Importing Australia

[Waldo]

What kind of papers must one have in Australia to import fish? Why is it so hard to get fish over there?

[stonedavid]

Australia has some of the most strict quarantine laws in the world. Not just for aquarium fish, livestock and plant and animal. Most exotics are banned, ie walking catfish, and heaps more. We have a noxious fish list here in Oz, if the fish is on it you cant get it, a few years back even Tinfoil barbs and silver dollars were on it. We tend to complain about it alot but overall, it is there for a reason, in this area alone we have tilapia and cichlids and swordtails and many more aquarium fish swimming around in our stormwater drains and creeks. When this happens our native fish suffer and it has been a proven fact the exotic species always comes out on top, with the natives disappearing completely. Some areas of Queensland have lost thier local blueeyes, gudgeons and rainbows to the exotics, just because someone who most likely doesn't keep fish has released their unwanted fish into our waterways. Re paperwork, it is a bit of a trial and tribulation to get, and when you do receive your shipment should you have a fish like a walkinjg catfish in a bag, most times the complete shipment will be destroyed. This can be alot of time, money and effort down the drain. One importer i know has had this happen, and the whole shipment $10000.00 worth was destroyed because one of the local overseas packers put the wrong fish in with other fish. Well worth it if you can get a overseas company you can trust. :D

[Waldo]

I'm working on building franchises in every country is why I ask. If I ship out the wrong fish I'd only be hurting myself. I realize that with asia being so much closer it's probably more convenient to just import from there but I also know markup is pretty dang high. I can get a lot of fish that are unbenounced to australia. I just have to find out who and whats.... to see if it's worth while.

[Proteus]

Waldo, your best bet would be to contact user Kevkoi on here. He arranges importation of fish into Australia for one of the sponsors, and is based in Asia at the moment.

There are a few other users that are also in the industry here and I am sure if they see this thread they will comment accordingly.

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi Waldo,

I'm keen to import "fair dinkum" wilds to Australia as long as we know what we are buying.
MAC

[Waldo]

It's about a 40 hour flight. Not bad China is nearly 72. I'm not wanting to flood the market, but I've noticed a lot of fish you guys are always looking for *especially plecos, we can get.

[kevkoi]

It's precisely because plecos are NOT on the allowable import list that ppl want them and ppl do ridiculously silly things to get them into this country.

The long of the short is that EVERY pleco, other than L168 that comes into Australia comes SMUGGLED (or as we would like to call it here - Long distance swimmers), even the now fairly available albino bristlenos pleco came into this country by less than legal methods. And like all things u can't have, u want and when they are around, dig deep into your pockets.

The penalty for being caught smuggling fish into Australia is as bad if not worse than being caught smuggling drugs... so way up the risk and then think of the prices/markup. There is an up to AUD$200000 fine and/or 20years jail time for being caught smuggling in an aquarium fish into Australia.

Then unlike importing fish into USA, even for the fish that are allowable imports, they must be kept for a designated period of time in a lisenced quarantine room (and trust me, it ain't cheap building the room to what Quarantine here requires it) prior to being allowed to enter the trade. For cichlids, it's 14days. The importer takes all the losses during the quarantine period.

Then the next thing is that Australia has very very stringent laws in regards to allowable medication for even ornamental fish. The short of the long is that the medication allowed to be used on fish in quarantine in Australia is primitive to say the least!!! 30years behind I would say.

It's funny how everyone around the world thinks we make a lot of money in Aust without first knowing all the hoops that have to be jumped and all the regulatory hurdles we have in this country.

In all honesty, the mark-ups in Europe, Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong are FAR FAR FARE better than in Australia.

[marg]

Kev,

Why are Plecos illegal?

Marg.

[*Chris*]

i work with th aqis guys on a daily basis an dthe reasons they giv us for for some things not being allowed in is bull
plecos will supposably breed and overythrow native fish
last time i checked barra s and murry cod could fit plecos in there mouths
lol

[kevkoi]

:? Ask AQIS....

While you're at that, ask why they allow domestic CATS or DOGS or even GOLDFISH, but won't allow everything less damaging?

*shrug*

[Waldo]

I gotcha Newt. I'm not about to cross any legal boundries. I'm all for IBAMA banning hypancistrus and Black Stingrays from Brazil. Piranhas are really popular up here because they are illegal. Mindless overgrown tetra is all they are :roll: .
Would you mind sending me the list of fish that are or aren't allowed into Aus? I'd still love to know what corner of the market I might be able to provide.