How to Sell Aquarium Fish in India | PetzLover

What does the law say about selling aquarium fish in India?

Rules written for aquarium and fish shops, which banned fish bowls and tanks under 60 litres, were notified in May 2017 and withdrawn in November 2017 after objections from traders. Other laws still apply:

• Pet Shop Rules 2018: their definition of a pet animal names dogs, cats, rabbits, small rodents and birds and goes on to include other animals whose trade is lawful, and online platforms where pets are sold count as pet shops. If you sell fish as a business, ask your State Animal Welfare Board whether you need its certificate, which costs ₹5,000 and lasts five years.
• Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960: an animal is any living creature other than a human being, so fish are covered. Section 11 makes it an offence to keep an animal in a cage or other receptacle too small to let it move reasonably.
• Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, as amended in 2022: taking a Schedule I or II animal from the wild counts as hunting, which is banned, so never offer one for sale; living Schedule IV species must be registered.
• African catfish: the Government of India has banned its culture and trade, and the National Green Tribunal has ordered action against farms that keep it.

Which fish should you never sell?

Under the Living Animal Species (Reporting and Registration) Rules 2024, a holder of a living Schedule IV animal reports a transfer in Form I within 15 days, and the new owner must apply to register it within 30 days; each registration application costs ₹1,000. Hand over the registration papers and help the buyer apply.

How do you prepare fish for sale?

• Sell only from a tank with no deaths, white spots or treatments in recent weeks. If fish are ill, treat them and wait.
• Move the fish you are selling to a separate tank a few days ahead, so you can watch them eat and swim.
• Note each fish's size in centimetres, approximate age and sex where you can tell, and the temperature, pH and food you use.
• Say whether you bred the fish. For bought or imported fish, keep the bill and any papers.
• For a Schedule IV fish, have its registration certificate ready.

How should you price aquarium fish in India?

There is no official price list. Compare current aquarium fish for sale near you and shop prices for the same variety and size, then price by what a buyer can see: size, colour quality, whether you bred the fish and how healthy the tank is. If a pair or group has lived together peacefully, say so.

Selling a whole set-up? Give a price for everything together and separate prices for the tank, filter, heater, stand and lights, so buyers who want only part of it can ask. Mention the tank's size in litres and its age.

How do you write an aquarium fish ad that sells?

• Species and variety, how many, their size, and whether you bred them.
• How long you have kept them, and their temperature, pH and food.
• What they live with now, and the smallest tank you would sell them into.
• Clear photos and a short video in good light, taken this week.
• Your city and area, and whether buyers must collect.
• For an arowana, that it is registered and you will report the transfer.

You can post your fish ad for free on PetzLover. Keep your phone number out of the ad text and answer questions through messages first.

How do you choose buyers and hand fish over safely?

Ask every buyer: Is your tank set up and cycled? What size is it, and what lives in it? How will you keep it cool in summer, and do you have a backup for power cuts? A buyer who has not set up a tank yet should wait until it has cycled for about four to six weeks.

1. Hand over in the cool morning or evening, at your home or a nearby meeting point.
2. Bag each fish in water from its own tank with plenty of air above the water, and double-bag fish with sharp spines.
3. Put the bags in an insulated box, out of the sun.
4. Tell the buyer to float the bag for 20 to 30 minutes and net the fish in without the bag water.

Take payment in cash at the handover, or by UPI once the money shows in your own bank app. You need your UPI PIN only to send money, never to receive it, so never scan a buyer's QR code or approve a "collect" request. In a 2021 Hyderabad case, a man showed pet shop owners a fake "payment complete" screen and left with two puppies worth ₹25,000. If you are cheated, call 1930, the national cyber crime helpline, at once.

What should you do with fish you can no longer keep?

Sell them, give them to another hobbyist or ask a shop to take them, but never release them. A 2010 study in the Journal of Threatened Taxa found aquarium species such as guppies, swordtails, platies, goldfish and suckermouth catfish living wild in Indian waters, and named the dumping of unwanted fish and escapes from tanks and breeding farms as the routes. It warned that a predatory flowerhorn found in a lake near Chennai could destroy small native fish.