Aspects of animal welfare and species protection in the international trade of ornamental fish and air transport to Germany

The number of ornamental fish kept in german aquariums is rising, but the supply of offspring is not sufficient to meet the needs of the fish enthusiasts. Therefore millions of ornamental fish from foreign countries are being imported to Germany. This provokes a number of new problems regarding the protection of species and the animals' welfare during transportation. For the assessment of the transport conditions, 1 000 shipments of ornamental fishes were evaluated at the Rhein-Main-Airport Frankfurt, Germany. Water samples were taken from 100 shipments and were examined for anaesthetics. The results are disturbing: 41% of the shipments have total transportation times between 31-42 h resulting in an oxygen deficit in the transport bags (5,2%) and dead ornamental fish. Also damage of the transportation containers, high fish densities as well as drastic size differences amoung the fish in one transport bag were noticeable. In 99% of the cases, formal defects could be noted. The German association of pet stores has declared that fish belonging to three special fresh water families should not be kept in an aquarium, but 1 200 of such fish were imported. The HPLC analysis of the water samples revealed an additive. The non-declared anaesthetic 2-phenoxyethanol was present in all samples taken from shipments based out of Singapore. The results emphasize that improvements are urgently necessary in the control of the air transport and trade with Ornamental fish.