Important! Attention All Australian Members

[LauraFrog]

Thought I should let the Australian members know that the list of fish species that are banned for trade, import, breeding or possession in Queensland has just been quadrupled. If you own a fish on this list, you must either destroy it, surrender it to the DPIF (which will destroy it) or obtain a permit (free, from DPIF) by August 1. Permits allow you to keep the fish for the rest of its life but you may not breed, trade or move it.
This means that if you've got them you need to deal with this ASAP because otherwise you could get stuck with a $200k fine. Also, people in other states would be very wise not to try and move these fish into, from, or around Queensland.
******** have banned sunfish. They banned Channa ages ago, ******, I'd love one.

Source: australia.to

Fish species already declared noxious and therefore prohibited in Queensland (if you've got these you're breaking the law anyway!)
Bluegill Lepomis spp. (Centrarchidae)
Carp Cyprinus carpio (Cyprinidae)
Chinese weatherfish, weatherloach Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (Cobitididae/Cobitidae)
Climbing perch Anabas testudineus (Anabantidae)
Electric eel Electrophorus electricus (Electrophoridae)
Gambusia, mosquitofish Gambusia spp. (Poeciliidae)
Grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella (Cyprinidae)
Largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides (Centrarchidae)
Nile perch (live) Lates niloticus (Centropomidae)
Parasitic catfish, pencil catfish, candiru catfish Family Trichomycteridae
Pike cichlids Crenicichla spp. (Ci chlidae)
Piranhas, pacus Fish of the subfamily Serrasalminae (within family Characidae)- all species except Metynnis spp. and Myleus rubripinnis
Snakeheads Channa spp. (Channidae)
Tiger catfish Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum (Pimelodidae)
Tigerfishes (African), pike characin Hydrocynus spp. (subfamily Hydrocyninae or Alestinae)
Tigerfishes (South American), trahiras Erythrinus, Hoplerythrinus and Hoplias spp. (Erythrinidae)
Tilapia Tilapia, Oreochromis and Sarotherodon spp. (Cichlidae)
Walking catfish, airbreathing catfish Family Clariidae


New additions to Queensland's declared noxious fish list after 1 August 2009 (if you have them, get a permit or get rid of them)
Aba aba Gymnarchus niloticus (Gymnarchidae)
African butter catfish Schilbe mystus (Schilbeidae)
African lungfish Protopterus annectens (Protopteridae)
African pike Hepsetus odoe (Hepsetidae)
African pike-characin, tubenose poacher, fin eater Species in the subfamily Ichthyborin ae
American gar, armoured gar, spotted gar, alligator gars Atractosteus spp. and Lepisosteus spp. (Lepisosteidae)
Angler, frogmouth and squarehead catfishes Chaca chaca (Chacidae)
Banded jewelfish Hemichromis fasciatus (Cichlidae)
Banded or spotted sunfish Entire family Centrachidae
Bighead carp Aristichthys nobilis (Cyprinidae)
Bottlenose, cornish jack Mormyrops anguilloides (Mormyridae)
Bowfin Amia calva (Amiidae)
Brook stickleback Culaea inconstans (Gasterosteidae)
Catla Catla catla (Cyprinidae)
Chameleon goby, striped goby Tridentiger trigonocephalus (Gobiidae)
Chinese swordfish Psephurus gladius (Polyodontidae)
Copper mahseer Neolissochilus hexagonolepis (Cyprinidae)
Electric catfish Malapterurus spp. (Malapteruridae)
European catfish, wels catfish Silurus spp. (Siluridae)
Flatnose catfish, dwarf giraffe catfish Anaspidoglanis macrostoma (Bagridae)
Forktail lates Lates microlepis (Centropomidae)
Fourspi ne stickleback Apeltes quadracus (Gasterosteidae)
Freshwater minnow Zacco platypus (Cyprinidae)
Giant barb Catlocarpio siamensis (Cyprinidae)
Giant cichlid, yellow belly cichlid Boulengerochromis microlepis (Cichlidae)
Marble goby Oxyeleotris marmorata (eleotridae)
Mississippi paddlefish Polyodon spathula (Polyodontidae)
Mrigal Cirrhinus cirrhosus (Cyprinidae)
Ninespine stickleback Pungitius pungitius (Gasterosteidae)
Orange fin labeo, rohu Labeo calbasu and L. rohita (Cyprinidae)
Pike characin Acestrorhynchus microlepis (Acestrorhynchidae)
Pike minnow, pike killifish Belonesox belizanus (Poeciliidae)
Pikes Esox spp. (Esocidae)
Pink, slender, greenwoods, mortimers, cunean and green happy Sargochromis spp. (Cichlidae)
Purpleface largemouth Serranochromis spp. (Cichlidae)
Pygmy sunfish Elassoma spp. (Elassomatidae)
Red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Cambaridae)
Ripsaw catfish, black doras, black shielded catf ish Oxydoras spp. (Doradidae)
River carp, deccan, high backed, jungha, putitor, Thai mahseer Tor spp. (Cyprinidae)
Shiners Notropis spp. (Cyprinidae)
Silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (Cyprinidae)
Snooks Centropomus spp. (Centropomidae)
Southern redbelly dace Phoxinus erythrogaster (Cyprinidae)
Stinging catfish Heteropneustes fossilis (Heteropneustidae)
Ubangi shovelnose catfish Bagrus ubangensis (Bagridae)
Valencia toothcarp Valencia hispanica (Valenciidae)
Yellowfin goby Acanthogobius flavimanus (Gobiidae)

 

[doktor doris]

Crikey,
Have the powers that be just been through a fish book and randomly picked names they like the look of?

