Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Werdna and others, the reason why AQIS did not check is that they did not care what you brought in as fish are not their responsibility . Anyhow the mob that checked would have been WAQIS, now called Quarantine WA (interstate Quarantine) and are part of the WA Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA). They have nothing to do with AQIS (the Australia Quarantine and inspection Service) who are responsible for imports into Australia not into WA and are part of the Federal Department of Agriculture.

Back to the border, QWA only enforce the Plant Diseases Act and the Agriculture and Related Resources Act, that is why they check for plant material and snails. They don't or should not be checking for snails any more as they recently changed their policy in that area.

Fish movements into and within WA are covered by the Fisheries Resources Management Act (FRMA) and is the responsibility of Fisheries WA. Fisheries WA do not have a presence at the border nor do they have any formal agreement with DAFWA to enforce the FRMA at the border . Sound complicated? Well that is because it is and only gets more complicated if you import goods from overseas when they can all get a finger in the pie (but that is another story) .

To make life even more difficult DAFWA will be enforcing their new Act the Bio-security and Agricultural Management Act, that prohibits all organisms from entering the State unless it is on a permitted list. If it is not on the permitted list it can't come in . Now if DAFWA and Fisheries WA are not working together at the border, how many fish do you think will be on that list? Even more interesting will be how DAFWA implement it . Stay tuned. Life could get more difficult!

Cheers
Marc

Hi there I was just reading your thread Andi do know that Bruce from Ausyfish had just sent 3 months ago..... 3 shipments of 10,000 jade perch to W.A You could alway ring him at Ausyfish in childers QLD he might give you a number to the place he sent them and you might be able to buy a few off thm?? worth a shot

Are you absolutely sure it was Jade perch and not Silver perch DD?????

It will be a long time before the policy comes through imo Marc
There are way too many species of fish out that arent permitted imports, and you cant prove their lineage to being in Aus before the first imports list.
And fish like cichlids are so hard to tell apart at 3cm as most of them are just silver fish with black bars. There is no way you can train people up to tell every species on the allowable imports list.

So when I decide to try Murray Cod I just need a spare fish tank, and I'll import them for ornamental reasons.
Their personality does seem very similar to other Central and South American fish, such as P Dovii. Seems reason enough for me!
Who knows what I would do with the 100,000 eggs if I got them to breed.

It's such a grey area..... Does the aquarium trade fall under any government organization or controlling body in any way?

Damn...there goes my dream of visiting WA....

Not really.
There is the allowable imports list and noxious species list.
If the fish isnt on the first list they cant be brought into the country, if a fish is on the second list they cant be kept, shipped or sold.
There is talk of iridovirus testing on all incoming fish which will pretty much double the price at best of all fish coming into the country.

I have friends who have imported Murray Cod into Perth for their aquarium, they had no issues getting them in.

I have spoken to fisheries about this on many occassions and basically you can apply to bring into WA any type of fish providing it is not on the noxious fish list. They then access each application individually but being given approval depends on what you want to do with them. The main restriction is the on selling of fingerlings as they see that as a risk of them being introduced into the waterways. For instance there are a few people doing Murray and Sleepy Cod in WA in Aquaculture but legally you cant sell any fingerlings of these species.

See now there's the classic difference between ornamental/aquarium base, and aquaculture base.. It seems aquarium people just order what ever they want from around Australia with out a care in the world, and never have the slightest problem getting anything into the state, so long as it's not noxious.

Aquaculture background? "I need to apply and get approvals to bring anything in, from anywhere"..

Yeah Faye it was as i was picking up my Measily 750 jades they where packing them in there bags putting in oxygen and taping the styro boxes up ..... the lucky part for me going and getting my fingerlings is that i get all the big ones as they dont send them by air other wise the weight really adds up 1 larger fish is the weight of 10-15 smaller ones.... and the size of their spikes can puncture the bags.... here is a couple of photos from my fingerling look at the bag 2/3rds along the bag it runs the same way as my right arm right in front of it....you can see his whole body and tale ..he's almost ready for the plate... hehehe

Bruce does all the paper work so they can tell them where all their fish go

Wonder who would want that many Anyone know anything?
Nice pics DD!

Probably a commercial grower licenced to grow Jades for the food market as they couldnt be sold legally as fingerlings for use in aquaponics.

Nice jades DD. Hoping to get mine to about that size by the time the AP system is ready