Protected cats...

[Stackdeck]

Hi guys , just a quick question , on the catelog pages for S.planiceps & B.platynemum it states that small specimens imported for t aquarium trade are illegal? Does this apply to the fish coming out af a particular country or are all small specimens imported illegal? Lastly , are there any other cats with similar protected status being brought in for the aquarium trade? Thanks in advance guys.... maybe the question turned out longer than I expected

[taksan]

They might be illegal to export in certain jurisdictions but they are not illegal to import into Singapore or to keep.
For example say a certain fish type was illegal to export in Brazil but legal in Peru or Colombia, in that case you could easily get shipments of them from Peru or Colombia quite legally.
Many Brazilian species under restrictions are now coming through Colombian or Peruvian exporters because of these very problems.
Pretty much everything is still available but prices are higher.

[MatsP]

If the fish is native to Brazil only, then it's still being illegally exported to Peru - but yes, there is no legal comeback in the recipient country for species that are restricted by a single country. If they are listed by CITES/IUCN on the "endangered" list, then it's illegal to export _OR_ import it, so it's illegal to be the recipient of these species.

Notable exception is the USA, where it is indeed illegal to receive species that are illegal to export from the original country, no matter where from (technically - doesn't appear to be enforced, as for example wild-caught H. zebra are frequently available, as well as several other species "not on the Brazil allowed list").

I will try to figure out if they are on the Brazil allowed export list or not later.

--
Mats

[Proteus]

whoa didn't even know that they were illegal in the first place to export from brazil. I see them on stocklists all of the time.

[MatsP]

Neither of

Brachyplatystoma platynemum

or

Sorubimichthys planiceps

are listed on the "Allowed for export" in Brazil. So they are definitely illegal to be exported from Brazil.

However, both also list fairly wide distribution, so they may well be exported from for example Peru or Colombia.

--
Mats