Getting our local stores to carry velvet and berghia nudi's

[Viet-Tin]

Yea Ill talk to him and see what hes going to do.

[GaryP]

I have ordered Velvet's through an LFS before. It was strictly a pick up upon delivery type of thing. They have no place to keep them and no way to feed them if they did. In addition, the supply of these guys is pretty tough at best. I was on a waiting list for months and never did get any. The same sort of thing applies to Berghia. I know Instar was on a waiting list for his first breeding pair for months. Berghia can be bred in captivity. To the best of my knowledge, Velvet's can not. In addition, Velvet's have a very short life span (~ 6 months). Just my luck, I would get some 5 month old Velvet's. I had some reasonable success with the Velvet's, but I think you would have to order a lot of them to have success in a large tank in controlling flatworms. I certainly wasn't able to wipe them out with velvets although I know that Fin Addict had good success.

I have had a lot better success with flatworm control with spot tail wrasses. I have tried just about every supposed flatworm eating fish ever mentioned and these guys did the trick. I have one in both of my tanks. One of them came from another MAASTARD after he had cleaned up his tank.

I got fltaworms several years ago from LS I bought from an LFS. Ever since then I have tried everything to get rid of them, including several heavy doses of Flatworm Exit. While I am not totally flatworm free, I am well on the way to it and am longer experiencing flatworm blooms.

I have tried Berghia as well and I just don't think I had enough aiptasia to provide enough food to establish a breeding colony. The aiptasia returned after the berghia apparently died off. I think that berghia are probably the way to go in heavily infested tanks, but I have had much better success with butterflies in tanks with just a few aiptasia.

[ratboy]

I bought a dozen berghia (6 for my tank) from Instar ~ months ago and so far so good. I dont think the average fish store worker could successfuly aclimated the nudis then remove them from the tank and get them into a transport container for a customer. Once you've sat with your hand in your tank for 45 minutes WAITING for a little 3/4 inch slug to crawl from a spoon to a rock you'd understand . If you want berghia just organize a group order (I may even get a few more for a friends tank). I do agree with Gary (and instar for that matter) that berghia are probably not the total solution and I will probably setup a separate tank for a longnose BF to take out some big ones on movable rocks.

--Erik

[ratboy]

Gary--
I noticed a small group of flatworms in my tank at home and want to crontrol them before they reach epidemic levels. I dont want to use FW exit until its a last resort because Im not sure how it would affect my nudis or other simple inverts. Is this the fish you use for flatworm control? If so I wonder how it will cohabitate with an 8 line wrasse (in a 400 gal).

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...d=2285&N=3

[discuspro]

In my tank the things that I would be concerned about having with the fish are my Christmas tree worms, and my teardrop maxima clam. I've got no fish in the tank at the moment. Would putting that wrasse or butterfly in attack these kinds of organisms?

[hammondegge]

Dustin and Erik, this guy may help
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=386
i got one at Austin Aquariums and i believe they are frequently in stock. he is a small, friendly and very busy fish, always picking at the rock and sand. he will eat many frozen foods, inc mysis. i have never had the bad flatworms but i have seen the clear ones in my tank before, never very many. i have not seen a single one since introducing "rascal".

[discuspro]

It says that they may eat feather dusters, isn't that similar to Christmas tree worms? Maybe it'll come down to attempting to be pest free and having to get rid of the Christmas tree worms.