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Buccal

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Some people already know,,, but there's some history of the how's and why's.

Pet Industry Association of Australia

January 6 at 4:21pm ·

The aquarium industry is facing the most serious threat it has ever had to deal with since 1999. Changes due to commence March 1st., 2015, will significantly impact the industry. If you want to help and already know about this problem, then please go straight to the bottom of this document, where there is an action plan. If you want more information then please read on ..

What is Iridovirus?

There is a family of viruses called Iridovirus. They include a sub-group called Megalocytivirus and one member of this sub-group is commonly called gourami iridovirus. For the sake of consistency, the term gourami iridovirus is used in this Fact Sheet.

The gourami iridovirus is NOT recognized internationally as an OIE listed disease of significance or importance. The OIE (Office International des Epizooties) is the World Organization for Animal Health. It is therefore not considered an important disease internationally and hence there is very little background testing to see how common it is.

History in Australia

This entire process came about because of an illegal practice by the aquaculture industry in 2003. An outbreak of Iridovirus occurred on a Murray Cod farm that killed many young fish. This outbreak was linked to the illegal practice of feeding gourami fish to the Murray Cod broodstock (breeders).

At the time (late-summer) the water temperature was 26 to 27oC . Murray Cod should be kept at a temperature below 25oC, and in fact prefer less than 20oC. They are a temperate fish, not a tropical fish. This high temperature for the Murray Cod was a major contributing factor with heat stress reducing their immune system and making them more susceptible to disease.

The disease problem went away with NO Government intervention, did NOT escape into the wild and has NOT been seen since in Murray Cod or any other native Australian fish since 2003.

Testing by researchers at the Sydney University replicated this outbreak. However, they conducted this by stressing the Murray Cod at high temperatures of 27oC. There has been no study to confirm that the virus can affect Murray Cod at their normal temperature range of below 25oC.

There has never been a serious disease outbreak in Australian native fish in our waterways due to the importation of aquarium fish into Australia.

The current import system is effective because up to 20 million fish are imported into Australia every year and surely by now if there was a potential for a disease outbreak it would have occurred by now. Aquarium fish are generally a dead end for disease transmission with no contact with the wild environment. Most fish owners are responsible and therefore, any fish that die are placed into the rubbish bin or are buried in the ground. Hence, direct contact with waterways is very limited.

Current Quarantine requirements

In Australia, there is insufficient local breeding of fish to supply the home aquarium market and so importing fish is necessary to meet the demand. The importation of fish into Australia operates within a highly regulated Federal Government framework controlled by the Department of Agriculture (previously Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry or DAFF). Only species on the National Allowable Permit List can be imported into Australia, and these fish then enter a Federal Government audited Quarantine Approved Premise (QAP). The fish are held in the QAP after their arrival for 7, 14 or 21 days depending on the species. The fish are released from quarantine only after they have been inspected and found to be healthy by Australian Quarantine Inspection Services (AQIS) officers.

Proposed fish quarantine changes due to Iridovirus

Due to the iridovirus problem in 2003 and some further research, in 2008 the Federal Government elected to undertake a new Import Risk Assessment (IRA) for potential fish affected by iridovirus. The final document was released in September 2014. The PIAA attended many meetings with Government and argued on many occasions that the proposed changes were not necessary.

The Australian Government is about to introduce dramatic changes to the current fish importing requirements. They are demanding off-shore, batch laboratory testing that will result in the killing of thousands of healthy fish. This means that every consignment of fish to be exported will need to be tested before being sent. There is no test currently available without killing fish and collecting their internal organs. The testing regime is all based upon statistics and for example if you wish to import 20 of Fish type X then you need to kill 19 of them. If they test negative the remaining one can be safely imported. If you want to import 50 of Fish type Y, then you need to kill 35 of them. If they test negative the remaining 15 can be safely imported. Finally, if you want to import 2000 of Fish type Z, then you need to kill 58 of them which if they test negative will mean that the remaining 1942 can be safely imported. So many fish will be killed unnecessarily to justify this testing requirement.

