With more people decorating their homes or offices with aquarium, ornamental fishes are becoming a good business to plunge into.  
Certainly, there is a big business potential for aquarium fishes both locally and abroad because the country lacks production and that pet shops have to import exotic fishes from other countries.
According to Westly Rosario, chief of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources- National Integrated Fisheries and Development Center (BFAR-NIFDC) in Dagupan City, there are only 15 commercial-scale producers of ornamental fishes in the Philippines, and the production is not even enough to penetrate the export market.  
“There is a certain volume to be reached, but the ornamental fish raisers do not produce enough and are not organized to meet the volume,” Rosario explained. 
The NIFDC is willing to extend technical assistance to persons interested in the production of aquarium fishes, and even sells breeders at a cost much lower than the pet shops.  

For commercial production, a 1,000-meter area with a good source of water, is needed to breed several kinds of ornamental fish. In the area, 10 earthen ponds or concrete tanks measuring 4×2 meters with a minimum depth of half meter are constructed.
Whether to use earthen ponds or concrete tanks depends on the water holding capacity of the soil, Rosario explained. Earthen ponds are used if the soil is clayey or loamy, while tanks are used when the soil is sandy.
Rosario suggested that different kinds of ornamental fishes must be produced to cater to different markets at different times. “If it has to be an all-year round business and not just seasonal,  one must have different kinds of fishes,” he said.
At the research center, interested persons can avail of breeders of  both egg-layer and live-bearer ornamental fishes. Egg layers include the coy carp, gold fish and angel fish while the live bearers include the mollies, platys and swordtails.

Egg bearers

Gold fish and angel fish, which are both egg-layers, can be bred in an aquarium, although tanks are still needed for them to grow faster.  
Both fishes can breed in 100 liter-capacity aquarium. For goldfish, the egg collectors are ropes or water lily roots put at the bottom of the tanks  protected by slatted plastic trays. Inside the aquarium, the plastic slats, egg collector, an aerator and water are placed and the tank is aerated overnight. In one tank, one female and three or four males are put. Three to four hours after spawning, parents are removed and the tank is aerated very gently to ensure hatching.
The little goldfishes are fed with artemia (a brand of natural food) starting on the fifth day after spawning until two weeks when they are given artificial feeds. After 10 days, they are transferred to a grow-out tank or aquarium for them to grow faster. They are then given artificial feeds.
Goldfishes naturally spawn from February to October with a cycle of 15-30 days, and stops during the cold months. For small sizes, no less than 1,000 eggs are laid per spawning with a 90 percent survival rate.
To produce angel fish, almost similar procedure is undertaken although plastic strips are used as egg collectors.  
To breed koi carp however, one would need concrete tanks with dripping water and a gentle aerator, egg collectors made from rope or water lilies and nets.
The egg collectors are submerged into the tank and the breeders (gravid females and males of desired colors) are put inside the tank at a ratio of one female to two males. The selection is done in the afternoon and breeding is expecting dawn of the following day. The egg collectors are then transferred to a hatching tank equipped with gentle aeration and dripping water where they are expected to hatch after 36 hours.
When the eggs have hatched, they are fed with chlorella and hard-boiled egg-yolk four times a day then the fry are transferred in hapas, where they are fed commercial food, at a lower density for faster growth.
Rosario said the number of eggs laid by the koi carp depends on the spawner’s size. There are about 200,000 to 300,000 eggs laid per kilogram of fish and the survival rat is as high as 86 percent and as low as 20 percent.
           

Live Bearers

Live bearer ornamental fishes (mollies, platys and swordfish)  are easier to bred, but a bigger space for the tanks is needed, Rosario explained. The breeders are put in a tank which has a separate compartment where the young fishes can take refuge and where the parents cannot enter.
“Live bearers tend to cannibalize their youngs so they must be separated,” Rosario said.
Daily, the little fishers are collected and placed in the separate compartment. When they are about half a centimeter long, they are placed in a grow-out pond.
Rosario said the production of ornamental fish offers good business opportunities, aside from being  a relaxing hobby.