Blacklisted Fish Available

I was at a large pet shop in Pretoria over the weekend, and noticed they've got plenty off blacklisted fish available - in particular African Jewels.

I think the real problem is with the pet shop suppliers who breed/import blacklisted fish - I can understand that a pet shop owner is not fully aware of what he's not allowed to sell, and relies on his suppliers to make legal species available.

Is their something we can do to stop/inform pet shops from selling blacklisted fish? I've been keeping fish for years, and the first I heard of a "blacklist" was on a forum in the beginning of the year.

Who can a person contact?

 

well you can print hte list and take it to them and also contact DEAT and Dep Agri Animal Health....

 

Nope... They've got a bunch of school kids working there that probably won't even bother. Probably throw the list away before it can get to management.

Maybe contacting DEAT might be the best option. You have a contact?

 

Well the schoolkids wont care. Ask for the manager at least and ask him if he is aware they are buying/holding/selling blacklisted fish. Take if from there.

 

I'll do that - I guess it's about all one can do.

 

phone you local state vet and speak to them....

 

Its not on the new black lists Gazetted on the 19th of April.... not sure if its been signed into law yet....

 

Does this mean that one can keep/breed/sell African Jewels?

 

IMHO what a load of crock!

 

Butcherman, it's not to say that because many people have blacklisted fish they're not blacklisted anymore and now everyone can keep them and petshops can sell them (that would be similar in saying many people are cleptomaniacs, so theft is fine now)

I'm not on a mission of "report the keepers of illegal fish" (btw I keep Afrian Jewels - they're beautiful), please don't get me wrong here - I'd be the first to try and get some of those beauties of that list - believe me!

What I'm saying is that our Country has laws. One of the laws are that blacklisted fish aren't to be kept/bred/traded. The unsuspecting hobbyist goes to the petshop (probably been going there for years), spends money on blacklisted fish just to find out they're not to be kept. The onus should be on the suppliers/petshops to be aware of the blacklist and not trade listed species - it's as simple as not ordering them from suppliers.

I agree... But unfortunately somehow these fish have gotten into our native waters and pose an ecological threat to native species.

Look at what happened in USA with the Snakehead - one Taiwanese (I think) guy imported some into the US to make a healing soup for a relative, but she got better before he could start. He decided he'll perform a traditional ritual and released the fish into a US river - it wreaked havoc.

 

I agree... Look at the attachment, I took the pic in a Pretoria pet shop.

 

Seems to be a pretty good notice to have to me... On the one hand it is good advice, on the other it seems like a bit of a disclaimer...

 

It's nice of them...

 

The authorities need to have a good close look at what is on that list and make a revision of it based on research done in South Africa or at least somewhere of similar climate and River/Lake structure. As far as i'm aware the list was made up according to research done in tropical regions, we have a very diferent climate. Most of the creatures found in the hoby come form the tropics and could easily survive in most tropical regions of the world, however in South Africa we lie in the sub tropics where the climate is quite diferent.
More information from the LFS would make people more aware of why we cant have certain species of plants, fishes and inverts. I always spend time looking at the posters in the stores so maybe this is where they should be aiming. I am thinking something like the Poster the fisheries has on which fish should not be sold in resturants and which ones are sustainable ie OK to eat etc.

 

I agree with you sailing_derrick. For example, on the blacklist there are a few other creatures (shrimps for example). I am not a scientist, but I can't see invader shrimps depleting our local "Barber" and "Kurper" species... The shrimps would make a nice snack, lol... Same for some of the minnows and smaller cichlids on the list. I can agree with the more aggressive and larger (Sturgeons, catfish, etc) being on the blacklist. Not only because they can be harmful to the environment, but also because nobody in their right mind should take on the daunting task of trying to provide suitable living conditions for fish that grow so large - leave that to the public aquariums.

A poster campaign is an excellent idea.