Perspectives on ornamental fisheries in the upper Paraná River floodplain, Brazil

South America has remarkable fish diversity, with many species regarded as ornamentals. Each year, ornamental fishes worth billions of dollars are traded worldwide. In Brazil, in spite of its large geographic area and many different drainage basins, the trade is restricted to the Amazon region. Considering that the ornamental potential is unknown in other basins, this work aimed to assess the potential in the last remaining floodplain of the upper Paraná River basin. Fish collections associated with the PELD-CNPq project (Site 6) from 2000 and 2001 were analyzed. Fishes were collected with gill nets and beach seines in lagoons, channels and rivers of the floodplain. To evaluate the ornamental potential, this analysis categorized all taxa recorded as: (i) ornamental, (ii) potentially ornamental, (iii) lawful, and (iv) suggested lawful. A total of 101 taxa were captured, with 40.6% cited as ornamental in the literature and an additional 42.6% are considered as potentially ornamental. Of these taxa, Brazilian legislation restricts the trade to only 10 species, mainly small Characiformes, which are abundant in many lagoons and already well known in the market. CPUE and density catches differed among environments, with higher values for ornamental and lawful taxa observed in lagoons. Some isolated lagoons showed extremely high lawful fish densities (over 3000 ind./100 m2). Considering our results, the upper Paraná River floodplain has great potential for ornamental fisheries. The ornamental fishery could be a new economic alternative to help alleviate the social poverty found in many cities along the Paraná River. Due to the proximity of the floodplain to larger cities such as Maringá and Paranavaí, establishment of ornamental trade activities will demand less capital and at the same time reduce problems associated with transport, aviamento and fish mortality. Species richness and captures (density and CPUE) indicated an existing ornamental potential in this floodplain, but only future studies will assure if stocks can endure pressures of such a selective fishery.