Importing Festae

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MisterCichlid said:
Quite honestly I'm seeing quite a few people of wild Ecuadorian festae for sale when it's completely BS because of the exportation laws. So I was thinking maybe some people do this. Or in fact just not have any wild genetics or getting imports from Peru and calling them Ecuadorian.
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Okay, so that is the point you were making. Now I understand. To go along with your example look at the fish list from http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/index.php/fish
They have tons of fish from Peru as being "wild caught" and then the Andinoacara rivulatus "Green Terror" WILD Ecuador.
 
Touché. I was reading an article a little while back about an endangered African cichlid I believe a yellow morii? Not 100% as I only keep SA/CA & it was talking about how somebody knew an importer who was hiring exporters to collect some of the wild fish. Which is worse than poaching IMO. It's one thing to do it as a scientist to preserve the/a species but just to obtain a rarity of an endangered species is just wrong. Hopefully Ecuador gets their environmental issues back on track. For the sake of all the fish & wildlife native to their habitats.
 
Yes I've seen that from wet spot. Also, not too long ago cichlids of the Americas had "WC Ecuadorian festae for sale" I just checked now and they have F1's available. I guess some people are unaware of some laws and they see a fish they like with wild caught next to it and hop on it.
 
Here is an older post that talks about the Festae issue a bit: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-469958.html

I myself have been to Ecuador quite a number of times in the past few years since my wife's sister lives there. They live in the mountains and I have never been to any of the Amazon areas. It is interesting that with all the cool fish they have you would expect to see all kinds of cool things at a 'pet store'. Well lets put it this way, the fish department at a Walmart probably has more interesting fish. You basically see goldfish and simple live bearers and some tetra or danios. Pretty lame.

My dentist down there has a fish tank and look and see what he has:
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That is about as exciting as the hobby gets down there.

We did stop in a Walmart like store in Cuenca and they did have cool tanks (did not sell fish)
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There used to be a tropical fish farm and it was mentioned in that post, but a few years back when I visited Ecuador I tried to see if it was open to tour but got no response back via email and phone calls did not go through. Likely a dead site that was still up at the time. The site no longer exists.

So I was not trying to be a jerk questioning, was just wondering where the topic was heading. Since I have been there a number of times, if there were a way to bring something back legally I sure would have.

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In the past I've seen a lot of Brazilian fish that were supposedly banned for export being sold by reputable dealers, which they claimed they had "sources" for, so I'm assuming someone is fishing them in Brazil and then crossing a border and exporting them from elsewhere. Either that, or their Brazilian exporters are risking everything and shipping the fish anyway, which I highly doubt. I have no doubt that a lot of these fisherman and exporters follow the money. If they have the demand for something, they will probably find a way to supply it.
 
Wow that's amazing. Btw I started this thread, my gf created an account because she thought I never reset my password lol so we're just going to use this account. But that is amazing, and very ironic lol they have exotic freshwater fish in their backyards and have goldfish lol. It is mine & my girlfriends dream to travel to South America to collect fish it's a dream on our bucket list lol. Im 25 so I should have enough time to get that accomplished. Great pics. And no harm no foul. I'm Anthony by the way.
 
No issues. I have a friend down there who wants to take me fishing.... for trout. lol, last thing you would expect in South America! Besides I can fish for trout in my own area.
 
I do not know a lot about Festae coming out of Ecuador but I can speak to what ryansmith was saying about Brazilian banned fish. Lots of stuff that we want from Brazil is banned for export so they smuggle it into Columbia and then ship it from Columbia sources. L46 Zebra pleco is a great example of this.
 
It seems to me that it is pretty easy to claim Festae being WC or F1 because 99% of the general public/enforcers/hobbyists wouldn't be able to distinguish or trace the Cichlid back to its source.

There is certainly a profitable smuggling business that deals with illegally imported fish. The way they do this is probably more simplistic than most would think. It is difficult to regulate fish importation as most fish are smuggled in containers (unlike exotic animals such as tigers who will make lot of noise and will generally need a lot more breathing room). Also, fish are pretty easy to smuggle in comparison because its harder to identify protected species vs non protective. That's my take on it anyway. Very hard to say specifically which countries they would use to smuggle which are most likely more than just one or two countries from each continent.
 
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