Topic: Convict Breeding.

[vitara]

Jesus $100 for a pleco!!!! A normal sailfin pleco here costs the equivalent of US 50cents and its about 3/4 inches already.  

[vitara]

For $100 you can get at least 3 turquoise discus about 5 inches diameter.  

[MGHGrand]

I saw a 10-12 inch Gold Pleco like the one Lyndsy posted for around a 100 bucks the other day. Dang now I feel like I'm teasin Tony, Sorry Mate, We need to smuggle you in a couple of Plecos.

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[Chris]

Did you make that fish Marty?  Pretty cool looking .  I need to deport my pleco to you Tony.  He's about 12" long.  Bet he'd be worth alot over there .

[Tony]

Here in Australia, in order to receive shipments from overseas, the exporting facility MUST be an Australian Government approved quarantine facility (and hold the appropriate export to Australia permit) and the receiving facility MUST also be an Australian Government approved quarantine facility (and hold a Quarantine permit AND and import permit).  On top of that, ALL fish imported must go through 14 day quarantine in this country and have to have also been in quarantine in the approved exporting facility for 14 days also.

To add frustration to all this, to become an approved Quarantine facility, everything HAS to be sterile, all imported water/packaging must be sterilised/destroyed - through approved/detailed methods.  The space between tanks in the facility have to be a minimum 75 cms wide,
and each tank must be permanently numbered and individual records MUST be kept on what/and from where/and when stock have been in a individual
tank.  Also, only one species is allowed per tank.  Also imported stock must be large enough to be positively identified and if not identifiable by a Australian Quarantine inspector then that stock will be destroyed.

Unless some scientific reason/research permits have been granted, no fish can be imported from a non approved foreign facility.

Oh and any species thats going to be imported MUST appear on the approved import list.  If it doesn't appear as an approved import, good luck to the person who wants to challange Environment Australia's ruling...

Even if we ship stock to/from Tasmania (a State of Australia) it is considered to be exported/imported even though its still within Australia.

Even Brine Shrimp Cysts have to go through a VERY rigorous process before being approved for import, the foreign facility must treat the cysts with bleach rinses and various other processes before even getting Government approval to export them to australia.

So basicly all this costs a lot of money which makes allowable imported fish very expensive to the end customer

[rus]

man that's government for you.  sometimes they do good for you sometimes not.
hell i would fedex you 10 or so for free if it would get past customs.

[KillDoG]

 lol... Back to the convicts..... Welp... My convict layed eggs and now they are wigglers !!!!! Thursday they should be swimming.... I got around 150 Wigglers.

IM A HAPPY FATHER!      

[siciliano]

Yeah I put my wife beater in the big convict tank with my 5" male and a 2" male and his ex-wife! Now he gets beat up, ha ha, its kinda wild though she still fancies him over the others, that pisses them off even more! The babies are in a tan k of their own growin up to become Piranha food!

[KillDoG]

evil

[siciliano]

Not evil, cost efficient! The piranha eat 10 Goldies a week at .59 a piece thats $5.90 a week, thats more than all of my other fish eat in a month!

[Tony]

Convicts breeding the way they do(like rabbits) and with a lot of pet stores unable to take them due to swimming in convicts themselves it is a good idea and much healthier than store bought gold fish. Dont get me wrong, I like convicts but if you cant house them in millions of tanks as adults you gotta consider culling them off at aa babies or using them as feeders for fish that thrive on live food.(not oscars) I got a batch of 50 or so of which will be given to my dovii (wolf Cichlid) over a period of time. I did the same thing when I was swarming in hundreds of red devils babies(red devils have more of a chance of getting homes but stores will only take so many at a time and the cost of feeding them,providing larger tanks as they grow,ringing around,petrol for the car all adds up and general leg work and then you are still left with heaps.

[Ryman]

I agree, the novelty wears off very quickly, and culling them off (by useing them as feeders for example) is the only solution.

[ConvictKid]

Eh, exactly, I first bought convicts so I could feel cool by breeding fish....now all I want is for the damn things to stop having babies.