Minnesota is protective of invasive species in the "10'000" lakes... can be challenging to purchase even normal aquarium fish, that can thrive in cool

[Magnum Man]

water...

a while back, I was looking for some of the brightly colored cray fish, only to find out almost all of them are banned for import to Minnesota, even though a lot of them would not survive the winter, coming from tropical areas... but the law makers don't want to know the differences, only, to make it simple, ban them all... so, earlier today, I was thinking about the weather loach, I had as a kid... I thought a couple might be kind of cool in my barb tank, as I never see them around any more... turns out, those are now banned as well... if people would quit dumping their unwanted fish, into the area waterways, there would be no need for these kinds of laws... I'm not saying that we don't need those laws, for some fish, but the people passing the laws, are going to group them all together, by family, as they aren't enthusiasts, and don't care to know which ones would die, & which ones could become invasive... if this keeps up, they'll make the importation of all fish illegal. in the name of simplifying

 

[Back in the fold]

The day is coming . Don’t you kid yourself . They’ll ban everything but raises for themselves .

 

[Archerfish]

In 2007 I was visiting up north and met a Nebraska wildlife agent who told me about a Piranha found in the discharge waters of a Missouri River power plant. They looked further and found an entire school of them. Whoever dumped them was a real horses @@@. People like that are ruining our hobby.

 

[Magnum Man]

we had a local guy that caught a Piranha on a fish line in our local lake, about 2 years ago... with as long and hard as our winters are, it's unlikely one would survive the winter... and in reality a Piranha in our lakes wouldn't likely out compete a Northern pike, or one of our other toothy varieties, but it doesn't belong there in the 1st place...

 

[GaryE]

We get righteous. but how much tax money do you want to use to intensively train a large number of inspectors in the nuances of species differences? It would demand regular visits of all pet stores by highly trained specialists.
Or, you can ban the sale of the "close enough" species, like the crayfish. Stop them at the source and end the debates.
Channa are banned here, all Channa. You can't expect border guards to recognize individual species, but they can easily learn to spot the Genus. The guys who yell about the other, harmless species needing to be available are the same guys who don't want their taxes to be spent on schools and hospitals. Training inspectors? Never! Have their cake and eat it too? Sounds good.
I'm into fish, as you know. But my hobby isn't more valuable than the environment I live in. It'll be here long after I'm gone, and it shouldn't be destroyed for what's fundamentally my recreational activities.

Even when invasive fish die in winter, they can do serious damage outcompeting native species in summer.

As for self policing, there's a one word answer. Plecos.