Reef Ramblings

The Indian government has effectively banned the reef aquarium hobby with the publication of a 72-page document entitled, Aquarium Fish Breeding and Marketing Rules.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has drafted new rules pertaining to the breeding, selling and display of fish in aquariums in India. These rules appear to apply to all in the hobby and industry, retailers, aquarium keepers and anyone who keeps fish for public display (presumably meaning public aquariums). None of this applies to fish caught and sold for food.

The ministry stated ‘Breeding and selling of aquarium fish has become big business. In this process coral reefs have been damaged and many fish brought to near extinction. There is a tendency to regard fish as non-beings therefore they are sold as commodities, kept in unsuitable ways and in unsuitable places,’

Under the proposed rules, inspectors can visit anyone with an aquarium for regular checks with the aim of the rules being to ensure that people keeping or selling fish must have knowledge and a good understanding of the species-specific requirements of the animals.

I have no problem with the introduction of regulations aimed at improving the quality of life of the organisms kept in the industry and the hobby, hence my commitment to the Sustainable Aquatic Industry Association (SAIA), but the proposed Indian rules will effectively ban the reef aquarium hobby.

Item 9 states: No establishment may keep or sell corals. That, along with the list of prohibited species makes the outlook for reefkeeping in India very grim.

The regulations that have been suggested appear to be very mixed, some make perfect sense, some make no sense at all, while others may be difficult to comply with in India owing to the costs or technology involved. The prohibited species list is also mixed, many of the fishes listed I would also consider restricting in the EU to all but advanced aquarists, yet other species listed seem to be unnecessarily prohibited.

I would be interested to know the provenance of this list, are there local collection issues being addressed, are species included because they are venomous?

I find it particularly sad that that this is happening in India, a country where the hobby of reef keeping and marine aquariums is in its infancy.

This issues brought up by this document are exactly those that SAIA is trying to address in the EU. With SAIA we are endeavouring to produce a list of Best Practices put together by aquarists with hands on knowledge of the organisms, rather than see the hobby at the mercy of legislators and academics with no practical knowledge of aquatics.

I believe that it is in the best interests of marine aquarists throughout Europe to join in and support SAIA to prevent legislation of this sort being imposed on us by those outside of the industry and the hobby.

Click to see the full extent of the proposed Aquarium Fish Breeding and Marketing Rules.

Appendix A.

It is prohibited to keep or sell the following species:

(Note spelling is as per the draft document)

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

Apologies for the lack of articles over the last few weeks. Recently nearly all our time has been taken up with preparation for exhibiting at the Interzoo pet trade show in Germany.

Interzoo is held every 2 years and is probably the largest pet and aquatics trade show in the world. This was Midland Reefs’ first time exhibiting at an international trade show, a lot of hard work but very rewarding.

We went to the show to introduce the Reef Scientific range to the international market at the same time as launching two new product ranges, MarinePure - filtration media, and Reef Scientific Calanoid Copepods - frozen food of the highest nutritional quality. Read more about these two new ranges in future posts.

A small part of the Reef Scientific range along with MarinePure.

Here’s a shot of the booth during a quiet period at the show with Jon talking to a couple of customers from Switzerland.

If you live outside of the UK and are interested in any of our products, please get in touch. We hope to now be able to direct you to a Reef Scientific retailer or distributor in your own country.

Now that we’ve returned from Germany after a successful show, normal service is once more resumed, there’s a backlog of articles waiting to be both written and published on Reef Ramblings, so get ready to read!

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

There’s unsettling news this week about a Canadian LFS that seems to have been a victim of sabotage.

The recently opened Indoor Jungle, located at 1285 Kennedy Road, Scarborough, Ontario, is Canada’s largest exotic fish and reptile store.

The storeowners suspect vandalism after hundreds of fish died after bleach or a bleach like substance was poured into the centralised water system. The first indication that something was wrong was when customers alerted store employees to a strong smell of bleach coming from the tanks but by the time they reached the wall of 70 tanks, hundreds of fish were dead or dying.

Fish including small Bamboo Sharks, Queen Angelfish, and Black Lionfish along with hundreds of rare shrimps were among the 700 animals killed, along with corals imported from Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Caribbean.

Co-owner Adam Gharavi said he’s certain it wasn’t an equipment malfunction and believes that a chemical was poured into the centralised system servicing 400 tanks holding more than 5,000 fish. He said the vandal, who attacked on Wednesday afternoon, went for the store’s most expensive fish and 200 pieces of rare coral.

“We know whoever did this had some knowledge of how fish tanks work and what the fish need to survive,” Gharavi said. The cost of the incident is estimated to be tens of thousands of dollars.

Inland Jungle is one of about a dozen fish stores along Kennedy Rd. between Steeles Ave. E. and Eglinton Ave. E. Stores have happily coexisted here for years in the knowledge that the more different stores you have in the area, the more people come, to everyone’s benefit.

A Toronto police detective has been assigned to investigate the scene, and on Thursday morning, yellow police tape was seen to close off the wall lined with tanks filled with dead fish.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010