Fish fest woos visitors

Fishes of all sizes, varied shapes and vivid hues charmed the city’s populace, young and old alike at the Indian fish festival 2009 being organised at People’s Plaza on Necklace Road.

If the scramble for parking space outside the venue on Sunday and milling crowds inside were anything to go by, the event this year was a huge success.

Nearly 200 varieties of marine life including shrimps, crabs and sea anemones are on display this year. Tiny-sized blue tetras, serape tetras and neon tetras with their shiny scales; orange-coloured, white striped clown fish popularised by the animation flick Nemo; redcap Oranda, a beautiful gold fish with a bulbous fleshy wen; calicos; emperor angels, to name a few won over visitors.

It seemed as if they were fishing for compliments!

Resembling a snake, fresh water eel of Anguilla species from Assam drew worrisome looks. “It is harmless and helps keep an aquarium clean as it feeds on algae and excreta,” assured B. Barman of B and J Fisheries.

Mud crabs, tiger shrimps, white shrimps, magurs swam in large tanks outside.

Drift wood also from Assam that is retrieved from river beds brought along enquiries. “It keeps water clean and cool, providing an ideal temperature for fish to thrive in. The drift wood we sell is very old with some dating to over 100 years,” said Chinmoy Kataky of Sponer organisation.

They are priced in the range of Rs.400 to Rs.5,000.
‘Gyan’

Visitors were also acquiring some ‘gyan’ at the fish festival. At the Fisheries Department stall, visitors were educated on the boats used for fishing, different fishing hooks, popular fishes that are routinely consumed and functioning of a net.

The department personnel also explained how spawn hatch into tadpoles before growing into fingerlings. They showed them 18-hour-old tadpoles and six-day-old Magur hatchlings that were barely the size of a nail tip. “Our fish babies are bigger than these,” a little girl remarked to her brother.
Roaring business

Everyone related with the fishing industry even the Coast Guard was represented. Food courts catering delicacies from Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa did roaring business dishing out prawn 65, pomfret fry, fish Biryani, fish pickle and other delicacies. Visitors were also introduced to fermented fish from Manipur prepared organically.