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  #1  
Old 11/24/2007, 01:08 AM
ergert ergert is offline
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Moving to Norway

I will be moving from Texas to Norway in May. I am going to have my tanks, furniture etc shipped by boat to Oslo.

Once I have my tank established there I want my family to overnight my fish and coral to Oslo Norway.

Do you know if this is possible or if it would be very expensive and not worth it? I love my jawfish and coral and dont want to lose them here.

It is for my own personal use so I don’t know if it is a customs issue. If you do not know, could you let or point me in a direction that would help. I am going to call DHL and ask, but I want to see what you guys think also.

Thank you so much for any info you can provide me.
  #2  
Old 11/24/2007, 01:27 AM
T Man T Man is offline
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You might want to start with the airlines and customs. Since you work for NASA, you should have easier access military "hops" that might do it for free. Another option would be an LFS in the proximty of your destination - reefkeeping is bigger in Europe, you might find a local club that could help out as well. T
  #3  
Old 11/24/2007, 02:58 AM
ergert ergert is offline
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Thanks for your response. I need to change that I work for NASA. I work for another company now.

I am thinking of trying both, but I really want to try and ship what I have since ricordia and stuff like that are hard to come by over there and are expensive.

I am going to do the breathable bag route since I dont have oxygen and its just too much of a pain to go to the local store with 10 bags or more of stuff to be oxygenated, plus they are wanting money which is ****ing me off a little since I go to these places and give them so much money anyway.

We will see.

I would still like to hear other advice so please join in if you have info.

Thanks

Eric
  #4  
Old 11/24/2007, 03:55 AM
Herzberg Herzberg is offline
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Get your fish there if you can, Norway isn't really that good when it comes to reefing. I know that a lot of norwegian reefers have stuff sent from Denmark since we have a much better selection and better prices also.

And pack warm clothes, Oslo in the winter is really cold
  #5  
Old 11/24/2007, 09:32 AM
RWillieK RWillieK is offline
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Norway is beautiful. They have a couple of public aquariums..... I don't remember where they were now, but they were both nice.

The local fish were much different from those I had really ever seen, nothing like reef fish.

Shipping overnight to Oslo is going to be interesting......shipping across the US is tough enough.

Robbie
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  #6  
Old 11/24/2007, 10:20 AM
Herzberg Herzberg is offline
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BTW ricordea is not hard to come by, ypu can have them sent from Germany, would probably be 2 days to Oslo. You can have them overnight to Denmark.

There are several online vendors who will sell ricordeas from these people http://www.ricordea-farm.com and have them in Oslo in a couple of days.

Also have you thought about that in Norway they use 220v and not 110v as in the US?

Last edited by Herzberg; 11/24/2007 at 10:39 AM.
  #7  
Old 11/24/2007, 11:35 AM
usmc121581 usmc121581 is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by T Man
You might want to start with the airlines and customs. Since you work for NASA, you should have easier access military "hops" that might do it for free.
You wouldnt want to do it that way anyway. They will ship it by slow boat. By the time it gets there it would have fossilized in the bag.
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  #8  
Old 11/24/2007, 12:39 PM
vanmo92 vanmo92 is offline
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In my life I have been to Norway 9 times (every other year). In fact we are going again in June. In terms of moving your things I cannot help. However, last time I was there, I visited some fish shops (they were in Stavanger, not Oslo) and all the freshwater looked far superior to anything over here. But when I went to the saltwater, there was not much selection and I saw many dead fish. This is obviously not true for all places, but I have heard that it can be difficult to get saltwater fish in Norway. In addition I talked to one of the store managers and he said that all of the equipment was extremely expensive (which it was). He said that a basic skimmer can cost over $1,000 US. My point is that if you can get your tank, and equipment with you it would be worthwhile in the long run. However If you move your equipment, the power outlets are 220 volt and they are 2 little circular holes, not 2 vertical slots, like ours.

I am not sure how realistic the move would be, it depends on how much you love your fish, and how much you are willing to pay on the other end in order to keep them.
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  #9  
Old 11/24/2007, 01:25 PM
toonces toonces is offline
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Sorry, I also can't be a specific help to your shipping question.

I was stationed in Iceland for 3 years. There were one or two salt shops there and I was able to get enough livestock to have an interesting tank- the livestock was a bit more expensive than stateside though.

