Thread: Importing & exporting tropical fresh water fish

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum (as a member, read already for a while), so before asking my question I'll introduce myself (and my wife). I'm Iain Somers and I'm dutch. My wife (Ni Ketut Subiart (Santi)) is from Bali (prov of Negara). We are married for 5 years now (6,5 years together) and lhave lived all that time in the Netherlands. I'm working very hard in my own company to move to bali in 4 years. In the mean time I go once a year to Bali and my wife 2 times a year.

My main intrest apart from having fun and my work is breeding tropical fish from african rift lakes (cichlids). I would like to continue this in Bali (and bigger ofcourse). Then the question: does anybody know whether it is allowed to import (and later export) tropical fish (WICH ARE NOT FROM BALI) to Bali? They are not on the international red list but there is a good possibility that they could survive in the wild in bali (in fresh water).

My fish can never escape (they are kept in tanks and they dont usuallly go out walking. But nevertheless a law against importing is something I would understand, because if 1000 people do what I do, maybe one says on a good (bad) day: "what if I let this fish into a balinese river".

The effect on the eco-system is difficult to predict. Most likely non, but with some species there would be. On the other hand, I saw guppys and south-american cichlids in the ponds of the hotels. So they are already there.

Absolutely true. But this has probably already happened with the very competitive cichlids (fish) who are kept in all the hotel. They dont belong in Bali either. But we will see. And I agree on the "never-issue". My experience in an another field than yours says the same thing. A 0,001% change is a very dangereous thing.