Police will be paying me a visit

[edin日本]

It seems that I'm going to be investigated by the police for the crime of trying to send tropical fish to Singapore. The fish in question are Xiphophorus cortezi Vinasco collection, they are not listed in the Red Data book or anything but my sending them to a fellow collector in Singapore has raised some flags and the police now have an interest in me.

I'm unsure as to which rules, regulations or laws I've broken as I thought I'd gone through the correct procedures.

[TJrandom]

It seems that I'm going to be investigated by the police for the crime of trying to send tropical fish to Singapore. The fish in question are Xiphophorus cortezi Vinasco collection, they are not listed in the Red Data book or anything but my sending them to a fellow collector in Singapore has raised some flags and the police now have an interest in me.

I'm unsure as to which rules, regulations or laws I've broken as I thought I'd gone through the correct procedures.

You thought ? Was thinking listed anywhere in the procedures and guidelines manual? And these little fishies being live-bearers - did you confirm that none were pregnant - or were you willing to ship off little ones into sexual slavery?

Good luck with that....

[thefan]

next time cunningly disguise them by using green glue to attach them to blocks of rice

[edin日本]

You thought ? Was thinking listed anywhere in the procedures and guidelines manual? And these little fishies being live-bearers - did you confirm that none were pregnant - or were you willing to ship off little ones into sexual slavery?

Good luck with that....

Female livebearers are always pregnant.

Give the gift that keeps on giving....2 guppies

[ericson]

Some countries do require permits for importing and exporting live animals. You may have cleared local regulations but not Singapore ones. I would imagine this is an issue relating to quarantine or being a protected species in Japan. I think the problem is because in the U.S. the chinese have illegally smuggled really aggressive fish that they use for medicine and the fish has gone on a rampage endangering all other species and spreading like wild fire.

Good luck.

[edin日本]

Some countries do require permits for importing and exporting live animals. You may have cleared local regulations but not Singapore ones. I would imagine this is an issue relating to quarantine or being a protected species in Japan. I think the problem is because in the U.S. the chinese have illegally smuggled really aggressive fish that they use for medicine and the fish has gone on a rampage endangering all other species and spreading like wild fire.

Good luck.

You are referring to the Channa sp known as Snakeheads. BTW there are 2 species of these fish in Japan.

The fish I was exporting to Singapore is native to Mexico and would have had very little impact on the ecosystem and even less on Singapore's ornamental fish industry. When I lived over there we used to catch plecos, Lor Han, bettas, platies, tetras, guppies and cichlids (American and African) in the reservoir and the local rivers. None of these fish are endemic to the island.

[twelvedown]

Really? The cops? Don't they have a department of wildlife or something to take care of that sort of stuff?
I bet they give you a slap on the wrist on behalf of the Singaporeans and that will be that. The Japanese love all things fishy.

[Chromedome]

How much are they going to pay you?

[iago]

.. the police now have an interest in me.

All they needed was an "in". You gave then an "in".

[Sterling]

Unless you are wholly confident that you did not break any laws whatsoever, I would strongly recommend taking the time to find a good lawyer and go in for a consultation before the cops come. If something does go awry, you'll immediately know who to call. You might even have a case of the cops feeling compelled to charge you with something before they leave; having consulted a good lawyer beforehand could make all the difference.

[edin日本]

The thing is the package got as far as customs at Narita and I don't know what happened but I was informed they called the fracking bomb squad. And please, before it goes any further no jokes about population bombs/explosions.

[curing]

Can't be arsed to search but remember seeing in the last 3-4 months an article(yomiuri or mainichi online English edition) a piece about changes in law for sales of animal mainly saying that deliveruy or reception has to be done in person--i.e no more shipping and that was aalso concerning fish..you might want to look deeper into that--I do have good memory but my search skills suck , especially after a few drinks---good luck as they might want to make a scapegoat/example out of you being a foreigner and all---hope your paperwork/taxes are all in order as they might want to dig and dig if they feel they hooked a nice catch(pun intended).

[ericson]

Yeah mate, I do not have an answer for that one unfortunately. It certainly is a little silly the way things work sometimes. If it is something like child trafficking etc. I can understand, but as you said it not being an aggressive fish and all... WTF?????

[curing]

So what happened?

[edin日本]

Got the fish back, got lectured at and the police officer in charge looked and sounded p!ssed off that he couldn't arrest me.

[well_bicyclically]

Got the fish back, got lectured at and the police officer in charge looked and sounded p!ssed off that he couldn't arrest me.

it sounds like every episode of Klondike Kat and Savoir Faire....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMt3GOyRkU4

[TJrandom]

Got the fish back, got lectured ...

So what was the offense? What prevented them from sending these monster fishies down to your friend in Singapore?

[edin日本]

So what was the offense? What prevented them from sending these monster fishies down to your friend in Singapore?

Funny that... To send them by EMS costs 4,000 yen, sending them by takyuubin about half that. Unfortunately by the new rules that is a nono. Luckily, there is a new branch of the JP that handles that and to send my fishies to Singapore by the proper method will cost me 22,000 yen.

[hml]

Funny that... To send them by EMS costs 4,000 yen, sending them by takyuubin about half that. Unfortunately by the new rules that is a nono. Luckily, there is a new branch of the JP that handles that and to send my fishies to Singapore by the proper method will cost me 22,000 yen.

Well, if/when your fish die, you can always send them 着払い to that officer...

[edin日本]

Frankly I prefer homicide to suicide. Better I should to put the barrel between your eyes and squeeze the trigger.

[paradoxbox]

not sure what you were doing wrong but a friend of mine also runs an exotic fish business and she ships a lot of fish all over the place including to thailand, singapore, etc.

it doesn't need to cost that much money to send fish. make sure you have export certificates for what you're sending.

[edin日本]

not sure what you were doing wrong but a friend of mine also runs an exotic fish business and she ships a lot of fish all over the place including to thailand, singapore, etc.

it doesn't need to cost that much money to send fish. make sure you have export certificates for what you're sending.

Nobody ships fish to Thailand, everybody ships fish from Thailand. Shipping fish into Japan is not a problem, as there are so many companies doing it the entry process is very streamlined and doesn't cost much. Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand are very accommodating as long as you are buying fish from them but have all sorts of hoops you have to jump through to send fish in the opposite direction.

[paradoxbox]

no, she ships to thailand, she runs a fish shop in gifu and grows exotic fish from eggs and ships them all over the place

[edin日本]

Of late Thailand is the place to go to if you want bettas, gouramies, discus, large cichlids, loaches and killifish. Whatever she is shipping over there must be for breeding purposes.

Do you have a list of what she has available?

[paradoxbox]

sorry afraid not but i'd imagine anything that you consider a best seller she's also carrying too