Assassin Snails Australia.

[NickAu]

I just managed to track down 2 assassin snails for sale in Australia . Now you may say big deal whats so special about that?
 
The price.
 
I hope you are sitting down for this, $80 AUD each.
 
If any aussie has any and is willing to part with 2 for under $100 site pm me please.

 

[Baccus]

I would be VERY careful getting any Assassin snails from anyone in Australia, certain governement agencies do keep track of sale sites looking for any trade in illegal items such as Marimo Moss Balls and I dare say Assassin Snails. These authorities have also shown their  ruthlessness upholding the letter of the law, and poisoned entire tanks just to kill one illegal creature.
 
Remember if Assassin snails are here (which I have heard mention of) then they have been illegally smuggled in and not gone through complete quarrentine measures, nor testing to ensure that if they get released they wont cause havoc in the wild.
 
As it is even Cherry shrimp and Crystal Shrimp are a grey area of legality of keeping, since the original cherry and crystal shrimp where illegally imported and distributed, now they are so well spread across the country in peoples tanks its all put impossible to locate the original imports and prosecute.

 

[NickAu]

 
certain governement agencies do keep track of sale sites looking for any trade in illegal items such as Marimo Moss Balls

Are they Illegal? Mind you the ones you see in petshops are not true Marimo Moss Balls.

 

[Baccus]

Real Marimo moss balls are not allowed in Australia and many other countries have banned the trade in them because they are becoming endangered in their natural Japanese lakes. There are other ball mosses from European lakes but I am not sure if they are allowed to be traded either because of quarantine or if they have an  endangered status. When in doubt best to contact AQIS directly.
I almost ran a-foul of another forum when they happened to see what they thought was marimo moss balls in one of my tanks, they where about to ban me without entering any dialogue, lucky for me I was able to prove that it was not Marimo Moss Balls.

 

[NickAu]

Well I guess I will have to make sure my assassins are not in any photos and if they are please dont ban me.

 

[Baccus]

It wasnt this site that threatened to ban me, rather an Australian site.
 
But I can guarentee that any Assassin snails in Australia have come in illegally, putting our native fauna at risk and further strengthening the idea that more fish should be on the banned import list. We are already quite limited on what is allowed into Australia, and I know the powers that be have been looking at extending the bans to fish that previously where allowed to be imported. They have also increased quarrentine regulations making it much more expensive to import the fish that are currently allowed in.

 

[NickAu]

I know somebody who's into wild Bettas and the new import laws are a nightmare.