Apart from the cost of the laboratory testing (originally estimated at $2000 per batch by the Australian pathology laboratories), the loss of healthy fish becomes a welfare issue.

The only alternative to batch testing is to demonstrate source freedom. A process that normally takes two years, and yet in less than three months the Government expects overseas authorities to be able to somehow satisfy these requirements.

These measures will drastically increase the cost of bringing the remaining fish into Australia and for some it will no longer be economic to import them. Estimations are that the cost of all fish will increase and up to four times for some species. This will have a major impact on many small businesses and make the keeping of fish in home aquariums prohibitively expensive for many people.

All because of an illegal feeding practice back in 2003 by the aquaculture industry.

The other important point to note is that research funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC report 2009/044) in June 2013, found the gourami iridovirus on an aquarium fish farm in Queensland, indicating it is already in the country. It appears that once again, there was no eradication conducted by the government and so the disease is already present within Australian borders. The same report undertook some testing in wild fish and did not find the virus once again indicating the fact that the current quarantine controls are working.

It is important to note here that Biosecurity Australia (part of the Department of Agriculture) has been providing the scientific advice and policy for the government to consider and then for AQIS to implement. Unfortunately, the outcome provided by Biosecurity Australia and AQIS is completely impractical, commercially unviable and also unnecessary.

The Future

The PIAA fully supports the current quarantine of fish and does not see a system that is broken and needs such a radical repair. We ask you to express your concern at what is proposed by sending emails, letters, signing petitions and discussing the problem on social media. Please see below for contact details and what we ask you to do.

I thank you in advance for your co-operation with what is the most serious threat ever to the home aquarium industry.

Dr Rob Jones (The Aquarium Vet)

Director of Pet Services, PIAA

ACTION PLAN

Please talk on Facebook and Twitter and spread the word. Please contact the following Members of Parliament to let them know your concerns. There is a draft letter below with some ideas.

Ministers

Minister for Agriculture,

The Hon. Barnaby Joyce MP B.Joyce.MP@aph.gov.au

Facebook: Barnaby Joyce

Twitter: Barnaby_Joyce

Minister for Small Business,

The Hon. Bruce Billson MP B.Billson.MP@aph.gov.au

Minister for Trade and Investment,

The Hon. Andrew Robb AO, MP Andrew.Robb.MP@aph.gov.au

Minister for Industry and science,

The Hon. Ian Macfarlane MP Ian.Macfarlane.MP@aph.gov.au

Shadow Ministers

Shadow Minister for Agriculture,

The Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP Joel.fitzgibbon.MP@aph.gov.au

Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment,

Senator the Hon. Penny Wong Penny.Wong.MP@aph.gov.au

Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business,

The Hon. Julie Owens MP Julie.Owens.MP@aph.gov.au

Dear XX

I have been keeping fish for XX years. I talked to my local pet / aquarium shop and they say they will need to close down some of their fish tanks as the cost of aquarium fish will increase substantially after March 1st., 2015, due to unreasonable changes to the quarantine situation. I understand that it may become impossible for me to obtain some rarer types of cichlids and Bettas (Siamese fighting fish) due to financial consideration of these new import restrictions

I understand that despite the aquarium industry importing many millions of fish into Australia for over 40 years, that there has never been a serious disease outbreak in Australian native fish in our waterways due to the aquarium fish. The current quarantine system is effective and does not need to be changed. There are many health benefits to Australian who own fish and so this change may actually increase the medical expense budget for the Government.

I therefore urge you to investigate these changes, which appear to be totally unnecessary.

Yours Sincerely

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Thanks for posting this up.

It is worth reading the response from Aquarium Industires this week.

Aquarium Industries would like to provide an update to the upcoming changes relating to the importing of aquarium fish as proposed by the Department of Agriculture to be implemented on March 1st 2015 that will require screening of fish to ensure disease freedom from Megalocytivirus. As previously communicated, Aquarium Industries has been aware of the possible changes since 2009 when the government released its Import Risk Analysis on the status of importing ornamental fish into Australia. In the past 2-3 years we have been working tirelessly with our suppliers ensuring that the highest quality is maintained. In addition, we have been sampling and laboratory testing our fish to make sure they are already free of the disease.

