photos of indian catfishes

retro_gk · Post by **retro_gk** » 08 Apr 2003, 19:20

Hi all,
follow this link the site has some photos of fishes from S.India..catfish included
http://www.ornamentalfishes.org/html/family.htm

rahul

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 08 Apr 2003, 22:41

It's a bit of a shock to see fishes wich I've known as 'common' in the hobby, are really endangered nowadays, like Barbus aurulius and B conchonius....

Even more strange is some fishes are 'endangered' or 'threatened' while the same fishes are 'sufficient available for commercial exploitation' ???

Post by **Silurus** » 08 Apr 2003, 22:56

Mostof our understanding of whether or not freshwater fish populations are endangered are a guesstimate based on the ease and frequency of capture.
I suspect that a number of the species marked as abundant enough for commercial exploitation are actually not so. I have seen hundreds of black lancers and thousands of two-spot cats being caught for the aquarium trade in Sumatra and often wondered if the natural population was large enough to sustain such intensive harvesting, even in a place as large as Sumatra.
Some of the fish are seasonal, but even in the off-season, there are still several hundred individuals being harvested for the trade.

Post by **Dinyar** » 09 Apr 2003, 01:05

Discouraging as the loss of aquatic biodiversity is in India, the situation in China is much worse. And wait till "economic development" reaches the Congo!

I don't think most aquarists realize that we are the last generation or two that will see many of these fish.

Dinyar

retro_gk · Post by **retro_gk** » 10 Apr 2003, 02:59

Dinyar wrote: I don't think most aquarists realize that we are the last generation or two that will see many of these fish.

All the more reason for us to try and breed as many species as possible in captivity.