Importing rock,fish and corals from the USA
 

Hi there
Just wondering if anyone has done it and what the process is.
I'm talking about personal use only not commercial.
Thanks

untamed legally imported TBS rock from the US.

I thought live rock is legally protected and you need permits to bring it across the US border.

You can bring back most softies as long as they're on artificial bases - but not on Live rock bases/rubble.

I think if the people had known truly what untamed had he'd never have been allowed to bring it over. I think it was somehow classified as limestone. I haven't heard of anyone doing this recently.

Out of curiousity what kind of rock did you buy and where did you get it?

As to the OP my buddy went down to the US and brought back some corals and fish. He called the boarder and they patched him through to another section, long story short the guy said there are a few corals you need paperwork for but what he wanted (Favia, Firefish, Purple firefish) no permits were needed. Not sure how true that is but he brought them back okay.

The rock I bought was the premium fiji and the tonga shelf.

They have a new website. Previously it said on the site that BRS now sells only the Reef Saver rock to Canadians. Don't see that mentioned now? Shelf rock isn't listed at all...

When I try to add 100 lbs of dry fiji I get this:

Fatal error: Call to a member function getItemsCollection() on a non-object in /home/bulkycom/public_html/store/app/code/core/Mage/Sales/Model/Quote/Address.php on line 197

Maybe they have a fancier way now to say "No rock for you!"

I have a US box# is it a matter of shipping or if I try to cross the boarder with this stuff am I going to get into some trouble?

I have been looking at it from Bulk Reef Supply and it looks like a great way to get rock into the tank without the costs of Live Rock.

It's not a matter of shipping, it's a matter of import restrictions. I'm fairly certain you need special permits to bring in "live rock" over the border from the States.

I'm sure lots of people are physically able to get it and bring it over, but the question is is it being done legally?

THe stuff we are talking about isnt livwe rock though its dry with no life on it. Basically just rock.

agreed only softies are aloud on a artifitial mounting base like cement/ceramic plugs

So the question now is,,,can dry rock be imported?

Dry rock can be imported if it is NOT made from coral skeletons, hence why BRS was only selling that one kind of rock to Canadians (it contained no coral skeletons). The deal with live rock is it is often dead coral heads, and so has CITES restrictions. Or at least that's how I understood it (correct me if I'm wrong).

To import stony corals (or live rock, for that matter) you would need the original photosanitary certificate as well as some other piece of documentation relating to the original importation of said coral or live rock to the US. I read up on the process a bit a while back, and for some reason I seem to think that you can import fish more easily that corals... I'll look around in my history and see if I can find the page.

Do LPS fall under the import restrictions or can they be imported fairly easily?

LPS have skeletons too, so fall under CITES.

Hmm, I've been unable to find that page. I think the fish are regulated differently though. And it's for sure safe to import unattached softies.

all sps, lps are not allowed even stuff like gorgonians,seafans,tubiporidae

softies like ric's there is a limit to the amount you can bring across,zoo's/paly's unlimited

if you ever attempt this make sure you get frags on cement/plugs and a signed note with contact info and all info regarding the coral and price and you should be fine and (Hint)make a sell for equipment on the note helps with duty

also you will get pulled over 90% of the time to explain everything they have computer's so they will look up everything make it easy for them and give them all possible names of the coral