Collecting?

[ragin_cajun]

Speaking to a breeder, he tells me thet there is little/no commercial export of CA Cichlids from Mexico anymore, and precious little from the rest of Central America still going on.

What are the laws down there on collecting? Can you bring back whatever you collect yourself? Do you have to "quarantine" fish--there or here in America? Is it just commercial export of tropical fish that's illegal, or have they outlawed personal collecting now, too?

Is it safe? Or is an American collecting tropical fish in Southern Mexico a giant dollar sign waiting to be kidnapped?

How many members here have collected in Central America?

 

[Woefulrelic]

I think safety and regulations vary based on country. Going with someone who does it on the reg seems to be like the safest bet. D dogofwar has been collecting I believe.

 

[cichlidfish]

It does seem like the availability of Mexican cichlids is down or even CA. Only the most common species are available. Even Jeff Rapps selection seems to have shrunk. However the SA selection is amazing.

 

[mrrobxc]

Expect Mexico to start looking like Columbia. The cartels make it dangerous to travel around. You're gambling going into the interior of the country away from the resorts and the relative safety that the resort areas bring. Good luck.

 

[ragin_cajun]

It does seem like the availability of Mexican cichlids is down or even CA. Only the most common species are available. Even Jeff Rapps selection seems to have shrunk. However the SA selection is amazing.

Yep. That's exactly how this question got started in my mind. I emailed Rapps asking for some WC Argentea, I'd like to start a breeding project. So, he started telling me what importing fish is like in Central American and Southern Mexico -- pretty much none these days.

He said there'd been little or no confirmed import of Argentea from the wild in years. I was amazed. All these Vieja in the hobby, they're bred in the US on farms mostly, I guess.

I thought getting wild CA Cichlids was just like getting wild SA Cichlids and Pleco's. You just order some because they come in all the time. Not so.

 

[cichlidfish]

Yep. That's exactly how this question got started in my mind. I emailed Rapps asking for some WC Argentea, I'd like to start a breeding project. So, he started telling me what importing fish is like in Central American and Southern Mexico -- pretty much none these days.

He said there'd been little or no confirmed import of Argentea from the wild in years. I was amazed. All these Vieja in the hobby, they're bred in the US on farms mostly, I guess.

I thought getting wild CA Cichlids was just like getting wild SA Cichlids and Pleco's. You just order some because they come in all the time. Not so.

I suspected this, and explains why so many CA cichlids aren't available. Hopefully this won't be a perminate thing.

 

[duanes]

Where I live in Panama, all wildlife is essentially protected, and it is illegal to take any fish, frog, whatever, out of the country.
Along with the difficulty of the cost and logistics in collecting, the idea that anything can be confiscated unless an expensive scientific permit has been acquired before leaving and a stiff fine, or worse would discourage me.
Mexico might be less complicated, but even when I was there, the difficulty getting something back alive seemed daunting.
Buying from someone reputable is the most reseasonle option to me. The couple hundred dollars for shipping, and cost of a fish from Florida pales in comparison to the few thousand spent collecting.
Back in the 80s I visited Don Conkels fish farm and brought back many pure Mexican species for very reasonable cost.
These days if I was going to collect, I'd join one of the trips to Uruguay that Felipe Cantreras at Aqva-terra Eco tours leads, where all permits, transport, rooms etc are included in the package.

 

[dogofwar]

To collect and bring back fish (legally), one needs a permit from the country of origin and a USFW Import / Export Permit. The USFW side is easy: $100 per year and it's done.

The other countries are the hard part.

For Uruguay, Felipe Cantera coordinates the permits / inspection from the local government and you bring back fish in your checked luggage. It's a safe country and you can legally collect a bunch of fish.

There are a couple of folks who guide tours of Peru. Devon Graham leads tours out of Iquitos and Mike Barber leads tours out of Madre de Dios. You collect and wholesalers ship fish back to you later (and there are plenty of exports out of Peru, of course).

The rest is a bit of a crap shoot. Rapps and other export pretty legally and regularly from Peru, Brazil and Colombia. There are infrequent exports from Suriname, Nicaragua and Panama, among other places.

The rest is pretty much small scale, hobbyist-scale (i.e. less than 8 fish) exports, not declared or smuggled.

I haven't heard of a legal export permit from Mexico in over a decade.

Matt

 

[ragin_cajun]

I don't see any trips to Central America in my future. I don't speak the language, never been down there, don't know anybody from there, and don't have any business connection to the region. At LEAST one of those things would be required to even get started.

About the only thing in my favor would be I'm very accustomed to hot, humid weather. That ain't much.

 

[cichlidfish]

I don't see any trips to Central America in my future. I don't speak the language, never been down there, don't know anybody from there, and don't have any business connection to the region. At LEAST one of those things would be required to even get started.

About the only thing in my favor would be I'm very accustomed to hot, humid weather. That ain't much.

Costa Rica is probably the safest place to collect if you do, well except for the crocodiles lol. More people seem to speak English than anywhere else in CA. That's mostly because kids are taught it in school and Americans immigrating there. I almost didn't come back after vacationing there.
It sucks for people like me who have more interest in NA/CA cichlids.