Hawaii fish ban

[Acanthurus12]

DLNR could likely help you out with clarification especially on rehoming them. I know mainland US many public aquariums take rehomed fish when they grow to large for aquariums, especially on the freshwater side so it may be similar.

One of the main issues is there is no difference between captive-bred or wild collected in appearance so someone could claim they are breeding them and thus attempt to sell or export them. To our knowledge no personal hobbyist has been able breed any tang species at home. For the yellow tang only our facility and a small batch from a facility in Japan are the only successes I'm aware of. I would assume they would need some inspection and proof and the fines for doing that are very high so I wouldn't imagine it is worth it.

Jake, are the Biota yellow tang all F1s? Do you have any F2, F3, etc. production?

 

[AlohaJacklyn]

DLNR could likely help you out with clarification especially on rehoming them. I know mainland US many public aquariums take rehomed fish when they grow to large for aquariums, especially on the freshwater side so it may be similar.

One of the main issues is there is no difference between captive-bred or wild collected in appearance so someone could claim they are breeding them and thus attempt to sell or export them. To our knowledge no personal hobbyist has been able breed any tang species at home. For the yellow tang only our facility and a small batch from a facility in Japan are the only successes I'm aware of. I would assume they would need some inspection and proof and the fines for doing that are very high so I wouldn't imagine it is worth it.

I appreciate your reply but its not quite answering my question. Im curious the difference between ibota shipping fish and a hobbyist rehoming theirs? Since there is no visible difference from your fish and those owned by a hobbyists, im particularly interested in the gray areas of how ibota shipping overseas for the high price they are sold for, versus a hobbyists shipping for free to rehome? Im assuming your package is labeled as live fish so how does ibota fish get to bypass custom interceptions? Seems like a monopoly. Ive had mine for years, before the ban. I cant put him into the ocean or its illegal and i cant ship/rehome him or its also illegal. What makes ibota legal to sell/ship?

 

[areefer01]

I appreciate your reply but its not quite answering my question. Im curious the difference between ibota shipping fish and a hobbyist rehoming theirs? Since there is no visible difference from your fish and those owned by a hobbyists, im particularly interested in the gray areas of how ibota shipping overseas for the high price they are sold for, versus a hobbyists shipping for free to rehome? Im assuming your package is labeled as live fish so how does ibota fish get to bypass custom interceptions? Seems like a monopoly. Ive had mine for years, before the ban. I cant put him into the ocean or its illegal and i cant ship/rehome him or its also illegal. What makes ibota legal to sell/ship?

Sounds like you have some homework, reading, to do.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

I appreciate your reply but its not quite answering my question. Im curious the difference between ibota shipping fish and a hobbyist rehoming theirs? Since there is no visible difference from your fish and those owned by a hobbyists, im particularly interested in the gray areas of how ibota shipping overseas for the high price they are sold for, versus a hobbyists shipping for free to rehome? Im assuming your package is labeled as live fish so how does ibota fish get to bypass custom interceptions? Seems like a monopoly. Ive had mine for years, before the ban. I cant put him into the ocean or its illegal and i cant ship/rehome him or its also illegal. What makes ibota legal to sell/ship?

I don’t know if you’ve seen captive bred yellow tangs but there is a massive visible difference. The ones they sell are almost translucent and the size of a nickel. I have bought 5. Wild caught yellow tangs are never that small. And everyone knows biota captive breeds yellow tangs. Why would they authorities mess with them? I’m sure if you somehow set up a setup to captive breed them, and they questioned you on selling illegal fish. Proving in court you can captive breed them would get you out of any trouble. It is not illegal to sell captive bred yellow tangs.

 

[Biota_Marine]

Jake, are the Biota yellow tang all F1s? Do you have any F2, F3, etc. production?

We are selling F2s as of a few years ago, I'm not sure of the exact date but I believe Felicia made a post about it on our social media when we had our first F2 batches going out. They do take quite a while to reach sexual maturity and spawn together successfully.

 

[Biota_Marine]

I appreciate your reply but its not quite answering my question. Im curious the difference between ibota shipping fish and a hobbyist rehoming theirs? Since there is no visible difference from your fish and those owned by a hobbyists, im particularly interested in the gray areas of how ibota shipping overseas for the high price they are sold for, versus a hobbyists shipping for free to rehome? Im assuming your package is labeled as live fish so how does ibota fish get to bypass custom interceptions? Seems like a monopoly. Ive had mine for years, before the ban. I cant put him into the ocean or its illegal and i cant ship/rehome him or its also illegal. What makes ibota legal to sell/ship?

So generally when you're shipping out any live animal there needs to be documentation and they are all screened, we're required to put our aquaculture information on the boxes or in our label information to our clients. There's specific permitting you need especially for certain states. I'm not saying you can't try to ship them out but I the it would be best to contact someone within the DNLR to give you clarification if you can get specific approval for your instance. If you were to try to ship out tens of thousands of tang that are being "rehomed" I'm sure it would be a different story.

It isn't a monopoly because anyone that wants to breed yellow tang can make a business, apply for a scientific collections permit, and attempt to breed yellow tang. There are other companies attempting to do this (one other in Hawaii) and it is public data and information how to breed them thanks to the work done by Dr. Callan and his team at OI just no one has been able to successfully replicate it on a commercial scale (one company in Japan had minor success and we discussed with two other breeders that have gotten "close"). It is very difficult to accomplish and even more difficult to actually be profitable.

 

[AlohaJacklyn]

I don’t know if you’ve seen captive bred yellow tangs but there is a massive visible difference. The ones they sell are almost translucent and the size of a nickel. I have bought 5. Wild caught yellow tangs are never that small. And everyone knows biota captive breeds yellow tangs. Why would they authorities mess with them? I’m sure if you somehow set up a setup to captive breed them, and they questioned you on selling illegal fish. Proving in court you can captive breed them would get you out of any trouble. It is not illegal to sell captive bred yellow tangs.

Im in hawaii so we have certain regulations. I was told i cant ship the tangs i owned for years, before any restrictions. So my question was jusr trying to get clarification on the gray areas because i know an everyday person like myself would get flagged for shipping the same exact fish. So im guessing its just the difference between captive bred and wild caught.