At this point, we would like to take this opportunity to remind our customers and the fish keeper that not all fish imported will be subjected to these increased regulations and testing. For example, the humble goldfish and all the tetras including the popular neon tetra are not affected by these changes.

Recently, PIAA (Pet Industry Association of Australia) published some information in regards to the possible implications to the industry as a result of these changes. We certainly agree that the changes will have some impact to our industry as a whole, but we are confident that the increased costs of “up to four times” will not impact the common varieties of fish. Unfortunately, low volume rare varieties such as certain cichlids may be subject to price increases and in some cases this may be significant. At this stage, the fish that we are most likely to lose are wild collected cichlids and wild bettas. Having said that, we have plans in place that will hopefully ensure that we can still access many interesting and rare fish at competitive prices.

Aquarium Industries does not agree with the changes being implemented and we are currently looking at certain options, but these will take some time to investigate. In the meantime we have planned to ensure we can continue to deliver the quality fish that you have come to expect. As a result, we are confident that continuity of supply in the majority of our lines will continue after the changes with minimal impact.

The article can be read here with some additional information provided in previous news items.

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

It is worth noting that low volume imported species will be more affected than high volume species. The affect on cichlids and particularly WC species will be greater than other species.

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Great to see that this decision had gone ahead because batch testing legally imported fish will stop the virus coming in.

I certainly hope all those illegally imported fish are also batch tested before coming in otherwise this making fish slushies might not be very effective Oh hang on .....

Cheers in disbelief

Rosco

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It's the enthusiasts like us that will be affected.

The diverse importable species of alonocara and tropheus and fronts are always coming in low numbers because of their diversity (a little bit of this a little bit of that),,, so it's the end to that unless rediculous high prices are paid.

It's a shame, and a outrage, knowing the disease involved to restrict has nothing much to do with in our sector.

Our sector is just the escape goat to make it look like something's being done.

I'm sure there's other ways to go about this without affecting us.

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Its quite annoying that the people in "control" do such irrational things as this to show some sort of safety net in place..once again more proof that this hobby is affected by people so far removed from the hobby itself that they are out of touch and seem to look for things to do rather than have an intelligent basis of operation...absolutely a waste of time if you ask me and I wonder if there are other things/plans that this involves...ways to down scale our aquarium industry perhaps...I can understand when its a threat or something that could affect the native environment both flora and fauna but when its based on something that's already happened here and through illegal procedure(not even in the hobby sector) to begin with how is destroying small shipments of fish going to curb a problem that doesn't exist ?? :huh: small shipments will become an absolute waste of time(you don't mind if we needlessly kill 3/4 of your shipment do you? :spaz: ) so I say to counter act this silly useless batch testing lets just bring in big shipments of these lesser kept cichlids,WC's etc ...after all it favours this method of shipment with its silly laws.....once again we make other countries look at our aquarium industry as a joke :blink

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Hmmm...ok...heres bit of an outlier voice...I reckon we've been pretty lucky so far. I cant think of any other live IMPORT into Aus that isn't tested somewhere along the line (including pet dogs and cats) AND they usually have a quarantine period as well...so far we've been getting away with a pretty lame quarantine period only.

Im not happy about it...but I reckon we've been getting away with pretty hopeless import requirements for a long time now.

Just my 2 cents :)

Mike

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Hmmm...ok...heres bit of an outlier voice...I reckon we've been pretty lucky so far. I cant think of any other live IMPORT into Aus that isn't tested somewhere along the line (including pet dogs and cats) AND they usually have a quarantine period as well...so far we've been getting away with a pretty lame quarantine period only.

Im not happy about it...but I reckon we've been getting away with pretty hopeless import requirements for a long time now.

Just my 2 cents :)

Mike

Yes it's a positive way to look at it, but knowing the problem is already here and in the wild for some time, it's a bit to extreme,,,, yes acceptable to stop it getting into a un-affected place.

I more or less compare what Australia can and can't do compared to America, Europe and all Asian countries.