What did a yellowfin goby ever do to anyone?

Just what the world needs, more petifogging laws.

 

[LauraFrog]

Apparently this is a list of 'invasive' species that will pose a significant threat to habitat if they escape.

Personally I'm inclined to agree with you as the only people likely to keep such rare, expensive and delicate fish know exactly what they are doing and have a zero likelihood of releasing such fish into waterways. The real threats are things like platys, mollies, guppies, goldfish and some mouthbrooding cichlids - and those are already well established. (Besides, they can hardly ban half the local fish shop, it would cause widespread outrage.)

You realise they've banned koi?

Still, IMO there's nothing on that list worth a $200k fine so I thought I'd post it anyway.
Morons huh?

 

[BigC]

Apparently this is a list of 'invasive' species that will pose a significant threat to habitat if they escape.

Exactly,
Looked what happened with the Cane Toad
even though that was primarily introduced to combat another pest.
Fair play to Qld. for trying to protect their endemic Flora and Fauna. but if only aquarists would express a certain amount of pride in what they already posses on their doorstep and realise the harm they could be doing to such if their exotic charges were either to escape or worse still set loose into the native environment.
Unfortunately the reality of the thing is that there will always be some aquarists who want the unusual, either for personal one-upmanship or financial gain (breeding) once this whim or novelty wears off then an alternative home needs to be found and more often than not they are flushed down the toilet or released into the rivers and lakes.
So the ban is trying, in some way, to make folks aware of such measures are in place make it harder to posess such species on the list and inturn looking to protect the type locality.
I have to say I fully agree with the ruling and if you wish to see such species either look up the internet or visit a public aquarium.
ATB
C

 

[LauraFrog]

Personally I think they'd be far better off spending their anti-invasive-fish funds on educating Average Joe who buys a fish tank, does not cycle it, gets sick of killing guppies and dumps his remaining stock in the creek. Than pouring money into trying to police this sort of policy. It's basically meaningless because they WON'T police it, anybody who seriously wants to hide these fish will be able to do it.

These species are not readily available anyway. Far more people need to find 'alternative accomodations' for oscars than for rare fish they've shelled out ridiculous amounts of money for. Because these fish are so rare and hard to find in Australia (you're talking thousands of dollars for a single specimen of the more damaging of those species like the gars because of the difficulty of getting such a fish through quarantine) anybody who did not want it anymore would sell it. They would certainly recoup whatever they paid and possibly make a profit. The fish people are going to flush, dump, etc. are stuff like oscars. Educate, educate, educate IMO.

I don't have a problem with the ruling per se. but I think they've banned some species that didn't need to be banned. And I do think the funds could be better used elsewhere. (Like removing the tilapia, platys, mollies, guppies, gambusia and translocated fish that are already established.) The crayfish that got banned badly needed banning. Some of those cyprinids are also trouble, but banning collectors specimens seems a bit dumb.

As far as I know, there is not a public aquarium (decent public aquarium) in Queensland. It sucks. but even if they built one it would be in Brisbane. Don't even get me started about how all the money and all the infrastructure goes to the southeast corner. I was up on a video conference screen for a science talk a few months ago, they treated us like a bunch of brainless redneck hicks. I think they were astounded that we knew how to use the Internet, and managed to set up the video conference link.

 

[BigC]

Excellent reply which sums up your views to a Tee.
As you say policing the problem would be a biggie

a bunch of brainless redneck hicks

ATB
C

 

[meguro]

Why is tiger shovelnose catfish banned but not red tailed catfish? Or am I missing something?

 

[doktor doris]

I agree with the concept BigC, but they seem to have drawn the rules up in an arbitary manner.

For instance, off the top of my head, the fish that I can think off that has done loads of enviromental damage is the awfull flowerhorn.
I can't see them on the list.

 

[LauraFrog]

I think they might already be banned in a few other states... I've never seen one, or heard of it being imported, in Australia.
Redtailed catfish should definitely banned, and IMO so should foreign arowanas (amazonians) if they're going to ban everything damaging. I mean, some of our native arowanas (saratogas) are getting a bit low on numbers.

 

[BigC]

the awfull flowerhorn.

What an abomination.

ATB
BigC

 

[meguro]

I've seen some flowerhorns for sale in nsw. So I doubt they're banned yet.

 

[LauraFrog]

Ugh... they probably CAN'T ban it anyway, because it is a hybrid, and since some of the parent species are rumoured to be oscars, jaguar cichlids etc. there would be outcry if they banned those. I agree though... I dislike hybrid fish generally and flowerhorns in particular.