PORTLAND (AP) – The owner of a popular Freeport restaurant will be reunited with his 10 koi that were seized last summer by fish and game wardens, but diners will not be able to view the ornamental fish that had been a fixture in the restaurant lobby.

A three-member review panel from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife voted unanimously Monday to issue a permit to allow Cuong Ly to own the koi he kept for 15 years, regarding them as part of his family and a source of good luck for his business.

“The good news is that I get my fish back,” said Ly, who was disappointed by the decision. “The bad news is they don’t let me display them in the tank where they used to be and where they belong.”

“It’s a joke,” he said. “They want me to hide them in the basement.”

Ly said he may go to court to appeal the condition that bars him from displaying the fish publicly. Other conditions set by the review board require that the koi be fitted with microchips; they cannot be sold, traded or given away; they cannot be bred and the department must be notified within 24 hours if one of the fish dies.

Meeting with Ly in Augusta, the review board said it wanted the fish kept out of sight to discourage others from seeking to own exotic species that pose a potential threat to Maine’s native freshwater fish.

“The feeling of the board was that if they were displayed publicly, more people would want to import these fish illegally,” said Mark Latti, a spokesman for the department.

“We feel we bent over backwards to accommodate Mr. Ly,” Latti said. He said the board initially wanted to require Ly to keep the fish at his home but relented after he said it was important that they be at his China Rose restaurant.

The koi were seized in July by two wardens and a biologist after it was determined that Ly lacked a permit. Maine law prohibits people from keeping koi for fear they could decimate native fish should they somehow get loose.

The koi, which range in size from 12 to 14 inches, were being kept at a pet shop in Portsmouth, N.H., pending the outcome of Ly’s appeal.

Ly, who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1979, told the board at a hearing that he would never allow the fish to find their way in the environment.

The restaurant owner also faces a misdemeanor charge of illegally importing koi, for which he could be fined $1,000. No court date has been set for the jury trial that Ly requested in conjunction with his not guilty plea in West Bath District Court.

The permit will be issued soon, Latti said, but Ly may have to wait before he reclaims the koi.

“The fish remain as evidence in the state’s trial, so they will not become available until this case winds its way through the court system,” Latti said.

AP-ES-10-30-06 1953EST