Quarantine changes?

[Morgan]

Has anyone else heard about this?

 

http://piaa.net.au/news/why-many-of-your-pet-fish-will-cost-up-to-four-tim/

[OzShrimp]

That sucks :(

[Squiggle]

This is absolute lunacy! I am part of QFAS(Qld Federation of Aquarium Societies) & we have been talking about this extensively for a while now & what needs to happen is everyone send as many emails as they can to the names on the list at the bottom of the web page above using the draft letter, we all need to work together on this to save the potential destruction of the aquarium industry/hobby!

[Morgan]

Damn, Squiggle. I was hoping that link wasn't strictly accurate. 

 

It's suddenly made me realise just how lucky we've been with the availability of species here in Aus. Most of the time, we can just decide what we want for our tanks and pick it up without a huge amount of hassle.

 

I'd suggest not just sending the email to the names on the list, but to your relevant Parliamentary Reps as well. Sometimes it can get blocked when it goes to parliament if enough pollies think that it will affect their votes, even if it's not something they'd normally be interested in. Whereas those like the Minister for Agriculture may have already invested too much time and work into the proposed changes to back down.

[kizshrimp]

This has been going on since the PIAA was still called PIJAC. I'm sure they'll sneak it through eventually. Damn right we all need to fight this and PIAA should be printing bumper stickers for us all - "I keep fish and I vote". 

These rules will do nothing more than encourage more illegal, unregulated imports and damage the legitimate importers who try to do the right thing. 

 

I wouldn't have said we've been lucky regarding allowable imports up till now, but we could become a whole lot less lucky if these rules come in! 

[northboy]

Its been on the boil for years and we the fish keeping public will do nothing, except pay through the nose for fish, From what I understand it wont be out of the question for guppies to be a $20 fish.

 

Then the 6 million dollar question, what other species will the hit with it and all user pay??.

 

While there is Fish and Shrimp smuggling they will not take us seriously, at all, for the ones out there that don't know both out shrimp type Crystal and Cherry, are and were NEVER legal imports. The list goes on. Bristlenose Were and are not legal imports, The list is huge and talking to a AQIS officer a while back that is one of the things they will bring up in court if it ever got that far!!!

 

Keep Natives and Bugs

 

Bob

[northboy]

Just to add to the BS, the Virus they are looking for is and has been here for ever, none of the Boffins are standing up and saying a word because they think for the most part we should keep natives only found in our area, for me that's fine as there is a huge amount of species in the Cairns region, living south, THAT SUX.

 

Bob

[newbreed]

I certainly hope this doesn't take effect, but it has been discussed for awhile now?

I will have to be sending out some emails later today!

The only option will be getting multitudes of us setting up breeding colonies of everything. Seems like a lot of everyday imports are on the list.

Mayer should setup a guppy rack next?!?

Edited January 9, 2015 by newbreed

[northboy]

The thing that is a big problem is, WHAT else will they put on later if they ram it through now.

 

They have tried a number of times of the past several years and lost each time, one day soon they will get it the way they want and then the door is shut for us Aquatic keepers.

 

I talk to fish keepers every week end at the Markets and they do not give a dam about the rules, its only hard core fish/ Aquatic keepers that will be affected and we are the minority= we loose DAM. 

 

Bob

[kizshrimp]

Yeah, well said Bob.

 

I would have clicked "like" but I don't like it very much. 

[Morgan]

One of the most useful things I learned about lobbying is that all politicians are itching for an excuse to fight with the other party and make them look bad. It's just a matter of info-bombing enough of them to make sure a few decide to use it as their excuse and the process can get stalled or scrapped if it becomes too expensive in terms of bad publicity.

[northboy]

Politician translation = Greedy, self for filling, loss of hearing, back stabbers, bull shitters. Is it obvious I don't like Pollys and we have to vote for one of them at the end of the month in QLD

 

HO HUM

 

Bob

[kizshrimp]

That's the problem with elections Bob... no matter who you vote for you end up getting a politician. 

 

They're never the right people for the job, because the right people would never do that job. 

[BellaDragon]

This is wrong on so many levels :(

 

Aside from the above mentioned points, what about the animal cruelty involved in killing thousands of fish annually just to prove they are healthy?

 

And then there is the potential environmental impact. For species that cannot be bred in captivity & are wild caught, larger numbers will need to be caught just so that a portion can be killed. Eventually this will have a huge impact on wild species numbers and further restrict availability when these fish become endangered species.

 

Also, if we turn solely to native species, where are we going to get them? I don't see them at my local pet store. So if people want them are we to just go catch them ourselves? What impact will that have? How will that be controlled? Where is the information on keeping them successfully in home aquariums? How many will suffer poor living conditions due to lack of correct information?

 

This is a bigger issue than just how much it will cost us to but fish. There is a bigger cost environmentally if it passes. Perhaps that's how the issue should be marketed to the general population, as animal cruelty & environmental concerns are more of a global concern than "will our fish cost more?" ?

 

I will be emailing a lot more politicians than PIAA have on their list. Fisheries in WA already have way too much power and are destroying the home aquarium hobby enough without there being federal laws bought into place to make it easier for them to ban fish keeping here altogether. Wish I had discovered the hobby when I was younger, seems like I might have left it too late with the current stupidity running the show :(

Edited January 17, 2015 by BellaDragon

[KillieOrCory]

The Science of this whole thing is flawed. It is just based on someones phD thesis and I heard it is this person pushing it. Plus as Bob mentioned the pathogen/disease they are trying to stop coming into Australia have been here for a long time. So even the logic of the proposal is flawed.

 

The whole thing is so idiotic that even if implemented I cant see it carried out beyond a few months or years! (I hope!)

[Morgan]

This is a rather good explanation of what's going on:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiU4W7xWnzU&feature=youtu.be

[smicko]

According to aquarium industries they have sorted out supply of most fish and the price won't go up as much as is expected.

Once a farm or country is declared virus free they won't need to do batch testing and some overseas farms are on the way to receiving the clearance needed.

The ones that won't be coming in are paradise fish wild caught cichlids and wild betta.

I must admit it doesn't affect me as everything I keep is already on the grey list.

If they follow through on making everything on the Gray list noxious then we will have massive issues.

It could be used as an opportunity to breed fish that haven't been previously viable because of the low wholesale price.

Cheers mick

Ps if guppies become $20 fish i will be able to afford a new fish room lol

[northboy]

Good one Mick, new fish room

 

Who knows where it will go. The so called enforcers of the rules all see and apply it different.

 

As a example when I worked for Bay Fish, the airport examinations were never the same and most of the time the people there had no idea of what they were looking at, when 168s and Frontys and the rest made it on the list and were imported the first time, I picked the first shipment up, they had no idea of what they were looking at, no idea, cant say more but it was stupid

 

Bob

[Morgan]

A Change.org petition:

 

https://www.change.org/p/please-don-t-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-healthy-aquarium-fish

[Squiggle]

Here's some welcome news, so glad someone has woken up!

http://www.aquariumindustries.com.au/news/

Hopefully they can it completely.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Squiggle