Importing Fish.

[flukes]

Well we have all dreamed about importing fish, well i have been doing some research and the Australian government has not made it an easy task. For each time you import it will cost you, Application Fee = $80 Assessment Fee = $180 = Total of $260 (Each import). Information can be found here - http://www.affa.gov.au/content/output.cfm?ObjectID=D2C48F86-BA1A-11A1-A2200060A1B01879#charge
Ok then you need too have a quarantine room the the AQIS must aprove that it is up to the standards. Once the fish arrive they will be checked at the airport and then the fish must be put into quarantine for 14days during this time the AQIS will come too inspect the fish. Then if all this passes the fish can be released from qurantine. Also the exporters must have been inspected by the AQIS and meet the standards of exporting including records of stock numbers and deaths that have occured etc.
For more information read this - http://www.aqis.gov.au/icon32/asp/ex_casecontent.asp?intNodeId=343615&intCommodityId=11905&Types=none&WhichQuery=Go+to+full+text&intSearch=1&LogSessionID=92137
This is the page for importing discus there is different procedures for different species.
I still havent got prices on what it costs to have a qualified quarantine room and for AQIA too inspect it at your location. I ll see what i can dig up. Just thought someone might find this intresting.

[sunshinediscus]

This is what i am charged each time.

electronic lodgement $3
examination at airport $80 per 1/2 hour. ( usually enough time)
examination at end of Q period $80 per 1/2 hour (enough time)
live animal documents $14
Release from Qantas holding area $55
clearence agents fees $100


+ 10% gst on the purchace price including shipping and handling charges.

I don't own a Q room so i lease space.....more $$$$$$'s

[Bigus]

Are there any quarantine rooms in Melbourne where space can be rented?

[flukes]

So thats $412 each order!! geesuuuuss!! Is that the same for 1-1000 fish?? I could imagine that examination times would be longer but other than that is there any other costs.?? You would really need to be ordering 500+ fish too make it worth you wild.
Plus what your paying to rent a QT room which i dont think they would let you lease cheap. I might put it too a guy who has one here, and see what he says.
Just wondering how much it costs you too lease the QT room??

[sunshinediscus]

Yes it costs the same for any amount of fish except as you said for the time factor from AQIS inspector.

I normally bring up to 200 fish at 1 time to make it feasible but then i only buy high end stuff so the cost is small compared to the price of the fish. If you were dealing in the cheap grade discus then yes 500 discus would be a minimum otherwise the costs would be a killer per fish.

Q space costs vary between q rooms, different rooms have different size tanks. I end up paying around $5 per fish just to house then for the 2 weeks. Once again that is prohibitive charge unless they are high end fish.

[flukes]

Dont know if it would really be worth it then, well i was looking at a discus farm in malaysia and there red melons were US$12 for 6-7cm so say about $20 Australian, here i think you could get probably $70 for top quality melons. Say you order 200 of these. Thats $4000 for the fish, plus $412 for the AQIS etc. and then $1000 for renting the QT room. So $5412 all up not including feeding and meds, so with packing and that crap we will say $5500 total. Then you have 200pieces at $70 = $14,000 means a $8500 profit. Thats not too bad. But $5500 is alot of money to fork out in the first place and thats not including DOA's or fish that the AQIS could cull or keep.

[sunshinediscus]

$12 u.s for 'A' grade melons is a very good price especially at the size you quoted. I'd want to see them first at that price, my suspicion is they would not be A grade. If you are really serious about importing then take a discus holiday over to malaysia especially Penang. There you will see that not every breeder is the same and one guys A grade is another guys junk. Also malaysians tend to juice discus up with all sorts of hormones and colorents some which may not be so good for the discus long term, not everyone off course, but many do. The shape of malasian discus also tend to be slightly elongated in my experience compared to say Singapore and chinese discus, once again not every case but in general yes. As for variety, its hard to beat malaysian discus.

[cichlidfan]

Sunshine Discus,
I think you should re-iterate in your post the sentence " Also Malaysians tend to juice discus up with all sorts of hormones and colorents some which may not be so good for the discus long term, not everyone of course but many do" as a few Singapore and Chinese breeders do the same practice as well, also there are a lot of good breeders in Malaysia that do produce nice round fish.

[sunshinediscus]

Yes your right cichlid fan, some singaporean and chinese juice the discus as well. I did not mean to mislead you, when i mentioned those countries i was only referring to shape.

[flukes]

Ok using melons as examples whats the average cost for good quality?
Also what are some good farms? Ive only heard of a few, including absolute, wong's and another one someone meantioned recently was discus conxxection.

[sunshinediscus]

Ryan wong from absolute calls his version of red melon mandarine passion. They are very nice discus , from memory he sells them for $30 to $35 u.s. I've bought from him before, some very nice fish and some not so nice fish although i loved his mandarine passions. He uses hormones and artificial color enhancers on some strains although not on the passions.

Roy from discus connexion breeds supurb red melons, best quality i have seen in singapore, actually anywhere, especially with regards to shape and health. His discus are also much more expensive than $12 you have been quoted. Roy never uses hormones.

[flukes]

Naa i didnt say Roy's were $12 i cant remember the site i got $12 from, i was just meantioning the farms i knew people ordering from.