Tampa Bay Saltwater

[chris c]

Has anyone in calgary ordered rock from them? I am very intrested but they only ship to the states. the package looks great and lots of good reviews.

thanks a lot chris

[JDigital]

If I recall correctly untamed order all his rock for his 400G build from them. He lives in Vancouver and just drove down to Seattle to pick it up. He seems to like it.

[corpusse]

live rock falls under cites you can't just drive across the border and bring it back (legally).

[Myka]

live rock falls under cites you can't just drive across the border and bring it back (legally).

Yep. :(

[JDigital]

live rock falls under cites you can't just drive across the border and bring it back (legally).

untamed didn't seem to have any issues. :shrugs:

[untamed]

No, I didn't have any issues. I never attempted to mislead them in any way. I declared it as "rock for my aquarium". As a product of the USA, no one expressed any concerns. In order for me to pay my taxes, they classified it as "limestone".

I figured that aquacultured live rock put me on the moral high ground if questioned...but I doubt anyone would have cared about reef destruction and endangered species...only about upholding some ill-written rule.

Sure, you can purchase Vanuuatu live rock in any LFS that was probably ripped from a living reef...but you can't transport aquacultured rock specifically/sustainably produced for the aquarium business. Ah..don't get me started.

I guess Canada would rather support reef destruction than a sustainable business.

I was prepared to get arrested to make a point. You might not feel as strongly about it.

[spreerider]

its not canada its CITES, they are a burocratic monopoly on trade,
if you guys thing they are hard on aquarium trade you should check out orchids,
All orchids are cites listed even if they are hybreds from 400years ago, and havent even been close to the wild they are cites listed and you need cites certificate to transport them across boarders, at a price of $80 a permit and that only covers one species / hybred at a time, so if you want to order 5 different species you need 5 different paperwork @ $80 thats $400 for 5 plants, plus you need phytoscant certificate and they are $100 but one covers all your plants. Now add the cost of each plant being 40-80 and you spend alot to get a little. Then it takes around 8 years to multiply your orchids to suficient quantities to sell, then its 4-8 more years untill they are big enough to flower and sell.

[Myka]

its not canada its CITES, they are a burocratic monopoly on trade,
if you guys thing they are hard on aquarium trade you should check out orchids,
All orchids are cites listed even if they are hybreds from 400years ago, and havent even been close to the wild they are cites listed and you need cites certificate to transport them across boarders, at a price of $80 a permit and that only covers one species / hybred at a time, so if you want to order 5 different species you need 5 different paperwork @ $80 thats $400 for 5 plants, plus you need phytoscant certificate and they are $100 but one covers all your plants. Now add the cost of each plant being 40-80 and you spend alot to get a little. Then it takes around 8 years to multiply your orchids to suficient quantities to sell, then its 4-8 more years untill they are big enough to flower and sell.

That's odd. I used to bring orchids across the border all the time. I never had any issues. I said I had orchids, and they didn't bat an eye. Is this a new rule?

[chris c]

thanks guys i think i will pass on the rock and just order from a lfs. the last thing i want is to be stuck at the boarder with 2 grand in rock and sand.

thanks chris

PS his rock and sand do look really good wish he could ship to us!!

[fkshiu]

Strictly speaking, TBS LR shouldn't be covered by CITES since it's aquacultured by placing plain dead rock into the the TBS guy's "backyard" which happens to be the Atlantic.

But this and the orchid story goes to show that it's a crapshoot at the border. It's often up to the person you pull up to and how he/she interprets what you declare to him/her - take it from somebody who spent much of his post-secondary years slogging at YVR ;)

Oh, and they wouldn't have arrested untamed. The worse they would do is hold the rock and give him a seizure receip.

[corpusse]

Strictly speaking, TBS LR shouldn't be covered by CITES since it's aquacultured by placing plain dead rock into the the TBS guy's "backyard" which happens to be the Atlantic.

But this and the orchid story goes to show that it's a crapshoot at the border. It's often up to the person you pull up to and how he/she interprets what you declare to him/her - take it from somebody who spent much of his post-secondary years slogging at YVR ;)

Oh, and they wouldn't have arrested untamed. The worse they would do is hold the rock and give him a seizure receip.

Dead live rock and aquacultured hard corals (dead or alive) are covered under CITES, as is stuff like coral jewelery...

[spreerider]

i think it depens on who you get at the border, sometimes they just let it go but sometimes they are cites crazy and wont let anything through,
I swear they pick days to look for certain things, like monday is cites day and tuesday is cocaine day, wed is look for something else etc.