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updated model for imported fish PIAA


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all this mean is it takes effect 1 March 2016 and the government dept name has changed

rather than having a sample groups from the imports there will be health certification of negative testing for megalocytiviruses

from the source supplier that can use a test species that is in the same water as the export fish

here is the certification procedure doc  http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/biosecurity/risk-analysis/ira/final-animal/certification-procedures-megalocytivirus.pdf

C. Health certification for gouramis, bettas, paradise fish*, cichlids and poeciliids exported to Australia

* including all approved species of the subfamilies Luciocephalinae and Macropodusinae of the family Osphronemidae (gouramis, paradise fish, bettas), cichlidae and poeciliidae

  • Note that the requirements for demonstrating freedom from megalocytiviruses will come into effect on1 March 2016. All susceptible species intended for export to Australia after this date will require health certification attesting to virus freedom through source surveillance or negative batch-testing.
  • Since the model health certificate was published on 8 September 2014 through Biosecurity Advice 2014/11 – ‘Quarantine policy for freshwater ornamental finfish from approved countries’, it has been updated to reflect a departmental name change and re-formatted for consistency (Appendix 4).
  • The department has removed a requirement for country-of-origin health certificates to be appended to the final health certificate for export to Australia.
  • As detailed in ‘Certification Procedures for ornamental finfish: source surveillance or pre-export batch testing to demonstrate freedom from gourami iridovirus and related viruses’ pdf.gif PDF [831 KB, the department has developed ‘Additional health certification criteria and procedures for gouramis, bettas, paradise fish, cichlids and poeciliids exported to Australia’ (Appendix 5) to guide exporting country Competent Authorities to meet Australia’s biosecurity requirements. The updated procedures have been circulated to all countries exporting ornamental finfish to Australia.
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This modified regulation is pretty much more suited to the mainstream fish imports,,,, which are usually Asian countries (most of the time),,,,,,, places like these sell the popular stuff that demands high numbers for very cheap.

They have many different basic tetra/characin, clownloach and all that stuff,,, if they were selling something a bit more expensive, I can see them co-operating to suit the oz laws.

 

But my question is,, in our field (African cichlids), our proper source is usually Germany which are suppliers specializing in cichlids alone, like cichlidstadel,,  besides oz's poxy little orders,,,.   Are these guys going to get these sacrificial cheap fish from elsewhere to play oz's game ?

they get all these orders of different species and very small number of each.

but these places from Asia that sells bulk numbers in big bags isn't much effort to do the sacrificial fish thing.

 

Has Germany confirmed they will support these new requirements ???    This is the question.

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3 hours ago, malrift said:

Last I heard Germany refused to agree with aqis terms. I hope its not stll the case. Maybe Grant can shed a bit more light on it.

I had also heard that they were not supporting the new requirements. 

It may limit fish species to a small number of popular species. 

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5 hours ago, Buccal said:

Isn't it funny though,,,, the places where it comes from is where our fish will keep coming from.

the places it's not coming from, is where we will stop getting fish.

All current countries exporting to Australia are presumed to have it until the country undertakes extensive testing under the new regime. Down the track we may see these countries deemed Megalocytivirus free. 

Quote

 

The ‘unrestricted risk’ estimation in the IRA report took into account the assumption that Megalocytivirus is endemic to all countries that have been approved to export freshwater fish species to Australia. All countries currently approved to export freshwater ornamental fish to Australia can continue to export fish of the gourami, cichlid and poeciliid families, provided they are able to certify to the new health requirements. 

The attestation of country, zone or compartment freedom of Megalocytivirus in fish exported to Australia will be based on active targeted surveillance undertaken by the exporting country’s competent authority. Please note that the requirement for freedom from Megalocytivirus only applies to freshwater ornamental fish belonging to the goura

 

 

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Hi,

In terms of Germany conforming to the new requirements, as far as I know they are not. I spoke to DAFF and they had corresponded with German authorities a number of times. As of yet there has not been a formal response from German government. Formal response is not required to conform, but at least it signals they intend to.

I'll speak again to cichidstadl and ask if they can meet the new health cert. requirements.

What I can say for now though, is look after what we have here as well as you can! There are a lot of nice fish in the country, in a lot of fishrooms. Would be a shame to see these disappearing in 5-10 years.

Cheers

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Thanks for uncovering the stances Grant.

 

I personally think the outcome, especially 5 years later is going to be a lot worse than we think.

Due to the light on interest in cichlids in oz,, species will drop of the charts the same as they always have.

A lot of shops around are always going for the cheapest, and this allows poor quality and worse still crosses.

