The importing of aquatic species of home kept tropical fish can be easier than one might imagine. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Agency determines the standards for this importation and since they are kept in home aquariums, it is relatively easy to embark on placing the first shipment. Follow these key steps to smooth out the rough edges of receiving your first thrilling order of fancy overseas species, from having the broker clear customs, to acclimating the new aquatic pets. Take the short cut and learn from professionals, who owned their own wholesale tropical species importing company and for years were successful in providing pet store dealers and public aquariums with healthy and exotic fish. Choose your fish supplier and get started.
Use a Tropical Fish Broker
Do not try to have the fish come to your home airport in order for you to clear it with customs. All tropical’s entering the USA have to clear customs and this is the most important part of the journey. Use a seasoned customs broker because the shipments will usually arrive when a US Custom Official is not on regular duty and the fish could have to wait until the following day to be cleared. By using a fish broker, the fish can be run efficiently through the customs clearing process any time of the day or night and in turn, forwarded onto the final destination. We never cleared them ourselves.
Aquatic Hobby Fish are Live
Because the little fishes left their overseas homes at least 24 hours previously, any time you can shave off the journey is priceless. Remember, they have been living in a little box and trying to breathe all across the ocean. Live oxygen is placed in the box, along with as small amount of water as necessary. They usually do very well, but the sooner you can get them into their new fish tank homes, the better. Inclement weather and flight delays are normal, and the Styrofoam containers are perfectly satisfactory for handling the job but remember to start slipping into your shoes if you get a call in the middle of the night. It will be better to get them in their new homes as soon as possible,
Clear Fish at Port of Entry
Most likely your airport will be a non-designated port of entry for your fish. Choose to have the fish cleared with the broker at the larger and designated port of entry like New York, Boston, Miami,(usually used for South American species) and even Anchorage, believe it. When we were in the business in Cleveland, Ohio, we regularly had our Asian species cleared in Anchorage, as Japan Airlines was the originating carrier and their USA hub was Anchorage. Brokers cleared them and got them on their way to our airport in Cleveland within a couple of hours, day or night. This requires a permit, as the broker will explain to you, but it is well worth it, usually less than $15.00 per year.
Transfer them Lovingly
After you get them back home, open the boxes near their new tank homes, and immediately place a functioning air-stone in each box to provide additional air and to begin the de-stressing process. Check the temperature in the boxes. Match it closely to the tank temperatures. We chose to heat the whole aquarium staging area and not have individual tank temperature gauges, but either way, don’t shock them any more than is necessary. Begin by adding 50-100% of your tank water (at the approximate temperature of the boxed fish water) to each box. Some fish may be smaller than you anticipated, don’t worry, they will grow quickly.
Tropical Fish Box Water is Minimal
The boxes will have very little water when you receive the fish, so if it is a 2” water depth, add another 2” to it. Wait for 30 -45 minutes (this won’t be hard as you will be seeing to the remainder of the boxes) and add another round of water and continue until you have the boxes almost full of new and old mixed water. You will have added water 6 or 7 times and 3 to 4 hours will have elapsed. Now carefully scoop the fish into their new homes. Check the air in the tanks and go home and get some sleep. Its always amazing how the fish seem to arrive in the middle of the night. It's pennywise and pound foolish not to baby your new travelers.
Reputation is Everything
By inconveniencing yourself in the above fish transferring fashion, you will gain a reputation of having healthy fish. No better advertising than this word of mouth attesting to your healthy fish. It is well worth the extra time and effort to coddle your new arrivals because they are stressed and the amount of dead fish you net out in the following few days will attest to the health of the new shipment. Often, store owners are anticipating the arrival of exotic or hard to find species and they will be literally waiting on your doorstep. The fish you sell them will not die in their tanks nor the end customers who are enthusiastically waiting to purchase the new arrivals from the store owner. Read more. Read on.
Source:
- Brenda Oswalt, author and James Oswalt, former owners of Allied Aquarium Life, a wholesale importer of aquatic fish in Cleveland, Ohio
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior
Brenda K. Oswalt - Brenda Oswalt is a French trained cook, writer, businesswoman/inventor who holds several medical patents.