Like others have mentioned, equipment was VERY expensive. Prohibitively expensive. Be sure you have what you need before you leave the states. Be mindful of the electricity conversion- European maxi-jets would not work with the U.S. outlets on base with a converter- you might have the reverse problem. In fact, I'd research that before anything else. Shipping your livestock out can't happen if none of your pumps or lights work.

Iceland had extremely restrictive customs and quarantine rules that made shipping my own stuff from the states pretty much impossible. Something to look into as well.

Finally, you might want to consider a temperate tank. There is quite a bit of beautiful cold water livestock in Norway; you'll have to collect it yourself of course. Steve Weast on here has a beautiful cold-water tank.

Just some ideas. Good luck and be sure to post your experiences for other reefers.
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  #10  
Old 11/25/2007, 07:29 PM
ergert ergert is offline
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Thats funny. I lived in Iceland for 18 months. Didnt even know they had fish stores and being that a hamburger is about 10 bucks I wouldnt even consider it. But how about them Icelandic women!! wohooo!

Anyway, I am getting convertors now. My T.V goes to 240 so I just need a adapter plug. My ballast for my metal halide is goes to 240 so I just need an adapter plug for that as well. I am thinking now I need a bigger Convertor so I can plug power heads and filters on my tank as well.

I have a 200 watt convertor just for my tank, and I was thinking that I need a bigger one. Like I said though the ballast for my metal halide lighting goes to 240, so I dont need the convertor for that. I just need the convertor for the powerheads, filtration and skimmer.

I am dealing with a store here who will try and ship my stuff to me via airline to Oslo where I will be living. Its worth a shot.

I am going to post a pic of my new tank I bought to send there by boat in a new thread. I have know Idea how to filter this thing. So please look at that thread and help me out if you can. THanks for all your help.

Eric
  #11  
Old 11/25/2007, 11:10 PM
spleen93 spleen93 is offline
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You might have CITES issues in terms of shipping coral internationally. I would make sure that you do your research in terms of trying to obtain the appropriate permits beforehand. The last thing you want to happen is customs confiscating all your corals when you get to Norway (or worse, getting tangled up in red tape such that everything freezes/dies by the time you get to it)

Spleen
  #12  
Old 11/26/2007, 01:35 PM
Joachim.B Joachim.B is offline
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Hello. i live in oslo and we have a good selection of both fish and corals here. Here are some photos from a LFS in oslo:






there are 2-3 more shops in oslo, and a couple of basement shops. There`s a couple of guys here that just sells crocea and squamosa clams, they have about 5 big tanks that are full of clams.. i think you will be happy with the shops here.
  #13  
Old 11/26/2007, 03:08 PM
digitaldego77 digitaldego77 is offline
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How did you find those pics of my basement?
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  #14  
Old 11/27/2007, 08:39 AM
RWillieK RWillieK is offline
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Wow, I wish I had an LFS like that around here!

Robbie
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  #15  
Old 11/27/2007, 10:00 AM
wayne in norway wayne in norway is offline
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I live in Norway, and yes it is very expensive, especially compared to the US which is very very cheap. But then again everything else is expensive, so get used to it or you will not be able to enjoy anything. However wages are also very high, and that is why it ranks above the US for standard of living, as the expense problem is effectively removed.

Genreally, Norwegian customs will let you import up to 4 fish at a time for personal use. I have boughtfish from the Uk, however I would not want to risk hauling fish from the US to Europe.

It is not a problem to get equipment at all, there is a big thing called Germany just to the south and you can post most anything, and the prices actually work out very reasonably. For live stuff, I just normally double the US pricce, though if you insist on things from the Caribbean, multiply by four. The main problem is availability, selection of stock, which tends to be quite limited. However Oslo should be fine as there are some quite large shops there so they are a bit less on what the wholesaler feels like sending them.
  #16  
Old 11/27/2007, 11:48 AM
GreshamH GreshamH is offline
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I ship to Norway almost every week. Getting something overnight there from the US is next to impossiable and I ship highly perishable product. Your looking at a min of two days. It sometimes takes 3 - 4 is the connnector flight doesn't get made. Your only hope would be to ship NFG which is nearly triple then normal air freight.
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  #17  
Old 11/27/2007, 05:00 PM
ergert ergert is offline
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GreshamH-

I am going to have my tanks, lights, filtration etc sent along with my furniture and whatever else we take over there. I will be setting up a half moon 65g tank with a couple of metal halides and a sump for filtration. I will pack a few bags of gravel and live sand in my shipment with my other furniture.