It reminds me of my childhood when my mum and dad seemed more stricter than everyone else's parents leaving me hampered and missing out on all the fun that other kids were allowed to do.

These well known places in Germany that supply cichlids surely could have tests done every six months and have a certification approval to trade with Australia,,,,, simple and effective.

By all the history write ups I've seen, it appears the issues lie in many other fields and not in our beloved Malawi collector fish that are always kept in fastidious sterile clean environments all locked away in a glass cube.

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I honestly can see it going the same way reptiles have. Permits and log books for all breeders.

Dude,,, Perth has gone like that now, you guys have it much better.

All that this hoo har does with import laws and logging,,,, is it just forces it underground,,, all the bad boys (lol they Definetely exist), will see a stronger rare market and stuff will come in left right and center and totally undetected, diseases and all.

There are ways to do this,,,, in planes, but mainly boats,,, it does happen,,, the more value$$$ the more worthwhile.

Australia has got it wrong.

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I agree Buccal...but I wouldn't compare us to Europe, Asia, America...they have HUGE exotic disease issues and feral fish issues...usually imported because of lame import rules....I agree that because of our slack import laws many of the diseases are probably already here...but I think it's designed to try and keep others out...

My understanding is that you can become a certified exporter into Aus after testing etc....I could be wrong though.

This could also be seen as an opportunity for local producers....the smart people are already geared and ready to fill the hole.

Will it drive some fish underground...absolutely...I think that already exists though.

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Mike you are correct that all exporters to Aust have to have certification

by AQIS

I would assume that the testing is part of this as they have to be cleared

and signed off by a vet that is nominated by the exporter

do they have do a necropsy with the test sample or can they get the tests

done using scrapes and blood samples

this is indeed a time that local breeders should be thinking of what they can

supply to the hobby that is a legal import and considered a bread & butter line

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Yes, the other countries do have some diseases going around,,, but I guess within the last 100 years of human activity and intervention, where is a place that isn't effected ??.

Not only disease but feral introduction as well,,, the English were terrible for this without much research.

Yep, I heard that nearly anyone can be a certified importer,, but,, lol, they allow this because they know it's near on unaffordable and not relevant to the value of live fish to bring in,,,, and besides the testing requirements are so stringent that why not ??,, the motion of importing now is over the top fail safe.

The iridovirus is in the south of WA water ways !!!! Government fault related to a funding exercise.!!!!!!

It has opened a little to local breeders yes,,, but this sector of Malawi and tang really only has a small percentage of reliance of importing for main supply and the very low demand oz wide for this sector will remain the same.

It's the low demand for entire species that see's a specie disappear and on top of that deformity and hybrid occurrences all playing against as well,,,, so with no imports to make up for all this the outcome is inevatable for some good loss.

Then there's all the new and exciting stuff thats new every now and again to keep things fresh, all that gone to.

I feel strongly for our wonderful few importers that really put their heart into it for us and the hobby.

Over night a flick of a switch and they're out.

The only importers that will keep going are shop owners that will Continue with tetras and the likes off,,, and no more small order cichlids.

I have had numerous people tell me with dollar signs in their eyes that shops, wholesalers and Bayfish/AI will be desperate and value the local breeders better and drive the value of the fish up.

I just laugh and totally disagree,,,,, as our fish will become cheaper.

Why ?????!,,, well most of this commercial activity already mostly buys from locals in the likes of Malawi and tangs.

All of a sudden, there's going to be a truck load of extra breeders wanting to push there fish.

Over supply versus minimal demand,,, lol, playing right into shops and wholesalers hands by means of breeders desperation to offload fish.

So instead of covering costs and making a little pocket money, it will start to cost the breeder to produce.

So it's a set up for long term disaster if everyone gets the same bright idea.

At the turn of the GFC and the electricity hikes,,, many breeders shut down tanks as it started costing them.

At the same time so did households reducing demand.

At this point of time I went on a crazy collection binge and believe I'm responsible for many species still being obtainable. (150 types).

Now,,, if everyone gets the same idea and causes a glut which which allows places like Bayfish and shops to determine lower prices then I'd have no option but to close down and just keep ten or so of my favorites.

