It’s not an American political thing it’s tariffs in general. It happens when a GST introduced too. Just another excuse to squeeze people out of more money, the politics is the method used to sell it to the population being squeezed.
Future of Fish importation coming from China, Central America
- Thread starter RuckusLV
- Start date
Things ARE fine today. The United States has an economy that is literally the "envy of the world" and "The American economy has left other rich countries in the dust" according to The Economist - very low unemployment, low inflation, booming stock market, record oil production, and strong growth: https://www.economist.com/special-report/2024-10-19
That said, radical changes to the current path - like a tariff war and/or disruption to global trade through issues with the Panama Canal - could change course. We'll just have to see.
As others have posted, exports of (aquarium) fish from Central America are negligible. New tariffs likely wouldn't change that. Seafood prices could be higher (for farmed shrimp and other items sources from there, though).
Who knows on imported Asian fish. What WOULD be affected though, is cost of most of our aquarium supplies - filters, heaters, etc. - almost all of which is sourced from China. And, of course, ALL the stuff sourced from China (90% of Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree, etc.) would be more expensive with new tariffs.
We'll just have to wait and see...
That said, radical changes to the current path - like a tariff war and/or disruption to global trade through issues with the Panama Canal - could change course. We'll just have to see.
As others have posted, exports of (aquarium) fish from Central America are negligible. New tariffs likely wouldn't change that. Seafood prices could be higher (for farmed shrimp and other items sources from there, though).
Who knows on imported Asian fish. What WOULD be affected though, is cost of most of our aquarium supplies - filters, heaters, etc. - almost all of which is sourced from China. And, of course, ALL the stuff sourced from China (90% of Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree, etc.) would be more expensive with new tariffs.
We'll just have to wait and see...
I always hear "America is the richest country! Amazing economic growth" yet not a single thing at the store is made in America. I am not trying to make a political statement but it is strange when I think about it. Idk the economy just seems fake and weird in America. Does not really make much sense to me.
Maybe it is time to take breeding these fish more seriously instead of collecting them in the wild and having our heaters and such made in the country they are going to be used in? That just seems logical to me and would be a net good for the fish in question.
Maybe it is time to take breeding these fish more seriously instead of collecting them in the wild and having our heaters and such made in the country they are going to be used in? That just seems logical to me and would be a net good for the fish in question.
The US economy has largely shifted to one based on services vs. manufacturing (or agriculture) because there is lower cost labor elsewhere. Because it makes sense - for national security among other reasons - to have certain manufacturing in the US, laws like the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act have invested in semiconductor (computer chip) and other manufacturing here in the US and resulted in the gain of over 700,000 new manufacturing jobs in the US over the last 4 years (vs. a loss of 300,000 the prior 4).
If tariffs are high enough, it might make sense to bring aquarium equipment manufacture back to the US. Stuff will be more expensive but *possibly* higher quality. We'll see.
If tariffs are high enough, it might make sense to bring aquarium equipment manufacture back to the US. Stuff will be more expensive but *possibly* higher quality. We'll see.
No one regularly imports from central america. At this point the only ones that come in are smuggled. And when we did regularly import, it was just to get broodstock, because as you know most of the things down there are easy to breed. The problem is that while people breed them in their home aquaria, no one distributes them, and unfortunately it is a very niche market, hence why tuic and cota stopped selling ca cichlids as much, or as often.
In my opinion it is mostly a matter of marketing, because all we hear with pure species is "x central american cichlid is super aggressive and breeds so much" and no one wants it unless it grows two feet long. But then you'll have hybrid monstrosities made from the same fish that people are able to slap "fun" names/superstitions of being "lucky" onto, bred into crazy shapes and colors that are able to be upsold at hundreds of dollars just for the sake of them being a novelty.
As far as importing from anywhere in Central America. That is literally non existent. There are no operating tropical fish exporters in Central America. None. No logistics are in place to make it happen. No fisherman are collecting. The industry does not exist. At All.
In Panama, 1 export permit exists (or did a year ago) and was funded by a US based person(cota). Same in Nicaragua (it was TUIC). Great a permit exists/existed.. not so fast.. their is still no export facility and no collectors. Also, just because a permit exists does not mean the government wont change there minds and not approve the export at the 11th hour. The exports also require veterinarian inspection and clearance from within the exporting country.. goooood luck with that.
