months of research
I have spent a long time researching this and shipping fish from the US. I have made a list which I will post but the first like will be to a facebook page where I update the information often. The list of Canadian online tropical fish breeders/resalers is growing as people learn this is an option and pet stores focus more on dry dog food than their fish departments.
*List of Canadian Online Tropical Fish Breeders:
Cichlaholic.com - Fish Lists (Winnipeg)
Malawi Cichlid Imports | The online home of Larry Johnson (southern Ontario)
RGB Shrimp – Freshwater fish and shrimp (Outside Toronto)
CANADIAN AQUATICS
https://www.facebook.com/belowwater
Shrimp Fever | Canada's Shrimp Keeping Online Store (Toronto)
https://www.facebook.com/RLaquariums/ (Calgary)
https://www.facebook.com/skashrimps
https://npuaquatics.ca/ (not yet selling, setting up) (Okanagan)
https://lafermetteacrevettes.ca/en/ (Montréal, Quebec)
http://facebook.com/GeorgeAquaTerraHobby/ --- In BC, (Coquitlam and Abbotsford) but we deliver all over Canada.
https://www.shrimperyandaquatics.com/ - (Vancouver, BC)
https://arcticlightsaquatics.com Focus: Goldfish (Calgary, BC)
Discus Paradise (Montreal, OC) $120 for shipping
https://aquascaperoom.ca/ (Toronto) Aquatic plants and snails.
*If you know of others. please leave a message and I will add them.
If you are curious about shipping from the US, the best option is to have your fish shipped to someone or a shipping/receiving company just across the border. Pick it up, have the species name ready so Canadian Border Services can look it up online and bring the fish across yourself. Be aware they have old info on species so if the species you get has changed its classification/name in the last 20 years, have that info too. CBS let me watch them look up my fish on their computer and the had old info. But do not be intimidated, there is little restrictions on pet tropical fish as they pose little risk to our ecosystem, not many tropical fish could survive a Canadian winter in a pond.
US breeders face a US imposed export fee, sorry tropical fish didn't make it into NAFTA
. There are transhippers but also many storys of unreliable transhippers plus they have a large fee. The cheapest and easiest way is to bring them across yourself. Under the regulations, if you order fish and you live in Vancouver and Canadian Border Services stops them at the entry point in Toronto, you are responsible to come there to get them at CBS request or you have to pay a fee to have them disposed of (I don't know what they do with them).
After searching online for this information for months, I had to do lots of research. I hope this helps the next fish geek asking these questions.