You mentioned that it sometimes takes days to ship. How do you keep your stuff alive?

I will be shipping my green star polyps, xenia- which might not make it, ricordia, mushrooms, clown and 2 jawfish.

I think that if I just wanted to ship my coral it would probably make it fine even if it took a few days instead of overnight dont you think? I would think that the fish would be the issue, but there has to be a way to get a permit. I have someone on the Norwegian saltwater website seeing what paperwork I need.

What do you think about the coral though? Shoudnt it make it or would it be more in shipping costs than just buying new stuff there? Thanks for your help.

Very nice shop photos!!

Eric
  #18  
Old 11/27/2007, 06:17 PM
GreshamH GreshamH is offline
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Eric,

I replied to your PM before connecting the dots to who you where and what you where asking. Now that I see your post it all makes sense

I guess I should have clarified a bit better. I (we) ship frozen and refrigerated product to Norway. I have shipped billions of live rotifers to Norway and they arrived perfect after a 2 day trip every time.

I did spend many years as a MO wholesaler and shipped globally, but never to Norway with tropicals. Fish can spend decent amounts of time in the bag if packed properly, although 48 is pushing it, especially with those jawfish. I had quite a few Brazil shipments get held up in Texas (Customs sat on them for 2 days before moving the paper) and arrive in much better shape then most would think. In your case, even a .01% DOA is going to hurt though Your right though, your corals would be fine but chances are the xenia wouldn't make it.
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  #19  
Old 11/27/2007, 06:21 PM
bues0022 bues0022 is offline
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One question that hasn't been raised yet, is how long are you going to be there? Is this a permenant reloaction, semi-permenant, or temporary?
  #20  
Old 11/27/2007, 06:21 PM
bues0022 bues0022 is offline
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One question that hasn't been raised yet, is how long are you going to be there? Is this a permenant reloaction, semi-permenant, or temporary?
  #21  
Old 11/27/2007, 07:39 PM
Ewan Ewan is offline
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And are you a Turbonegro fan?
  #22  
Old 11/27/2007, 10:50 PM
ergert ergert is offline
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Nope, never heard of that band. My wife has.

We have lived here since 1999 and my wife wants to go back to Norway so she can stay home with the kids and make me cut up cod for a living.

For now it is going to be permanent as for living there.
  #23  
Old 11/28/2007, 06:53 AM
wayne in norway wayne in norway is offline
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If I was you , and really wanted to take the jawfish, I would pack them in my checked hold luggage and take them with me on the flight rather than sending them freight. Norwegian customs won't bust you for 4 fish or less (probably), and as long as they're double bagged in a polystyrene box you aren't breaking IATA regulations (which I itnhk is the name of the regulatory body for air travel and freight). You do, I guess , need to worry about getting your luggage checked in, they did not give a rats in the UK, but the US regs might be different.
It's a long way from the US tho I tihnk it's a direct to Oslo so it should be ok.

I would sell my hardware and buy new in Europe. The electrical issues would test me, and the tank is going to add to your shipping costs and likely get broken if glass. Apart from the rics and jawfish, everything you have is perfectly obtainable in Norge.
  #24  
Old 11/28/2007, 10:37 AM
ergert ergert is offline
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The only problem is I won't have my aquarium until about a month after I get there and then I have to cycle it so I won't be able to bring anything on the plane unless someone will let me store my livestock until I get my tank cycled
  #25  
Old 11/28/2007, 12:46 PM
ergert ergert is offline
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I cant take anything with me on the flight because I wont have my tank set up yet.

I am flying there. A month later my tank gets there and I have to cycle it.

I was going to have my family send the coral and fish to Oslo once everything is established.

When we first get there we will be staying in Steinkjer until we find a house in Oslo so if someone has a tank in Steinjker or close by they could put my stuff in until my tank is cycled and then maybe I could take it on the plane with me.

I still need to find out what kind of paperwork I need whether I ship it or bring it on the plane.

On the aquafreaks saltvann site someone said I need the following:

Make sure You have all neccesary Cites papers - both export Cites from US and Import Cites to Norway if needed (apendix 1 and 2). Even Live Rock needs Cites.
You may also be registrated at the Norwegian "Mattilsynet".

For fish You also need health certificates from US, You also need EU papers (Appendix 1 and 2, I am not sure if You need both) and also Norwegian health certificate.

Arrival should be notified to Norwegian authorities 48hrs before arrival.

I have no idea where to get this paperwork.
 

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