Irresponsible vendors: Non-native, invasive and threatened animals offered for garden pond stocking

The pet trade has been responsible for many introductions of non-native species. Freshwater ornamental plants and animals originating from the pet trade are stocked to garden ponds. The present survey focused on awareness and responsible behaviour related to biological invasion risks of companies that designed, built, and stocked garden ponds. A representative number (n=124) of companies (commercial garden pond architects and builders) in the Czech Republic were surveyed regarding the offer of non-native, invasive and threatened native species. The survey was conducted over the entire warm period (from 1 May 2015 to 31 September 2015) while using personal visits, correspondence and interviews to list the species on offer. Traditional' ornamental species were offered by 39.1% of surveyed vendors, non-traditional marginal' species by 5.6%, common native species by 6.5% and threatened native species by 2.4%. The findings of this study support the hypothesis that garden pond' vendors offer non-native species with a risk of biological invasion; moreover, threatened native animals were also on sale. It is probable that a similar situation exists in other countries. It is important for the conservation of native aquatic biota to raise awareness of the need to reduce risk through responsible behaviour of those involved in the pet trade. It is also essential to prohibit stocking of potential invaders and to enforce the illegal capture and sale of native species.