Ornamental Fish Farming

This is one of ten eBooks on the commercial production of ornamental fish. It is based predominantly on the author's 30 years of experience, mostly on his own farms. While a few of the eBooks are purely commercial, others, particularly those on breeding, will also be helpful to hobbyists, understandable even by beginners. The following description is provided as a guide. Although the name doesn't suggest it, a lot of this section is also of potential interest to hobbyist breeders, notably such topics as culturing infusoria and other live foods, making glass fish tanks, hatching brine shrimp, making artificial spawning media, how to make peat extract, methods for encouraging or inducing spawning (including hormone injection), biological filtration etc. Potentially of interest to both hobbyist breeders and commercial breeders.

This is one of ten eBooks on the commercial production of ornamental fish. It is based predominantly on the author's 30 years of experience, mostly on his own farms. While a few of the eBooks are purely commercial, others, particularly those on breeding, will also be helpful to hobbyists, understandable even by beginners. The following description is provided as a guide. Although the name doesn't suggest it, a lot of this section is also of potential interest to hobbyist breeders, notably such topics as culturing infusoria and other live foods, making glass fish tanks, hatching brine shrimp, making artificial spawning media, how to make peat extract, methods for encouraging or inducing spawning (including hormone injection), biological filtration etc. Potentially of interest to both hobbyist breeders and commercial breeders.

The author, Brian Andrews, started keeping tropical fish as a hobbyist at the age of 8 years. Prior to fish farming, the author’s career included 2 years of work in food microbiology and 5 years in marine aquaculture research. This was followed by the development of Amatikulu Hatchery Pty Ltd in South Africa by the author and his business partner. The farm grew to be the largest in the southern hemisphere at the time, marketing around 2.5 million fish per year of over 100 species/varieties, including egg-laying tropical fish and livebearers, as well as a range of goldfish and koi. In 1990 the author immigrated to Australia and launched Kilcoy Ornamental Fish, a farm which grew to produce 800 000 fish per year, of about 50 varieties. Over his entire fish farming career, the author was always acutely aware of the lack of books on ornamental fish farming, and as a result decided to write and share his knowledge. The outcome is a very detailed 528 page manual written in easily understandable language by a breeder/farmer, from over 30 years of personal experience. The book is intended to be usable by both commercial producers and serious hobbyist breeders. (See the book website at www.ornamentalfishfarming.net) Although still available in hard copy, the eBook is offered in sections which enables commercial or hobbyist breeders to purchase just those sections which are of interest to them.