• Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Can some one tell about shipping from US to Canda

cdawson

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
271
Location
Vancouver,BC
Apisto ranch said:
Ok I sent the package throw USPS express mail. Just like everyone said. Marked on the pack clear and in large black letter Live ornamental aquarium fish, JUst like stated in post. Pack-age was returned with a shipping label and 3 stamps on it. Return to sender for aquic export or import lincing # and regerstration permits.


FISH DEAD. 6 days in customs. How is it someone can do it and others can't. Do they just pick out randum packages for this?


No they DO NOT accept live ornamental fish, PERIOD. They don't accept live animals at all, labelling them was the worst thing you could have done. Whoever said they accept live fish was wrong, in this case. DEAD WRONG.
Maybe on the US side, but canadian UPS or any of the courier companies do not accept live animals, they will sometimes even toss them away and they'll never be returned to the sender.
The counter person may not care, but customs does, and when the package reaches customs they turn it back or just empty out the contents.
A fellow I used to know that worked at UPS used to take home the discarded fish or turned them in the stores for credit.

Do as Dave did when he shipped my nijsseni, label them aquarium decorations and they won't even blink when they look at them. Customs is more concerned with pornography and firearms than anything and only randomly open packages. Those are the chances you take when shipping fish illegally, however the chances of your package being opened is very slim.

As Dave mentioned though, shipping to Blaine and having the end-user pick them up is much safer if they can do it.
 

cdawson

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
271
Location
Vancouver,BC
fishfarm said:
Never had a problem, the counter help doesn't know the regs and usually could care less. Take the box down, fill out the form and send them off. Ken

The counter person is not the person who passes the packages through customs, the customs person will take one look and turn it back.
 

cdawson

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
271
Location
Vancouver,BC
fishfarm said:
It's simple. Put an invoice on the OUTSIDE of the box stateing what's inside and how many and the value . i.e.
Live tropical fish
Apistogramma cacautiodes
4 @ $15 Total $60.
Go down to Fed-ex fill out the international shipping form and send them off. I do it all the time to Canada and Puerto Rico. Ken


Maybe if you have an export license, but not without one. If you've gotten away with this then you are just lucky. I have family working in customs and live fish without a permit NEVER make it through. Canadian agriculture is very strict, nothing comes into the country without permits, unless they don't know about it.
 

Lisachromis

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
361
Location
Canada
cdawson said:
FYI DHL is about the worst courier service you could possibly use in canada, as is UPS. You're better off shipping US priority post so that either purolator or canada post picks up on it.

DHL loses packages like there's no tomorrow.

DHL is also NOT accepting any new customers either. Talk about making people NOT want to use them. Their loss I guess.

As for the fish. Sorry to hear they didn't make it, but I wouldn't want to chance it after the discussions I had with FedEx, and UPS, etc. I mean, they don't even take dead fish!
 

cdawson

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
271
Location
Vancouver,BC
Lisachromis said:
DHL is also NOT accepting any new customers either. Talk about making people NOT want to use them. Their loss I guess.

As for the fish. Sorry to hear they didn't make it, but I wouldn't want to chance it after the discussions I had with FedEx, and UPS, etc. I mean, they don't even take dead fish!


apparently they aren't much better in the US either though, my fiance is a supervisor for sales reps at amazon.com and they use DHL for alot of packages. They treat packages like crap and constantly lose them. If a town doesn't have a dhl branch they just drop the package at the post office and the package will show as being delivered on dhl.com but the end-user will never hear word of their package!
Amazon has been battling with them about this for months and it's apparently a driver or branch specific problem.
 

algaefarmer

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
17
Location
British Columbia, Canada
cdawson said:
The counter person may not care, but customs does, and when the package reaches customs they turn it back or just empty out the contents.
A fellow I used to know that worked at UPS used to take home the discarded fish or turned them in the stores for credit.

cdawson said:
Canadian agriculture is very strict, nothing comes into the country without permits, unless they don't know about it.

You're wrong about that. Feel free to contact Customs or Fisheries and Oceans - there are no restrictions on aquarium fish entering Canada. (Agriculture isn't even responsible for fish imports). I've contacted both several times. I live in an isolated northern town with no local fish store and many of my fish were purchased by mail and American in origin. Other than aquaculture fish, pond fish, and some special permits required by British Columbia, no licenses are required.
For some reason, the same is not true for plants, which require an expensive phytosanitary certificate. $80 or something, I'm not sure.

As for DHL, I've had fish shipped to me through them twice in the past two years as well as killi eggs and shrimp and all shipments were fast and delivered. Some, but not all, had their contents labelled on the packages. Like I said, I live in a small northern town without a DHL office and they certainly didn't just leave them on somebody's doorstep without telling me, or whatever it is you say they do.
Several years ago I had fish shipped to me by FedEx and it was fine too - perhaps they've changed their policy? I know that the lady at BC Betta still ships live fish by FedEx and by USPS. Anyway, there are options.

Sorry to hear some of you have lost fish at the border. Perhaps I'm just lucky? I'm about to order some live killifish from the US, so hopefully I won't have my first bad experience.

I was surprised to hear that the US requires export licenses though. None of the Americans I have received fish from ever mentioned it, but perhaps they had already jumped through the hoops. Don't know.
 

k98

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
29
why some place like tangled up in cichlid charge like 100$ for us fish and wildlife paperwork clearance and inspections?the canadian cutoms thold me clearly,they dont need this paper for fish import from usa.verry strange:confused:
 

tjd

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
56
Location
La Verne, CA
A local fish club had someone from US Fish and Wildlife (responsible for inspection and enforcement of wildlife import/export for the US) talk at our last meeting. While the discussion primarily focused on importation (most were concerned about how to properly bring back fish from a collection trip), the topic of exporting was also covered. There are several things that MAY be required:

1) Declaration - Any movement of fish into our out of the US requires notification to US Fish and Wildlife. There is a form on their website that can be used: http://www.fws.gov/le/pdffiles/3-177-1.pdf

2) Import/Export License - Anyone that is moving fish commercially requires a commercial import/export license. Note that quantities over 7 are automatically considered commercial quantities according to US regulations.

3) Permits - Any restricted (endangered or threatened) species will require US permits in order to import/export. There may also be permits from other countries required in order to properly import/export. CITES, http://www.fws.gov/international/permits/web list cites.htm is the international agreement regarding endangered species. Each country can also have their own regulations in addition to CITES.

The local authorities for wildlife in a country are not only responsible for enforcing their own countries regulations but can also enforce other countries. For example, one can have the proper US declaration, license, and permits for an importation, but if an export permit was required from the country of origin the shipment will not go through without it. In the case of Canada they CAN hold a shipment for not having the proper US declaration or permits.

There is a whole lot more information available on the US Fish and Wildlife website: http://www.fws.gov
 

Forum statistics

Threads
17,916
Messages
116,206
Members
13,028
Latest member
JaconieMalonie

Latest profile posts

Josh wrote on anewbie's profile.
Testing
EDO
Longtime fish enthusiast for over 70years......keen on Apistos now. How do I post videos?
Looking for some help with fighting electric blue rams :(
Partial updated Peruvian list have more than this. Please PM FOR ANY QUESTIONS so hard to post with all the ads poping up every 2 seconds….
Top