briztoon Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 (edited) Using the term iridovirus is a little misleading. This is a group of viruses, not one single virus, with variants found in different countries around the world, and different strains infecting fresh water fish, salt water fish, crustacians and amphibians. Fish iridoviruses have already been detected in Australia in commercial aquaculture and in dwarf gouramis in a LFS. However, they are not wide spread and I am not sure if any wild populations of fish have been found to be infected. I do not like the idea of taking our arguement to the media. My fear is that we would be on the losing end of any program. Most programs look to discuss both sides of a story such as this, with, where possible, scientific experts providing thier opinions. My fear is that such a program will highlight the possible devestation such a virus could cause in our waterways to native species. Most Australians will side with protecting our own native fauna and flora at the expense of losing imported pet fish and seeing a small segment of society losing thier livelyhood. I believe any arguement the industry or hobbyiests put forward should clearly state that we are not against protecting our native waterways and life, but we do disagree with the current proposed method of testing. There is a small group of people who believe that the government has a long term agenda to heavily regulate the industry/hobby as a whole. There will only be a very small allowable import list eventually, with all species requiring some form of testing on top of quarentine. Hobbiests will have to be licenced if they wish to sell thier fish to other hobbiests or LFS, and have thier breeding setups registered and open for inspection and subject to testing by AQIS. Edited November 22, 2010 by briztoon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 I agree with above points. Spent many years working in commercial fishing game all over Australia so understand the importance of keeping our wildlife safe. What I can't believe is that the industry as a whole is not funding the research for an argument. It should not be up to one small importer, one shop or one chat room. A lot money is made out of the industry and I would have thought that they would want to protect it. One final point. ....... If research was done and the results came back that this really was the best way and safest way to protect our natural wildlife, I would support it. I just don't see the evidence put forward for there case. But can't argue point as we have no research data. Sorry, will get off soapbox now. Just frustrated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 Pointless making a case based on science. There were something like 12 submissions objecting to the testing. All those which criticised the science or put forward contradicting scientific evidence were rejected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 That is totally crazy. If you can't make a defense based on science, what hope have we got? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 Hence my sense of hopelessness. Creating the video of guppies in a blender purely for shock value was a response to that.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJay Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 Just a question that's been bothering me about this. It may have been answered before, but what will they consider to be a "batch" for testing. Is it a shipment or a batch from a particular breeder - coz the implications are very different. One thousand fish get shipped in a shipment and a small number are lost to testing... Whereas one fish delivered from one breeder is 100% loss of fish! Appendix 5 from the report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 Who is going to import 25 fish to get a pair? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadoh Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 Even if you could afford to import 25 fish to get a pair, what makes you think they are going to take the time to make sure the 2 fish that make it through are 1 male and 1 female? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neffy Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 are 23 fishes lives worth getting that pair too :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadoh Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 There is, of course, that obvious fact too. That many fish should not have to be sacrificed. Just pointing out how difficult it would be to get breeding pairs of any species. Imagine getting a shipment of unrelated species breeding pairs in. The odds of a pair of a single species making it through are almost impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 If a screening program was devised for humans that could prevent death/suffering from cancer that had this statistical breakdown then it would never succeed in obtaining funding. The cost/benefit of this type of screening is ridiculous! Has a cost benefit analysis been published? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 Hmmmmmm............... Think I might have to stick to a few really nice pairs and see if I can keep em going. Going to lose the luxury of choice. Very sad really. Twenty years time, people will still have tanks but they will all have the same fish in each tank!!!!! That will really take a away the best part of fish keeping. Today, everyone has there own style. You keep what YOU like and sometimes you get away with breaking rules. Eg. My father had breeding Frontosia, Red Devils, Parrots ect all in community tank. Not many babies survived but his tank ran smoothly for many many years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadoh Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 This is where species integrity is going to be an issue too. With breeding pairs harder to source, people are going to start cross breeding with what is available locally. After a few years of this, there will be little or no true species left in the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 BUMP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenGirl13 Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 As of this morning only 500 odd signatures on petition. If we don't get more people moving on this very soon it's going to be a case of "welcome to my world". I couldn't breed anything of half decent quality here even if I wanted, too simply because of the overwhelming restrictions put in place by the quarantine service, what would I do with the fish I don't have room for? Can't sell or breed fish without a very expensive licence, can't give them away or gift them, can't import without a very expensive licence and those that do bring fish into the state don't seem overly concerned with anything other than "bread-and-butter" breeds. No wild bettas, no fancy guppies, no endlers, very few (and not particularly good quality) female bettas and the male bettas that do make it into the state are VT and the very occassional (again, not good quality) CT, or at least that's the case in the NW. Other large towns 4/5 hours drive away with bigger LFS may have more and better stock on offer but I simply don't have the wherewithal to transport fish that distance or to pay someone else to do it. I've signed the petition, not because it's going to be of bebefit to me (too damn late for that here!!) but because I don't want to see the rest of you suffering the same types of restrictions I deal with. Well...that's NannaJo's rant over with :blush: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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