From six guppies bought for Tk 360 to 45 tanks and Tk 40-45k a month

During Covid, a 25-year-old young man from Karnai Hajipara village in Dinajpur Sadar upazila watched videos about ornamental fish farming on YouTube and bought six guppies for Tk 360. He built a tank in the yard and released the fish, and within a few days they bred. He then sold a cow and added new species. When his father died in 2021 he took a job as a sales representative, but with the pressure of working more than 12 hours a day he could not look after the farm, so that same year he quit and became a full-time farmer. His 45 tanks, built from cement, earth, polythene and bamboo, now hold 18 species of fish, including guppy, goldfish, zebra and koi carp; the farm takes up 5 decimals of a 9-decimal plot. He posts videos on his Facebook page, which has more than 10,000 followers, and most of his buyers come from there. He sends the fish by transport in oxygenated polybags and takes payment in advance by mobile banking. On the morning of the report he sent 300 fish to Chapai Nawabganj and received Tk 7,500. His monthly income is Tk 40,000–45,000; he pays two employees Tk 8,000 a month each, and by his own reckoning owns Tk 13–15 lakh of fish and equipment. His big problem is space: 'I can't expand the farm for lack of space.' So he keeps the larger fish in other people's ponds.