what plecos can we legally import into New Zealand...

Hey Charlie,

We are so lucky living in NZ and being able to import a LARGE variety of L's unlike OZ (legally). 8)

This was the link I was giving by MAF and told that basically all loricariidae’s are able to be brought in http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/imports/ ... ic.all.htm but as I understand it, MAF don’t control it anymore so I'm not sure what is going on at the mo.

Have any in mind?

Cheers

That link is for the importation of fish bait and brine shrimp etc..

Heres the live animal one

http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/files/bi ... 364-ft.pdf

And heres the guidelines for a setting up a quarantine facility

http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/border/t ... -02-06.htm

And as far as im aware MAF still very much control it

My apologies.......I mucked up the links somehow, Ryan is correct.

When I spoke to MAF regarding the importation of Live fish they referred me to Biosecurity NZ and was told that they handle all imports/quarantining of animals and were not very helpful :evil:

I must have been given the run around AGAIN

Yep unfortunately when dealing with MAF about fish they either don't care or don't know or a combination of both.. Its probably not that much of a money spinner or somethign they deal with often so you can kind of understand it I guess..

Maybe they need a few clued up people in there offices who just deal with fish?

Maybe they need a few clued up people in there offices who just deal with fish?

Couldn't have said it better myself Ryan.

Sorry about all the B$ Charlie.

what specie does this refer to; Hypostomus plecostomus

Suckermouth catfish? To me this is very open...

How is that very open? Hypostomus plecostomus only refers to one species, Hypostomus = genus (family), plecostomus = species.

http://planetcatfish.com/catelog/specie ... ies_id=580

If you have evidence of any plec already been imported into NZ

,( eg receipt), then it is able to come in.

There are of course a number of plecs that are now 'banned' for export from their home Country and some of them have been imported here before.

The issue of quarantine officers and their knowlege of tropcal fish is problem worldwide. Trained experts can have trouble IDing plecs, so expecting a MAF officer with minimal training to do it ?

Because of our bio-security we can't buy 'off the shelf' - or simply order over the net, so we are reliant on the importers and what they can get and or what they are prepared to bring in. Supply/demand/Economics

Well Hypostomus Plecostomus to means any catfish is the hypostomus family.

Then how come none of the hypans are imported except for the queens?

I think you'll find there is a ban on exporting them, rather than importing them.

Well Hypostomus Plecostomus to means any catfish is the hypostomus family.

No it doesn't, it only refers to the species plecostomus (which is written with a lower-case p), not the whole genus Hypostomus. I think you are confusing the use of the name "plecostomus" as a common name for anything resembling a suckermouth catfish, where as the list refers to the actual species Hypostomus plecostomus.

f you have evidence of any plec already been imported into NZ

Thats not quite how it works. If it is not already on the list, but you can provide evidence of it already being kept here (before a certain date I think) then you can go thru a lengthy process to add it to the list so it may be imported.

You can't just turn up at customs with an old pic of it in someones tank and say "yeah I know its on the list but my cousins brothers best friend has had one for years".

I believe this is an example of how to get something added to the list..

http://www.ermanz.govt.nz/appfiles/exec ... 04-001.pdf

Plus the associated fee and time for maf to contact erma and then do there thing..

I know there is a ban but their are still wholesalers that have them, I know that they are on all the export lists. They havebeen for years but why havnt they ever been imported?

If the species you're after is not on The List then they probably won't ever be imported (legally). Even if they are, sometimes fish just don't come in, like pike cichlids (Crenicichla lacustris) or red terrors (Cichlasoma festae [now Amphilophus]) for example. If they are on the list you could try contact someone like redwoods to import them for you.

I know there is a ban but their are still wholesalers that have them, I know that they are on all the export lists. They havebeen for years but why havnt they ever been imported?

My understanding is that L066 or King Tiger pleco is under particular pressure in the wild . If you know hypans then you know that there are many with squiggly patterns as per King tiger, as L260( Queen), and L333,

so they too have have been limited because of the possibility of confusion in ID's whether it is by accident or not.

It is hard to truely comprehend how massive the area Of Sth America is that plecs are collected from,but equally it is hard to comprehend the numbers of wild caught fish harvested on a daily basis.

Yes, there are more and more plecs being captive bred, but the drain on the wild population is still huge and will only increase so I would suggest that more and more plecs will banned from there Home country.

If the species you're after is not on The List then they probably won't ever be imported (legally). Even if they are, sometimes fish just don't come in, like pike cichlids (Crenicichla lacustris) or red terrors (Cichlasoma festae [now Amphilophus]) for example. If they are on the list you could try contact someone like redwoods to import them for you.