Selling bread n butter at 5cm for $3 each in bulk quants,,,, if this went to $2-$2.50 each it would start costing me.

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So you are saying it will weed out the ones doing this for the money and the hobbiest, who do it because they enjoy it, will be he only ones left?

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It will be interesting to see how things pane out....

Where is a place that isn't affected?...well...in many cases that's here...lots of fish diseases are here BECAUSE of the previous slack rules and theres many that are not here yet...I think theyre using Iridivirus as a flag ship....the same rules will keep lots of other diseases out. I get the Aquavetmed newsletter and there are lots of things that are not here that we do not want here.

Personally I reckon things are not going to be as bad as the industry is making it out to be...but Ive been known to be wrong :)

Mike

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It will be interesting to see how things pane out....

Where is a place that isn't affected?...well...in many cases that's here...lots of fish diseases are here BECAUSE of the previous slack rules and theres many that are not here yet...I think theyre using Iridivirus as a flag ship....the same rules will keep lots of other diseases out. I get the Aquavetmed newsletter and there are lots of things that are not here that we do not want here.

Personally I reckon things are not going to be as bad as the industry is making it out to be...but Ive been known to be wrong :)

Mike

I hope so.
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So you are saying it will weed out the ones doing this for the money and the hobbiest, who do it because they enjoy it, will be he only ones left?

So you are saying it will weed out the ones doing this for the money and the hobbiest, who do it because they enjoy it, will be he only ones left?

No not at all,, there's a lot more to it than black and white.

I use to run a small breed room of 30 tanks,, and this was passion.

I thought why not extend my passion with a larger facility and see how far I could take it,,, and what the hell I love doing it.

But as time passes a lot of time and effort goes in.

If it starts costing me, and that's "IF", then I can't just not have fish, it's in my blood as for many.

All this had more or less become my duty and at times a love/hate thing when extended time is needed to maintain when other things in life have to go with out,,,, I don't want to be losing money for that, and if so id just do what I like on a much smaller scale.

But where I see the danger lies in a small passion breeder versus the breeder for money(in my case the luxury of money and passion), is that a small breeder will stop doing species to try another,,, and that's when they are lost.

A large breeder or commercial breeder will lock a whole lot away and never get rid of those species and keep them safe and going, well I do anyway.

So many people seem to draw a line between passion and for profit,,, but I can assure one thing, my passion is triple than any one I know, and I like to try and profit also, whilst for filling proper ethical practice.

To have a full time day job and run such a operation in breeding it's very taxing,,, I can't go on holidays I'm always missing out events, always to busy in breed room.

With the cost of electricity and food, it basically equates to no less than $3 for a 5cm bread n butter fish with a few rarer ones that fetch higher prices as icing on the cake,,, this sees just a little pocket money for all my time put into it.

If it did go the way of more fish than needed on the market occurred and prices dropped lower, I wouldn't want to be doing this at the massive scale I'm doing,,, like I said, it's in my blood, I'd just cut down and start rotating species that I keep like other small breeders do.

Trust me on this,,, if 5000 liters costs x amount loss,,, then that x amount at 35000 liters is a whole lot more.

With a big system,,, if sales are low for a while it starts costing big time.

I'm not preaching this stuff,,, just my insight that's all.

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I have to agree with Mike on this one. PIAA seems to be pushing their point, but they have a vested interest. Others have said it will make a change, but they don't see it being that bad. For an Aquarium wholesaler to say this isn't really going to affect its business usually means they are confident it wont. I am sure they would be jumping up and down complaining and calling for support if it was.

If the government is going to make it harder to get fish here, inst that going to drive up demand for what is here? PIAA say that we cant breed enough fish to supply our own demands. Higher demands means higher prices. Seems to me like you are sitting in a prime seat, with your massive breeding facility, to hit a home run here.

Small breeders are always going to change species to try something new. It been happening for the last 25 years I have been in the hobby and it will carry on for ever. Species will come and go as people strive to breed rare, endangered or just new species. If you don't have the space something has to go.

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Shops are embracing breeders a little more now.

