www.glofish.com
 

I seen these at riverfront but they had a seized by the CEPA. what's the cepa and did they get seized? I was not interested in getting any I just never seen fish seixed at a store before.Also does anyone have info on Fraser Aquarium in Vancouver. They carry the other glow fish from http://www.azoo.com.tw/. Oh well I'm going to go look for some more puffer fish.

I found CEPA=Canadian Environmental Protection Act
Hmm the FDA says there fine

CEPA is http://www.ec.gc.ca/CEPARegistry/, apparently, as you found. I think it's great that they're involved. I think the suspected harm is that they would escape into the environment and reproduce, which is bad obviously. I believe that the Taiwanese company making these fish sterilizes their animals but whether this is bulletproof is questionable (although I'm sure they hope it is, because have sterile animals allows them to conserve their patent).

The FDA is American and I believe in Canada that type of stuff falls into the lap of Health Canada-Sante Canada. Also because these fish are neither what you want in your sushi nor something you can smoke, I don't think HCSC is interested in them. Strictly an Environment Canada thing as far as I can tell.

Interesting, regardless.

I think they are cool, I would buy some of the fresh water ones for my tank. but they enviormental side is worried that what if they are not sterrial and what if they get into our water systems.

Steve

Apperently the one from Taiwan are sterile, the glofish brand are not there story is that if they get loose they will die because they are a tropical fish. ie: How many plain zebra danios do you see in the lakes of North America?

If they got yanked from the store, that would be why. There was some fish in the eastern US that was causing problems because it was able to walk from pond to pond, eating all the local fish as it went. I can't find anything on it now, I thought it was a snakehead or something. Anyways that's why they're concerned. Selling a GM fish that's not sterilized isn't smart.

After conversations with EC, what I was told was that genitically modified animals are not permitted to be imported into Canada. The issue is not escapability and the fish wreaking havoc in our waters (not that it would happen) but just the GM fish themselves.

That's interesting. I'd like to see the laws on that, considering the amount of GM vegetable matter being imported these days. I don't think it's a bad thing for foods to be GM, but no need to modify pets so more kids can being them in scuzzy water and flush 'em down toilets when they die.

That's the rational I tried using last Thursday when Can Customs wanted to inspect a shipment that contained zebra danios. The issue is not with GM food, but GM animals. I guess their is the whole ethical issues when it comes to animal matter.

ARe u sure that this is true because a week or two ago King Eds had Genetically modified or some might call it genetically enhanced glofish that they were selling. Cathy at King Eds was bragging about how they got GM glofish although she can bearly pronounce it right.

I thought that did not apply to pets? I thought it only applied to food animals?

Steve

Steve, I was told that the legislation does not make that distinction. Apparantly EC is willing to look at all the info available and make a decision on that.

Namscam...Why would I lie when I spent six and a half hours dealing with this issue last week. This has just come to EC's attention very recently. I saw them in a store the day prior to the inspection I was involved with.

I m not saying your are lieing..i m just merely stating the fact that I did see a store sell these Genetically modified glofish......I was just wondering if this new law was passed within the past couple of days or not....

Just because you see something at a store does not necessarily mean that it has been imported legally or is legal for sale in the country. Here is my disclaimer, that statement is not meant to cast dispersions on any LFS that has had them in the past :cool: .

I have spoken with one importer this week and he had indicated that he was sent a notice from EC two months ago reegarding the status of the fish. There only has been a crackdown on the possession and from my understanding came from a complaint back East. A LFS that has them or has had them recently, either A, isn't aware of the status or B, doesn't care. My feeling is that it is the former.

I think in the past, it was failry easy to import these fish. The latin name is obviously the same for both the regular zebra danios and the GM variety. If customs looks at an invoice containing these fish, the only way to tell the difference is to physically inspect the shipment. Until recently, it wasn't being done.

I was channel surfing a couple of nights ago and caught a few minutes of some news report on the "glofish". My recollection is sketchy...there were interviews with some aquarium store owners as well as government officials. One governement "official" said (to the best of my recollection) that selling/owning such fish was in violation of some regulation/law. They were being seized from pet stores.

There are obviously some glofish that are not "sterile" because the reporter visited some Ontario guy who was breeding them and providing the fish to pet stores....it was bizarre to see a relatively large scale tropical fish breeding set-up in a shed in the snow covered wildrness. They showed both pregnant females as well as some fry.

the only plce i have seen aquaruim fish in local waters (alberta) is in banff blelow the hot springs. People used to dump their aqarium fish there and they have thrived. I was even there one winter and walked down to there the hot springs emptied into this lake/marshy area and you could see danios, fancy guppies, even the odd pleco. Havent been there recently so not sure if they are still there, I would assume so..

But that area is definately a unique situation for them to survive.. water stays a constant temp.

there is a fair polulation of chiclids and pirannas in osyoos lake and other lakes in the surrounding area.... south okanogan

At the shaw home page http://calgary.shawtv.com/ theres a short movie pic about the glofish and Riverfront Aquarium. The story has a little more info.

That was interesting. Wonder if that cameraman thought the squareback anthias was a freak too.... :lol:

Namscam (hope I spelled that right) The Glow fish at King Ed were seized as well tank is labeled with a Gov't Red Tag. They are not allowed to feed the fish, sell the fish, or move the fish. NO CONTACT is to be made, supposedly when the fish die they are not to be removed from the tank either. A number of stores got them in from a supplier.

Doug

Kyle, not to mention the ever popular Carp in Okanagan lake, fraser river etcetcetc, lots of large mouth and small mouth bass especially on Vancouver Island. And I'm convinced that Ogopogo was an import too but the jury is still out on that.

Doug

lol, yeah I go snorkeling in the okanagan river sometimes to spearfish some of our huge carp, we get 30+lb carp, world record sized carp. believe the world record for carp is from the same river in penticton. we have a few lakes with large mouth and small mouth bass, as well as perch that we shouldnt have. Then we get 5'+ ling cod, 10'+ sturgeon, and our number one imported destructive species mysis shrimp! we also have bullheads in our sloughs, as well as a few aligator snapping turtles.... there is some weird stuff out there...