Importing wild caught threatened species?

[Lee Nuttall]

Is it legal to be catching and importing wild caught species that are on the IUCN / C A R E S list? I ask because I have seen a worrying trend of these fish being offered for import namely H. labridens. Could someone possibly clear this issue up please.

[Bas Pels]

Laws can and will differ amongst countries, but here, in NL one can import fish with a CITES declaration. Basically the country of origin will need to declare the fish is not smuggled.

However, CITES has several listings, and it can also depend on the type of list.

However, as far as I know, exporting fish from Mexico legally is almost impossible. Therefore one can safely assume all fish offered as wild caught are either smuggled or not wild caught

[Lee Nuttall]

These H. labridens are certainly wild caught Bas! I can't believe someone is catching endangered fish from Rio Verde and shipping them around the world and not hiding the fact. Apparently some are arriving in the UK soon?

[Mark Smith]

Since that it the case, either have them returned to their natural habitat of origin, or else give them to competent hobbyists upon arrive who will faithfully reproduce them.