Anyone in Canada have any channa available

[69maritime]

Been doing a lot of searching and emailling. Thought someone here might know what my best chances are. From what I understand, certain provinces in Canada are not allowed any Channa species and other provinces are allowed. From what I've been told my province of Nova Scotia is allowed. The problem is that most large importers in Canada are in provinces that do not allow them and the ones that are allowed don't even attempt bringing them in because a lot of the time as soon as border services sees the word Channa they automatically deny entry into the country regardless of which type it is.

This is what I've learned in a nutshell in the past few days. Can anyone shed light on this for me or know of any legal Canadian breeders? Thanks for reading

 

[Matteus]

Been doing a lot of searching and emailling. Thought someone here might know what my best chances are. From what I understand, certain provinces in Canada are not allowed any Channa species and other provinces are allowed. From what I've been told my province of Nova Scotia is allowed. The problem is that most large importers in Canada are in provinces that do not allow them and the ones that are allowed don't even attempt bringing them in because a lot of the time as soon as border services sees the word Channa they automatically deny entry into the country regardless of which type it is.

This is what I've learned in a nutshell in the past few days. Can anyone shed light on this for me or know of any legal Canadian breeders? Thanks for reading

Try Spencer jack at afishianados if he isn’t able to he may know someone. Just a stab in the dark…

 

[tetroid]

Spencer Jack is in Manitoba, unfortunately, which bans all channa species. Check Schedule A of their Aquatic Invasive Species regulations. Channa are literally at the top of their naughty list. Channa are definitely banned in BC, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec (I've got references for all - this was a pet project a while back) so no joy there. All the major dealers in aquarium fish are in those provinces, as far as I know.

I think you're right that Nova Scotia doesn't ban any species of fish in particular, at least as long as you keep it in an aquarium. See part 3(e) Fishing in this lawyer's guide to Nova Scotia's wildlife regulations (it may be out of date of course, but the official provincial site isn't very user friendly). I couldn't make sense of the regulations in New Brunswick or PEI, and we won't even talk about Newfoundland.

Long story short: you quite possibly live in the only place in Canada that allows people to keep channa species. So if you want to get one, you'll have to find a breeder or a dealer there. Maybe you can persuade DIY Joey to start importing stuff. On the plus side, you can certainly lord it over the rest of us if you do find some. Good luck with this.

 

[69maritime]

Thanks guys for the input. I am on the afishianados mailing list. I will touch base with him to see what he has to say. I'll keep looking and asking around. It's crappy that so may of these fish aren't available to anyone just because of that one Northern Species. But to put myself in border security shoes, I can't imagine the difficulty of verifying the species of Channa in the bag is actually what the paperwork says it is, especially if they're juvenile fish. They're after all security for the country, not biologists dealing with only fish. Would be cool to be the only person around to have these fish, but I'd be scared to show anyone what I have for fear of new regulations coming this way.

 

[Ruolong]

Thanks guys for the input. I am on the afishianados mailing list. I will touch base with him to see what he has to say. I'll keep looking and asking around. It's crappy that so may of these fish aren't available to anyone just because of that one Northern Species. But to put myself in border security shoes, I can't imagine the difficulty of verifying the species of Channa in the bag is actually what the paperwork says it is, especially if they're juvenile fish. They're after all security for the country, not biologists dealing with only fish. Would be cool to be the only person around to have these fish, but I'd be scared to show anyone what I have for fear of new regulations coming this way.

Have you found a supplier?