So, as Shane hinted, most CA collected species would be a handful of fry personally collected by someone and brought back to the US to be bred for potential future distribution. This individual would need to know; when, where, and how to collect the species. How to maintain them in the field during collection trip entirety, how to prep them to transport them back to the US. How to clear them in country of origin to be taken out of the country. Then how to clear them in the US with USFW and US CBP. Then how to properly maintain them to breeding size, successfully spawn them, successfully raise the fry to a saleable size and finally know how to properly distribute them. Or, someone more or less would have to risk smuggling them in,
and that of course would still be a very small handful of fry to grow out. No adults are going to be collected and brought back.
The market specifically for 'Central' American cichlids if more or less dead. If you look at all of the biggest vendors that sold CA cichlids, particularly TUIC, & COTA, but not excluding, Wetspot, AquaImports, FW Exotics, or occasionally Imperial. You will see that Central American cichlid stock is extremely limited or non-existent (COTA). No market. The dozen or so people here or on facebook that may 'want' them is certainly not enough to warrant stocking or growing out hundreds of individuals of dozens of species at a time. To the general hobbyist today, they typically get to big, they usually do not play well with others, and juveniles are just boring brown colored. So, to todays general hobbyist they are not desirable. For every single pure*** Vieja or Amphilophus juvenile I sell I can sell a dozen EB Acaras or 1000 neon tetras. That's just the market today. The South American cichlid market is not too far off either. The 'specialty' species are far, far, less requested. When they are available, the US hobby doesn't want to pay the correct market price. The US hobby is stuck on what we used to pay. With so many people seeing 'exporter' lists these days they see those prices thinking they are getting ripped off by the vendors. What they are not realizing is the associated costs to land the fish in the US and get them tanked and ready for resale. Then like every commodity being sold in the world, a profit needs to be made. Or else.. why do it. Do YOU work for free? When every legit retail vendor is within a few dollars of each other then the pricing is correct. I currently have a 15" show condition male red dovii on the TUIC stock list. Its pricey. Of course it is. Go find another retailer, anywhere, that has one, is same size and condition, and has a shipping guarantee. Do not compare the full time retailers to some guy that has 1 in is home tank that they no longer want and is selling it cheap to get rid of it. Do though, consider where that person got it from in the first place. Your 'guy' almost certainly got it from one of the major retailers. If the retailers stop offering it then your 'guy' eventually cant get them either. So species will go away. With COTA gone, so many specialty CA species are no longer going to be around. Sure, a few handfuls of home breeders will have fry on occasion but that's it. What is in the hobby is what's left. We then will have to trust the fish is pure and is the correct species.
*** I noted 'pure' above. This is a topic I spoke about with several very well known field collectors and breeders recently. Where does/did one get legit pure species with exact know collection information from in the US these days? Only, Two places exist/existed for that really. COTA & TUIC. (a 3rd if we want to count the 3 or 4 years my friend Max was around. But, he was nowhere near the scale of TUIC or COTA). If both were to shut down then where? Sure, a place like the wetspot does an honestly great job at getting wild fish in. But, never with more than the country of origin noted. To the purest that doesn't suffice. To the general hobbyist that is perfectly acceptable and that's what we will have. Fact is, most LFS today are receiving cheap mass bred trans-shipped fish from Asia these days, most of which were supplied to those farms by TUIC & COTA, as we were the only two in the US that exported overseas. Or, we will have to trust the home breeders word on what they have or the Florida based farms that the species are indeed the real pure thing.
I fear, and its because I've already seen it. That species in the hobby will start getting tagged with new locations or from locations that haven't been distributed in years. Most, if not all fish in the US hobby with a known collection location can be traced back to less than a dozen actual original sources(people). So, always ask!! Never trust the random internet guy who says, my friend collected them near his house in XX country and shipped them to me as a favor. No one is collecting 5 or 6 adult fish and mailing them to someone in the US without all of the permits and knowhow.
In a nutshell, the hobby has shifted. big cichlids no longer sell at the quantity they used to. Vendors have no need to offer them like they did in the past. Look at your LFS, whether it be petco/petsmart or a mom & pop. They do not even regularly offer tanks large enough anymore to house your average single Vieja. Everything is small nano sized stuff. More of tabletop pieces of art than a glass box for a big fish. We can probably thank youtube for that lol
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