Analysis of the preferences of the esthetic traits and their morphotypes candidates to selection criteria in Tiger barb ( Puntius tetrazona ) in the actors of the productive chain

In ornamental aquaculture, the traits related with beauty are an important factor in the economy and their inclusion in the genetic improvement program is essential. However, in some species, it is difficult to define which traits are important in this sense. The objective of this study was to know the producers’, traders’, and aquarists’ interests of morphometric characteristics associated with the esthetic of Puntius tetrazona for a genetic improvement program. The information was generated from surveys considering aquarists, traders, and producers. The design of the questionnaires consisted of sets of questions according to the type of information that we wanted to obtain: demographic, specific to each actor, and esthetic preferences; the last was a common section for the three actors. The last one is supported by five sets of morphotypes based on the morphometric characteristics with a major contribution to variability in Puntius tetrazona . For the analysis of the preferences of each population for every group of morphotypes, an accumulated ordinal model was utilized. The perception of beauty is not affected by demographic traits. And the morphotypes with a higher preference for inclusion in a selection program to esthetic traits in P. tetrazona would be a short caudal peduncle, medium-length caudal fin, anal fin that is short proximal long and long distal long, wide body marks, and dorsal fin that is 25% gray. For the implementation of genetic improvement programs, it will be important to take into account the differences in interests at two points within the production chain, the needs of the producer and those of the aquarists.