Goldfish breeding, a goldmine for Kashmiri youth

Srinagar, July 28 : The attractive aquarium varieties of Goldfish, which used to be brought from abroad or from far off places like West Bengal by Kashmiris, are all set to be bred on a large scale in the Kashmir valley.

Kashmiri youth have shown immense interest in aquarium products. Sajid Maqbool, a budding scientist in fisheries, has successfully bred Goldfish at his Shivpora home aquarium in the valley.

Twenty five-year-old Sajid Maqbool, holds a gold medal in fisheries science and is presently pursuing his Masters at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Science and Technology.

He developed a passion to work on the breeding of Goldfish a couple of years ago while on a visit to Mumbai to complete a project related to his graduation studies.

"A pair of Goldfish can breed twice a year and sometimes thrice also, but here according to the climatic condition, we'll make them breed twice. We get around 1,000 eggs from breeding being done twice a year but all those eggs don't hatch," said Sajid Maqbool, pioneer Kashmiri in breeding Goldfish, Shivpora.

"In five months span, you get 200 Goldfish. A Goldfish that is bought for Rs. 200, within six months you get back benefit in the multiple of 10-20 from it. The fish pair, which is sold in the markets for around 250 rupees, could be available for nearly 100 rupees if the breeding is taken up on commercial lines,"Maqsood added.

Aquarium traders in the valley say that a large number of youth are developing an interest the Goldfish breeding.

" I saw a variety of fish here right from Goldfish, Feather Tail to Zebra striped among others. I thought of keeping Goldfish at home as it's a very nice fish. We can also breed it at home. We get almost all the fish here in the valley but the Goldfish is very rare," said Ishfaq Qadir, one customer.

Goldfish can grow to a maximum length of 23 inches (59 centimetres) and weigh upto 9.9 pounds (4.5 kilograms), although this is rare. On an average, a Goldfish lives upto eight or nine years.

Aquaria are used as stress busters at homes and commercial places. By Afzal Butt

ANI