his farm by not linking up with other fish farms. “Linking up will make local fish farms strong players,” Rai adds. The MPEDA’s initiative to establish marketing societies, which would have solved the linking problem, has drawn no response so far, he feels. Future plansWith the cargo complex becoming a reality at Bajpe Airport in Mangalore, their dreams to expand and export directly to foreign countries like Dubai have gained wings. The friends are also hoping to open an outlet in Bangalore in a year’s time.“We have many more plans as ornamental fish breeding sector is still a seller’s business and not a buyer’s business,” Ashwin Rai and Ronald D’souza stress.
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