Living with ornamental fishes

While thousands of families depend on the fishing for livelihood, there are few families who are engaged in ornamental fish cultivation in the city.

Harvey family in the city is one such family who have dedicated 50 years into ornamental fish cultivation.

Late Ramesh Chandra Harvey, one of the pioneers of ornamental fishing in Karnataka, took up ornamental fish farming as a business in his home at Gundu Rao Lane of Mannagudda.

Harvey, who initially limited himself to buying and selling aquarium fishes, eventually took interest in breeding the fish varieties, preparing food for fishes and making aquariums.

After the demise of Ramesh Chandra Harvey (4 years ago), his wife Sulatha Harvey, fondly called as Shobhakka in the neighbourhood, along with her nephew Sunil Chandra Harvey took charge of the business, by not letting her husband’s initiative breath a silent end.

Recalling the good old days, Sulatha Harvey said to City Herald that her husband was a very dedicated person.

“He was involved in Aquaculture and Pisciculture with all mind and soul and we were selling the fishes as well as the aquariums for reasonable price.

People used to rush in to our home regularly to buy one or the other item for fishes. Despite the hard work, those are the most memorable days,” she says.

Shobhakka was new to ornamental fish cultivation when she married Ramesh Chandra Harvey, but she took it as no excuse and began to learn about it gradually.

Her assistance in her husband’s work enabled her to carry on the business even after his demise.

“I am not an expert in Pisciculture, but I am aware of the basic intricacies one must know while cultivating fishes. After my husband’s death, I and my nephew continued fish breeding and cultivation business, but I have to accept that we have lost the glory we had once enjoyed in this business,” says Shobhakka.

However, now she is quite upset over few children and people in the neighbourhood who take advantage of her fenceless fish ponds and resort to stealing the fishes in bulk.

“For unavoidable reasons, we could not fence our land and unfortunately the costly fishes in the pond are stolen by miscreants,” she informs. Yet, she says that there is a great demand for aquarium fishes as the fishes are sold from Shobhakka’s house within two days of their arrival.