THE West has restarted the practice of spending money on ornamental fish as the developed economies are slowly recovering from global slowdown. This, in turn, has given a fillip to the ornamental fish industry in the Northeast, which contributes 85% of ornamental fish exports from India. The diversified Indian aquatic environment harbours about 2,118 species of fish of which at least 600 have the potential as ornamental fish. Of these, the Northeastern region is home to 300 native ornamental fish out of the 806 freshwater fish found in India. The global ornamental fish trade is estimated at around $9 billion with the US being the major importer, followed by the EU and Japan. The Asian countries export more than 50% of the aquarium fishes globally. Singapore is the epicentre of Asian trade and is the largest exporter of ornamental fish in the world. Chinmoy Kataky, who runs a firm dealing with ornamental fish, told ET: