Profitability, marketing strategyas well as training need assessment of the traders in ornamental fish business in Tripura

The study was conducted among ornamental fish traders of West Tripura district of Tripura. Majority of the respondents (78.57%) were young aged (18 to 35 years). Around 42.86 per cent of the traders considered aquarium business as their main occupation. Majority of traders (28.57%), who had aquarium business, earned between ₹3,60,000-4,32,000 per annum. Profitability analysis of the ornamental fish trading indicated that all the cases studied generated positive net returns. Payback period were very short i.e., 0.14 years and 0.29 years for wholesaler cum retailers and retailers respectively which reflects that the investment in the business of ornamental fisheries and aquarium is less risky as well as repaid in the shorter time period and is considered the better choice as investment or action costs are recovered sooner and are available again for further use. About 92.86 per cent of traders never attended any training programme on ornamental fisheries and only 7.14 per cent traders had attended some training on the subject. three most important training needs for the traders were stress management of the fishes during transportation, followed by breeding of exotic species and disease management. Therefore it is suggested that a series of suitable training programme may be executed on fish stress and disease management. The traders were also seen interested to multiply the species for raising their income. Moreover, the climate of Tripura is very favorable for fish breeding and multiplication. Thus, training programme also can be initiated to inculcate the skills of breeding and multiplication of preferred ornamental fish species for the traders.