Myself as a big breeder, sales have down and down and down, and now my sales are equivalent to a small breeder, but I still have my big power bill and food costs.

Im simply producing not even a fraction of what I use to,,,, though it could be other breeders are considered to have better fish or they are selling to cheap where it's costing them money to sell, and that's no security for the fishes existence.

Its probably more likely I've been brushed aside, I'm actually contemplating closing the Cichlid side down,, and what a time to do it.

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We might be looking at this wrong. 

There has been a boom in people securing what they want from imports. 

With no (quality) imports coming in, the demand for good quality fish out of local breeders should increase. 

Weather the storm. Hold on to what you have especially if you have what you think are examples of "best in breed".

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Yes, but that's the immediate thought that makes sense.

its the amount of aquarists and people into the hobby oz wide

 

I personally can't see amount of interest or seriousness picking up because imports stop in this field.

People may get worked up for the first year, but after that, as per usual, fish will start becoming lost.

I believe there just aren't enough of us to begin with, and when I say enough of us,, there's maybe 5 x more breeders than what's needed,,, but there's only 25% of what's needed to do the buying to keep it ticking over, so 75% short of steady buying.

The shops can't keep taking fish that aren't selling, and the people or breeders that say they are making sure they keep the species going will drop out sooner or later as they do.

It seems shops right now aren't selling a whole heap, so why aren't people seeing the import laws coming up and securing their stocks now,,,, right now should see the most active time.

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I noticed when I came back to the hobby after an extended break, how many different species and variants are here. I mean take frontosa for example. there are probably more than 10 or so variants available atm. Sustaining that will prove to be difficult. Tropheus are the same...allowable imports but its going to be difficult to maintain momentum on certain strains. There are the new victorians in. I have never seen a sustained effort in maintaining these fish due to aggression issues in community tanks etc.

I wrote a topic on this a while back but didn't post it in the end. Years ago cichlid societys used to have breeding programs where people would volunteer to maintain a (rarer) species (or varient locality). I'm curious if this still happens, is there cross society interaction on it. It all helps.

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i for one hold certain species that i will not part with i have a few now that i think i can let go but i do my research and ask the questions about availability etc.if someone says these will be fine for the next three years then i know a few breeders have grabbed a species and are breeding them so in the back of my mind i try and keep track of that species.if i see someone buy 6-10 of one species in a shop i can see possibly that they are a breeder but then the scary sets in and will they actually survive in their hands not knowing their experience but i also listen to them talk about things and get a picture of the type of keeper they are this usually prompts me to also grab a few just incase but whos to say theyll survive in my hands as well atleast theres more of a chance of more fry being produced

My thoughts are there could be a list formed of who keeps what to cover certain species but also a log for that breeder to complete on breeding etc.ive been reading posts on bookface and when i see someone say hey we havnt seen those for a while ill try to research or ill simply import them if they are legal.and try to get them circulating again.

some species ill try and breed the hell out of then sell the adults but always hold a pair or trio back espec if they are not rare but not seen that often ie fish that breed only a few times a year.i had a steatocranus pair that bred for me for a while i then passed them to a family members display tank but i always made sure they stayed alive i have since taken them back to breed again to get them back out there although i have seen them of late in a few shops but my thoughts are by time these breed again there maybe none and ill have some ready to go  at that time.its not for the money but for seeing the fish back in circulation

as for importation i wish more people took the risk i have never had trouble with  any of my imports its a shame more people hadnt done it over the years even if its one species

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It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years. Ducksta make a good point with the imports. There have been a lot of imports coming in over the space of 3-4 years, with all the major states covered. I think this has crowded out the breeders side of it as people perceive the German stock as superior, and have spent their limited dollars on imports.  People are always going to want new and different fish to keep and going forward it would seem the only place to get this would be from breeders. Tropheus for example, the demand for wilds has always been huge, which mean people like tropheus. If the changes to import laws mean we cannot get the wilds, people will have no choice but to buy tankraised, and will go to the breeders with the highest quality stock (or cheapest price)..So Buccal, it would be a real shame for a breeder with your experience and stock list to give it up.

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Is Germany the only country supplying to Aus? What about importing via the asian countries, wild africans via Singapore?

I always get jealous of my brother who works in Hong Kong. He has wild Alto. calvus in his display.

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so long as they are certified virus free should theoretically be no problem through Asia

if they are sourcing from Europe

 

trans shipping to a on forwarder in Asia from Germany would be another option but this

would had to the cost of the fish due to double handling and reshipping

 

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