I need some ideas on some unique fish
- Thread starter Joke
- Start date
ThRoewer
New member
What is the rationale behind the ban on importing captive bred fish?
As for Grammas, to my knowledge none of the commercial breeders is raising them. Their clutch sizes are too small to make it worth their time. From what I know their females lay a few eggs each day rather than producing one sizable nest once or twice a month. So you only get a few larva at a time.
On top of that wild caught are dirt cheap in North America and Europe, so the incentive for commercial breeders is low to begin with.
So you can be pretty sure that all you see at stores are wild caught.
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Joke
New member
About $180 for a Scribbled, not to sure on the Conspic, even though they are found here i still think the price is high.
Theres no logic behind our fisheries department.:facepalm:
A ship can discharge ballast water containing pests from half way around the world, but if we import CB clowns our aquaculture industry could be threatened?! It's to do with business interests and overpaid bureaucrats. The Allowable Imports list contains WC species that we can legally import, the exclusions don't make sense. Innocuous fish, such as yasha gobies are illegal to import. If a retailer or importer wants to have a fish added, he has to pay for commercial studies to be done which may or may not result in approval. Since this costs thousands to do, no one does it.
Interesting, I didn't know this was the case. On the west coast a commercial breeder has just released CB bred to market. They retailed at $160 AUD ....
Exported endemics have gone up significantly in price except for those that are readily available, eg lineatus fairies. Couple that with the costs involved in mandatory quarantine, fisheries inspections that compound business costs etc the cost of fish locally is quite high. Otoh some endemics are comparatively cheap.
HTH
:wave:
ThRoewer
New member
Well, it also has a positive side. You get spared the hideously deformed ORA clownfish and designer clowns or hybrids.
BTW: are still wild black and white Darwin clowns available in Australia? They are most likely a species in their own right, but in the US and Europe they have been mixed up with ocellaris and by now you can't be sure that what you get as a "black ocellaris" is really a pure blood Darwin clown.
LiveAquaria sells Grammas for $16.99 to $22.99.
If you buy them directly from one of the Florida divers you may get them for as little as $8.25.
Here, if anybody, only hobbyists breed them.
Down under a Gramma may be a rare fish, here they are pretty much a dime a dozen fish...
In some way I wish they would have mandatory quarantine here as well...
ThRoewer
New member
Assessor randalli shouldn't be much different in coloration from A. macneilli which is native to Australia. If it was me I would go with A. flavissimus, also native to Australian waters:
A Review of the Plesiopid Fish Genus Assessor, with Descriptions of Two New Species
There are other Plesiopid fish which may be interesting. Even Calloplesiops altivelis, while not rare, has fallen a bit out of favor with the masses. It is a quite unusual fish in it's appearance and behavior and (at least for me) easy to sex and pair. The only reason why I have my gang confined to the 42 gallon tank is that they like to eat shrimp, and I have way too many of those in my 200 gallon system.
They should also be native to Australian waters.
A Review of the Plesiopid Fish Genus Assessor, with Descriptions of Two New Species
There are other Plesiopid fish which may be interesting. Even Calloplesiops altivelis, while not rare, has fallen a bit out of favor with the masses. It is a quite unusual fish in it's appearance and behavior and (at least for me) easy to sex and pair. The only reason why I have my gang confined to the 42 gallon tank is that they like to eat shrimp, and I have way too many of those in my 200 gallon system.
They should also be native to Australian waters.
Ambition
New member
Actually the Batavia Coast Maritime Institute in Australia has recently been able to breed grammas on a commercial scale. Much more incentive in Australia for breeding these because of their higher price compared to here in the US.
ThRoewer
New member
Yes, a sales price of $70 plus limited availability makes it a good candidate for breeding in Australia, like it is here with many fish from the Red Sea or other regions where it's hard to get fish from.
But around here you don't even get the rarer and higher priced deepwater Gramma species like G. melacara and G. linki or very high priced rarities like G. dejongi as captive breds even though they shouldn't be much harder to raise as the common G. loreto
Shanet
New member
Well, it also has a positive side. You get spared the hideously deformed ORA clownfish and designer clowns or hybrids.
BTW: are still wild black and white Darwin clowns available in Australia? They are most likely a species in their own right, but in the US and Europe they have been mixed up with ocellaris and by now you can't be sure that what you get as a "black ocellaris" is really a pure blood Darwin clown.
Yes they are but a lot of the mixed are passed off as Darwin blacks. I lived in Darwin for 25 years and would go down at low tide and watch them cruising around waiting for their anemone to go under water again.
