alanmin4304

I suspect the quarantine of marine fish and freshwater may pose different problems. Location will also be a factor.

Some of the danios are still popping up but I think the eels have all been destroyed.

At the moment the big costs seem to be getting fish tested for diseases. I have heard of fees in the order of $4000 for one fish. My point is that MPI need to have people that are aware of fish. They don't need to be experts at fish diseases or identifying fish as those people are already available to MPI. They need to have enough general knowledge to be able to tell a carp from a goldfish, that a genetically modified zebra danio that glows in black light is in fact genetically modified, that the faeces hanging from a fish is not cancer and that a kuhli loach with no barbels is not a loach. To know some of the signs of piscine tuberculosis would be handy as well since it is zoonotic. These are expert people but not trained to inspect fish and I would compare them somewhat to trying to find a vet in NZ that really knows about reptiles. I don't blame the staff, but the accountants for getting them to do jobs they are not trained adequately for, and for saving money by not training them. The reality is that in the end it will not save money but it will take a bloody great disaster before the powers that be wake up. What is new in the greatest wee country on the planet?

That is what I mean. Who do you think released the genetically modified zebra danios or the kuhli loaches that were baby Asian eels. I have imported and had inspections carried out by those people and I can confirm that they did not know what they were looking for. In my case the took away perfectly healthy fish and destroyed them but would not take the diseased fish that had piscine TB because some idiot had mixed up the fish for testing. They were very skilled and well trained at normal border control work but admitted that they new nothing about fish. That is probably why they are now inspected by vets that are very good with horses. Their experts on diseases and fish identification were away in a laboratory somewhere else.

They have access to the knowledge but they are not the people doing the inspections.

In the good ol days they were the people that did the inspections at the airport and at home and most ofthem are realy good on fruit flies etc but no good on fish. Now they use vets that are good on horses but not interested in fish.

What they need is people who know about fish to do the inspections, they have the resources to identify diseases or fish. Most vets are experts on horses or something other than fish. Good luck with random inspections.

The inspections down here are done by a vet and $200/hour seems reasonable for a vet. Engineers and lawyers are getting a lot more than that.

Marines are at the stage where fresh water fish were at 20-30 years ago and people were thinking "If only I could work out how to breed neons." I admit marine breeding is not as easy but I am sure that many will be commercially produced in the near future. We still have to compete with the idiots throwing cyanide over the reefs though.

I think MPI are entitled to recover their actual and reasonable costs---so long as that is what they actually are. Get breeding you salties, it may become worth your while to start with some of the easier ones and leave the fancy stuff with the fancy prices to the importers. If the prices get too high it may be worth the importers looking at what their mark up is as well. 100%+ mark up may be alright on some items but perhaps they could look at the mark up on more expensive items as there is a limit to what the market is prepared to pay. The days where you think of a number and double it may be over.

No. Some fish that prefer cooler conditions may not do well, but most should be OK. Most of the fish we import come from Asia where it will be warmer than Northland.

It seems to me that they wish to recover the costs involved in the work they do. Does this not fit it with policies of "user pays", "private enterprise" and "capitalism", which seems to me the system that we live and work under. You would not expect to be subsidised by people with no interest in fish would you---that would be communism. Democracy is at work and you have the right to put your case to the "powers that be". We are just the consumers and we will end up paying no matter what.

Please add your location to your profile. African dwarf frogs are not approved in New Zealand.

He has a confused mind. I would very much doubt that they are what he claims and I would not deal with him under any circumstances.

Regardless of what you might think what you describe indicates overfeeding followed by an algae and bacterial bloom that has used up all the oxygen and killed your fish. The fish may have previously survived because of more frequent water changes in the past.

Welcome back and your experience will go down well in Nelson and on the Interweb.

What are you feeding them and how often are you doing water changes?

I thought zeolite was an ion exchange resin that absorbs calcium and releases sodium ions---makes the water softer.

It is a requirement with fish quarantine to wear suitable long gloves. The main reason is the spread of piscine TB. You may find that your skin problems are caused or worsened by what you are using or how you are washing your hands. Liquid soaps only work properly if you wet your hands first and many disinfectant type soaps are pretty strong. I get dermatitis and the alcohol based hand cleaners bring me out really quickly.

Heat pads use oxygen to generate heat so not really suitable for use with reptiles. I send by overnight courier in a rigid plastic container secured inside a polybox. 2 days without a heat pad is a bit much but OK overnight. I have sent baby beardies to Northland that way without a problem.

Mealworms are easiest but locusts are better food value.

How are you going to provide ventilation, what are you going to use as a thermostat and what live food have you started breeding?

I was meaning that it does not look like you will be able to retire on the proceeds of your find.

Great work

Back to work tomorrow?