I think the likes of Bayfish know this, so they are re-assuring their customers everything Is fine.

Bayfish themselves would be a little more supportive of breeders also I'd say.

Bayfishes percentage of profit in Malawi/tang cichlids is low compared to the rest of what they sell like characins and all the other varieties,,,,, so it's not so severe for them.

The amount of people wanting to buy Malawi/tang cichlids in Australia will not change.

The amount of imports that was needed to supply these people was minimal anyway to supply theses buyers.

It's more the refreshment and new cichlids that will be effected.

So I can't see demand magically increasing,,,, as 85% - 90% of cichlids have always been obtained by breeders anyway.

To many people are giving up luxuries left right and center in Australia from high living costs already.

Cichlids cannot become more expensive otherwise interest will drop in fish even worse.

It's a very fine line in a shop declaring affordable value and making shop profit.

As agreed smaller breeders are always changing species,,, I guess that's why I rate myself a level of importance in not letting any varieties slip and maintaining same species constantly.

I've got space and $$$$. 4.5acres.

The changing of species with breeders in a weak market, many fall through the cracks and are lost.

When PIAA say we can't breed enough fish,,,, is that all ornamental fish ??, or just Malawi/tang ??.

It's only our little part of the Malawi/tang market that's effected.

Yes we can't supply enough of our own but that's everything other than Malawi/tang.

Hope your more right than I am Josh, as you said, I'd be in a good seat,,, but I feel it's not quite like that. Maybe maybe not.

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Batch testing will only be on fish that have come out of an unapproved aqis overseas exporter. Aqis has already been to exporters to check how they run. If they have recieved the approval then they won't need to be batch tested. All quarantine will also be done outside of Australia before they are shipped. This to me is a worry as the imported fish will then be available for sale the same day they land.

In the article it comments on how much tye batch testing is in Australia, once again the majority of batch testing will be done in the country of origin. So costs will be less. Once again they have to approved by aqis to carry out the testing.

The way I look at it is we have 3 months to collect the affected species this will make greater importance for breeders to keep lines pure. There is some good and bad to come out of these changes. Unfortunately I think it is too late to petition against these changes as they have already been signed off on. I remember years ago when the guppy gustapo went through qld breeders was not a great time.

I think we will find there are reasonns behind this going down and I don't think anyone is going to like them but only time will tell. One last thing the European exporters to date have refused aqis requests ao it is highly possible german imports will be a thing of the past. Lets hope not.

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Yep, Australia is virtually non-existent in European sales as its mainly rift cichlids from there we obtain, and as I've mentioned numerous times, the Malawi/tang market is pretty poor here.

Asian countries are always co-operative and virtually everything but excluding Malawi/tang comes from Asia.

As we know Asia does hybrid alounocara and the pures are always pretty messed up.

The market in oz for characins, goldfish and everything else excluding rift cichlids is so much bigger than rift cichlids alone.

So it's still worthwhile for Asia, doing pre-approvals.

A lot of people don't realise how much fish passes back and forth between Asia and Europe countries.

It's quite possible that Asia could accommodate for us in the long run.

I believe that the breeder versus shop/wholesalers is already correctly balanced.

So there's no great loss for shops/wholesalers,,, it's only effecting us passionate hobbiests that likes to see new things and bloodline refreshment.

90% of the market is everything else other than rift cichlids, so in the governing bodies eyes impact is minimal.

That 10% left effected is us.

Though the impotortance of maintaining purity and quality is going to improve our future discussions and seriousness, so its exciting in one way.

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Most of the fish that are imported from Asian sources won't need to be tested. Goldfish, tetras as well as other fish don't need to be tested.

The biggest affects will be on small numbers of cichlids and wild bettas.

Once a country is approved, batch testing won't be carried out? Is this correct?

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I have heard goldfish and other species will be added as well in the future. I personally think the big guys will be ok. Its the smaller importers that will hurt.

Yep, I think so to.

The smaller importers are our guys,,, the building blocks of the diverse industry.

But hey, we got plenty to go out with a bang with.

If everyone does the right moves we should be able to sustain at a reasonable level.

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