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Bass as pets ? illegal ??


Toad Hunter

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So I've been watching a few different videos now on Youtube of guys who have LMB , perch and other game fish as pets in tanks .. was wondering if this is legal or not.. I've checked the ministries web site and it states no fish shall be caught and transported to another body of water (obviously out of fear from invasive species right?) without consent from the MNR, does this include isolated man made ponds and aquariums ? cuz I have a nice one in my yard that I would LOVE to hold 2 med sized smallies in... think it would be neat to study their feeding habits etc... thoughts ?

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also, I just wonder the reasoning for the law (assuming it's illegal) ... if i catch and keep to eat it dies, if i catch and keep in pond.. it SHOULD live on... but then again this country of ours has some even stranger laws than this i s'pose lol

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any idea why that is ? i mean the bit you posted... whats the dif if you plan on killing it anyways... *head scratch*

Because if they are alive, there is always the risk of escape/release into a habitat where they don't necessarily belong. With that also brings any infections or diseases they may have picked up from their local waters as well. Best intentions don't count when you're trying to mitigate risk.

 

This is why it's such a big deal when people are caught transporting live asian carp, snakehead or other invasive species across the border. It's "intended" for sale as food -- but if the truck crashes and the fish escape, or someone buys and releases into a local stream, "intent" doesn't count for much.

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It is legal for you to keep sportfish in a tank at home, they just count against your daily limit. Now transporting them there legally from a lake you caught them at, that is another story. The law is weird like that. You can try calling a CO and tell him your intentions and get his interpretation of the law.

 

This is a neat site I stumbled on a while ago...

 

http://www.outdoorontario.net/AskMNR/mnrfaqfish.html

 

 

So it seems like the transport law is there to prevent people from transporting live fish from one waterbody to another, and depending on how the law is interpreted, transporting it to your aquarium would be ok...

Question 14:

 

Is it legal to possess sport fish in an aquarium?

 

Asked on September 24/99

 

Answer from the MNR:

 

YES! But those fish must NOT exceed your daily/possession limit. So, if you have a small largemouth bass in your tank at home you may only have five other bass in your possession at any one time (assuming you have seasonal fishing licence). Also keep in mind that it is illegal to transfer fish from one body of water to another. This means you can't release your aquarium raised Ontario Sport Fish fish into any lake, river, stream or pond OTHER than the one from which it origianlly came. Naturally it is also illegal (and possibly very harmful to our fisheries) to release any exotic or tropical fish into Ontario waters.

 

 

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Retail stores like BPS get permits for live game fish because their fish exhibit serves an educational purpose.

 

The idea behind not being allowed to transport live fish is (1) to prevent fish from being introduced to new waters (i.e. illegal stocking), and (2) to prevent the same for diseases like VHS.

 

At various times I have kept bass, walleye and a small pike in fish tanks. To cover my butt, I wrote to the MNR district office beforehand asking about the legality of this, and kept their written reply which said any fish in the tank counted against my daily bag limit. This was in the 1980s .... things may be different now. In any case, I would want some form of written confirmation as insurance.

 

The largemouth, the walleye and the pike that I kept were all pretty boring, to be honest. They just laid on bottom most of the time, and didn't move much. The smallmouth was more active, but you can't keep anything in the tank with it as it will kill pretty much anything else, including other smallmouth. I guess they need more personal space than a 90 gallon tank provides. These fish were all in the eight- to 10-inch range, so you think that would have been a big enough tank.

 

Frankly, the most entertaining wild fish I've ever kept was a rock bass. It was very active and a whole lot of fun to watch. I used to love tossing grasshoppers into the tank and watching it come up to drill them on the surface. All I can say is I'm glad rockies don't grow any bigger than they do - it would be unsafe to swim otherwise!

Edited by Craig_Ritchie
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It depends where you get the fish from.

There is no problem transporting live fish if you got thos fish from an acredited source (fish farm).

When I was stocking my pond in Grand Valley I was told that as long as the fish came from a fish farm and not the wild all was good. Therefore if you go to a fish farm for your aquarium fish there should be no issue.

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thank you SO much, now, do I need a permit to transport them ? i've read up alot on this (probably too much) so its all confusinig and seems like there are loop holes, hopefully the MNR gets back to me soon (but u know the government lol)

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thank you SO much, now, do I need a permit to transport them ? i've read up alot on this (probably too much) so its all confusinig and seems like there are loop holes, hopefully the MNR gets back to me soon (but u know the government lol)

 

I didn't need a permit but that was years ago.

Check with the fish farm guys, they will know.

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