Inland Fisheries

9.1.8 History of exotic fishes in India

The introduction of exotic fishes in the Indian waters can be traced as having more than a century old history. While the country was under the British rule, such fisheries were possibly introduced as a means for recreational fisheries. Sir, Francis Day, the author of the classical work on the Fish fauna of Indian region, was probably the first person who tried to introduce the brown trout, Salmo trutta fario in the Nilgiri waters in the year 1863, but his attempt was unsuccessful (Jhingran, 1975). This was followed by introduction of several exotic fish species from various parts of the world to different regions of India for augmenting fish production through aquaculture, for sport fishery, for mosquito / weed control, for ornamental purpose etc with successes and failures. The larvicidal fishes, such as, Poecilia retiuculta and Gambusia affinis were introduced in the year 1908 and 1928 respectively, to contain mosquito larvae in confined waters. But the larvicidal value of these species is not well established. There are hundreds of ornamental fish species being imported to our country since the aquarium trade is in progressive growth stage/ insecticidal value of these species is not well established. The ornamental fishes, although remain confined to aquarium tanks, their release into natural habitats is not uncommon and the impacts in case of escapee were not yet assessed. The following table shows the list of exotic fish species introduced in India.

Table 1. Exotic fishes introduced in various Indian uplands

Species transplanted	Imported from	Period of	Transplanted to	Purpose	Remarks
1	2	3	4	5	6
Family: Cyprinidae Cyprinus carpio	Sri Lanka	1939	Nilgiris (T.N)	Commercial Aquaculture	Transplanted to upland water bodies of northern and southern Indian and establishment well
Carassius carrasius	U.K	1870	Ooty lake (T.N)	Commercial Aquaculture	Remained restricted to the same system
Tinca tinca	U.K	1876	Ooty lake (T.N)	Commercial Aquaculture	Remained restricted to the same system
Hypophthalmichthys molitrix	Hongkong, Japan	1959	Cuttack	Commercial Aquaculture (Orissa)	Transplanted to various upland lentic system and doing well
Ctenopharyngodon idella	Hongkong	1959	Cuttack (Orissa)	Commercial Aquaculture	Transplanted to various upland lentic systems and doing well
Family: Poeciliidae Gambussia affinis holobrooki	Italy	1928	Cuttack (Orissa)	Larvicidal	Transplanted to various upland lakes and established
Family: Salmonidae Salmo trutto fario	U.K	1899	Harwan (Kashmir)	Sport & Aquaculture	Established well, later on the fish seed was transplanted in different water bodies of western, central and eastern Himalayas.
Salmo gairdneri (Onchorhynchus mykiss)	Sri Lanka, U.K	1904, 1912	Harwan (Kashmir)	Sport & Aquaculture	Established well; later on the fish seed transplanted to Nilgiris
Salvelinus fontinalis	U.S.A	1963	Harwan (Kashmir)	Aquaculture	Not fared well
Lake trout (Hybrid: Lake Trout X Brown Trout)	Canada	1968	Harwan/Laribal (Kashmir)	Aquaculture	Not fared well
Salmo salar	Canada	1960-1970	Harwan/Laribal (Kashmir)	Aquaculture	Not established
Rainbow trout Selective quick Mann	Isle of (U.K)	1984	Kokernag (Kashmir)	Aquaculture Growing variety	Established well
Salmo trutto fario	U.K	1863	Nilgiris (T.N)	Sport	Not established
S. gairdneri	Sri Lanka, Germany, New Zealand	1909-1910	Nilgiris (T.N)	Sport and Aquaculture	Established
Onchorhynchus nerka	Japan	1968	Nilgiris (T.N)	Aquaculture	Not established
Salmo trutta	Japan	1968	Nilgiris (T.N)	Sport & Aquaculture	Not established
Japanese Rainbow Trout	Japan	1968	Nilgiris (T.N)	Sport & Aquaculture	Established
Tiger Trout (Hybrid : Brown Trout X Eastern Brook Trout)	Japan	1968	Nilgiris (T.N)	Sport & Aquaculture	Not Established
Albino Rainbow	Japan	1968	Nilgiris (T.N)	Aquaculture	Established
Salmo trutta	U.K	1909-1938	Munnar High Range (Kerala)	Sport and Aquaculture	Not Established
Salmo gairdneri	U.K, Sri Lanka	1938-1940	Munnar High Range (Kerala)	Sport and Aquaculture	Established
Salmo gairdneri Shasta	U.K	1941	Munnar High Region (Kerala)	Sport and Aquaculture	Established

(Source: National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow - reproduced from NATCON PUB. 05)

Table 2. List of approved exotic freshwater ornamental aquatic species

Sl.No.	Scientific name of species	Common name
1.	Balantiocheilus melanopterus	Bala shark
2.	Barbodes everetti	Clown barb
3.	Betta smargdina	Blue beta
4.	Botica macracantha	Clown loach
5.	Capoeta tetrazona	Tiger barb
6.	Carassius auratus	Gold fish
7.	Epalzeorhynchus bicolor	Red tailed black shark
8.	Labeo frenatus	Rainbow shark minnow
9.	Macropodus opercularis	Paradise fish
10.	Paracheirdon innesi	Neon Tetra
11.	Poecilia latipinna	Sail fin molly
12.	Poecilia reticulate	Guppy (developed and cultivated)
13.	Pterophyllum scalare	Angel fish
14.	Rasbora heteromorpha	Herlequin rasbora
15.	Symphysodon discus	Red Discus
16.	Symphodon aequifasciatus (axelrodi)	Blue Discus
17.	Tricogaster leeri	Pearl sword tail
18.	Xiphophorus helleri	Red sword tail (green/wild caught not allowed)
19.	Xiphophorus maculates	Platy
20.	Cyprinus carpio var Koi	Koi carp (free from Herpesvirus)
21.	Botia modesta	Red tailed boti
22.	Botia lecontei	Silver loach
23.	Apistogramma luelengi	Dwarf cichlid
24.	Botia morleti	Shunk botia
25.	Botia sidthimunki	Dwarf chained loach
26.	Betta splendens	Siamese fighting fish
27.	Cichilisoma carpinte	Texas cichlid
28.	Cichilisoma temporalis	Emerald cichlid
29.	Hypessobrycon grieni	Gold spotted tetra
30.	Pseudotropheus socolofi	Pindani
31.	Puntius nigrofasciatus	Black ruby barb
32.	Puntius waandersi	Kepiat
33.	Tricogaster microlepis	Moonlight gourami
34.	Pterygoplichthys gibbceps	Spotted sailfin sucker catfish
35.	Apteronotus albifrons	Black ghost

Source: (National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow)

Table 3. List of restricted, banned and not approved exotic freshwater ornamental fish species

Sl.No.	Scientific name of species	Common name	Category
1.	Astronotus ocellatus	Oscar	Restricted
2.	Aequidens rivulatus	Green terror	Restricted
3.	Labeo chrysophycon	Black shark minnow	Banned
4.	Leptobarbus hoeveni	Maroon shark	Banned
5.	Osteoglossum bicirrhosum	Arowana	Banned
6.	Haplarchus psittacus	Acara	Restricted

Source: (National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow)