Abstract The global ornamental fish trade presents significant challenges to the conservation of biodiversity. In this study we explore patterns in the freshwater ornamental fish market in Hong Kong, one of the largest wildlife trading hubs. We conducted weekly surveys over a 3-month period in Hong Kong’s primary aquarium shop district to document species diversity, conservation status, native origin and market value. A total of 540 freshwater fish species of 73 families were recorded. We found that species occurrence in the market was largely price-driven, and minimum retail price was the strongest predictor of how frequently we encountered a species in our surveys. We assessed each species’ placement along the market occurrence–price gradient and found that potentially undescribed species dominated the expensive/rare end of the market, where the anthropogenic Allée effect (in which novelty/rarity exacerbates exploitation because of increased demand) may be influential. Alarmingly, 86 (16%) of the species in the market were potentially undescribed, and 38% of species in the market were either not evaluated or categorized as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List at the time of our surveys. The significant proportion of unassessed and potentially undescribed species is of concern because of the potential for unsustainable exploitation prior to consideration of appropriate regulatory frameworks. Although our data suggest that cheaper, common species dominate the trade, the substantial presence of little-known species is of conservation concern, underscoring the need for more extensive monitoring.
Ho et al. (Wed,) studied this question.