Work took me to the Aucklands northshore today, and i was a few hours early, so i fulled in the time by going to a coupple of the LFS. At one of them i found to my shock, a tank full of gambusia . They were selling them 10 for $5.00. I do not believe that the staff in this well knowen shop do not know that this fish is a pest. Is there some loophole that they can sell as live food??? or somthing else i dont know about???? It seems odd that this shop would take such a risk :-?

Amazing! I agree 100% with you what a stupid thing for them to do !

new owner gets bored with them, tips them down the drain !

Are you sure they were gambusia? Did you tell the staff they are illegal to keep or sell? If the answer to both is 'yes' and they did nothing about it, I would ring MAF. Give them something to do besides check recent plant sales

Hands give me or warren a call or pm and we will point you in the right direction.

I do hope that they weren't gumbusia as i would think especially retailers would know what a risk they are to our waterways

regretably i dident say somthing, i am not 100% shure they where gambusia, but i whoud be very suprised if they where anything but.. and afer all who would put unknown fish in a tank and put on with large writing "GAMBUSIA"

They actually had them labelled as gambusia????? They obviously don't knwo the rules. As far as I know there is no loophole around these fish. You are not allowed them for any reason.

Cheers

Jude

Hands

You were up in Auckland today and you didn't drop by?

Shame on you... Sylvia Park is only up the road too

Been taken care of :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Way to go Dave

How was it taken care of Dave? Did you send the boys around? :lol: 8)

How was it taken care of Dave? Did you send the boys around? :lol: 8)

He made them an offer they can't refuse ! LMAO

Shouldn't say too much but someone named DOC in Auckland will be investigating this further.

Interesting fact that even if the fish aren't Gumbusia but labelled as such it is still highly illegal

I'm sorry I'm a bit lost here. I didn't even know there was such a fish before I red this. Not being originaly from NZ I guess is partialy an excuse and I've only been keeping fish for a year now so...

Now what exactly is wrong with these fish? I've googled them and they look much like female guppies to me, well very plain fem guppies.

It does seem very odd that a LFS wouldn't know what fish they can and can't sell. Wonder who messed up.

They compete with our native fish for food. Can kill/eat eggs/young/adults. Are very prolific etc

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/national_aquati ... ask_force/

I'm sorry I'm a bit lost here. I didn't even know there was such a fish before I red this. Not being originaly from NZ I guess is partialy an excuse and I've only been keeping fish for a year now so...

Now what exactly is wrong with these fish? I've googled them and they look much like female guppies to me, well very plain fem guppies.

It does seem very odd that a LFS wouldn't know what fish they can and can't sell. Wonder who messed up.

They are a pest here as there are not enough natural predators here in the wild that eat them. They reproduce really fast and destroy the natural environment. They have already done a lot of damage. - Like most introduced animals they are fine in their natural environment but in a low predator place like NZ can do a lot of damage. If see them in a local waterway PLEASE CONTACT MAF.

They are sometimes sold as "Cold Water Guppies" by people that may/may not know better. If any fish in NZ is ever described to you as a “Cold Water Guppy†[apart from Lepord fish] please have a look and see if it is the dreaded “Gâ€. If we don’t help MAF then MAF wont help us.

It is really good to see some imput about Gumbusia. Maybe because there are alot around unfortanley in our waterways they think that it is okay but i can unsure you that is certianly not the case.

How would you desribe the pomblem with gumbusia well how does guppie size pirahna sound. Basically they do gang up on native fishe and continually nip their fins untill that fish is dead. Also as stated they are livebearers that continually especiacally in the warmer months. Garden centres have been known to promote the to control misqutos.

Anyway if you do see these please be aware of what they really are a noxious pest.

If you would like to find out more have a quite read of the link to the aquatic pest taskforce that hands has posted

Yes, Gambusia are a pest organism.

You can receive a big fine or go to prison for catching, keeping or moving them. We're talking $100,000 or 5 years so it's not an insignificant amount...

ok just leting you know that there are still there in said shop and i had a wee chat with one of the staf about it

They are still selling them :roll: i wonder if they have had the DOC phone call yet

They should have had a call by now. Just worries me that there will be costumers still buying these fish :roll: :roll: Candy what was the respone of the staff memberthat you spoke to about the gumbusia

are these the same as mosquito fish?

are these the same as mosquito fish?

Yes.

the staf member was very concerned about it... she said not meany people where intrested in them and she was going to talk to one of the other staf members about it and what they should do

hopefully it will get sorted out fast. will check in to the store sometime this week since i need more plants

I wonder who they bought them off???? Maybe someone local and they didn't realise what they were doing.