Demand for rainbow trout fish picks up

Posted by: NTN  | Date: June 29, 2010

The demand of rainbow trout fish in the Nepali market has increased these days as trout is on the menu of many restaurants in and outside the valley.

Himalayan Rainbow Trout Sunkhani Pvt Ltd is famous for fresh rainbow trout fish.Padam Lama, a trout hatcher, started his trout restaurant six years ago,and it has now grown to be the biggest and most popular in Balaju.

The restaurant is drawing huge crowd of hungry picnickers from the capital. "Raising fish is just like any other job, he said.You need hard work, dedication and a lot of patience," added Lama who looks after his 17 pools that hold three tonnes of trout at any given time.

“A kilogram of rainbow trout (raw) costs Rs 750,” said Lama.

When Purna Rumba,another hatcher, first started raising trout back in 1997, he had 400 fish and one pool.Lama used to work for the government fishery in Trisuli and there he saw Japanese rainbow trout for the first time.

Supported by the Nepal Agriculture and Resource Centre, Lama raised Rs 60,000 and started his own farm and restaurant.“When I told people I was raising fish they all laughed at me,” recalls Lama. “They're not laughing anymore, they're eating my fish.” In the past 11 years, Lama's business has grown exponentially.

Japanese rainbow trouts are notoriously finicky and difficult to raise. They require water temperatures between three and 20 degree Celsius with regulated oxygen levels.

The pools need to be cleaned once a week and older fish need to be kept away from the young.

Most of the trout diseases come from poor feed, but Rumba has eliminated that possibility by making his own feed and breeding his own fingerlings.

Rumba has no qualms selling his feed and spawn to rivals, it just makes the fish pie bigger and everyone benefits. Rumba sells at least five kg of fish each day and on weekends, more than 20 kg. He also supplies 40 kg of trout each month to three hotels in Kathmandu.

 

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