SeanF

First I didn't say that you couldn't get coral parasites from wild corals but the risk is much less than captive raised corals because good quarantine practices are not followed. I am not saying that I am perfect in this but we do preventative treatments in our reef tanks and freshwater dips on new corals. To wait until there is a problem is too long. As a hobby we need to take this problem much more seriously. All you have to do is to read forums from around the country. This is a very serious problem and obviously by the attitude that I have seen here it will continue to be a problem. It is good not to take for granted that anything is parasite free no matter what the source but the person that is growing the corals needs to take responsibility for taking every precaution to make sure that what they are trading or selling is clean and free of parasites. If we as a hobby cannot do a better job of this captive raised corals will never be able to a realistic alternative to wild caught. As far as Liquid Sunshine having flatworms I was not directly refering to them but every store in town that has had a problem with these. The biggest problem with parasites was at Symbiosis but luckily they went out of business. I am glad we are able to have this discussion and hopefully it will lead to better quarantine procedures for everything that you put in your aquarium. There are people on this board that support my point of view on these flatworms as they have had sps death due to this plague but choose not to post.

I did not say acropora in general and I do know the difference between aefw and regular flatworms and I have never had aefw just regular flatworms and that was several years ago. I got them from local people bringing in corals and that is the reason why I do not do that any more. I know your opinion that they are photosynthetic but I can tell you that I have talked to a lot of people that have had sps death due to Red Flatworms not aefw. We are talking deaths in Hydnophora, Montipora, and other SPS varieties. Even if you do not believe that they are eating sps they are a dangerous parasite that if they die will cause problems in your aquarium. Parasites are the number one reason why captive raised corals are probably a long way from becoming common place in the aquarium trade. The kind of don't care attitude that I have seen from many people and the lack of proper quarantine procedures contribute to this. These parasites will kill sps corals regardless of what you think.

Yes I have had a run in with these buggers well in the past before I knew what they were. They are one of the reasons we do not take in corals from local people. I have had customers of mine that have picked these nice little critters that they have picked up from other stores in town that shall remain nameless. Then they started having problems with mysterious sps colony death. Colonies just bleaching overnight and once they treated with flatworm exit and killed the little buggers the problem stopped. Maybe you haven't had any problems as of yet but it will happen I can only hope that you don't decide to trade anything in that tank with any one else and spread that plague. Ohh and by the way Turbinaria is an LPS coral.

I notice that you would do not have any sps corals pictured. Those flatworms dont generally bother anything but sps. Drop an Sps frag in there and see how long it lasts. My guess would be not long.

I am assuming you mean bulbs and not ballast but I thought I would ask anyway.

You are gambling any time you don't quarantine it is just whether or not it is worth the risk to you.

And then they will be able to find a bunch of scientists to get paid to study why humans are causing that ice age. There are so many things that can effect the earths climate that unless these scientists are studying all of the factors their research is incomplete but very profitable for them. As far as the UN and their "experts". The people that head up the UN are the same that brought us the Oil For Food program or should we call it the Saddam Hussein palace upgrade program. I won't say that one side or the other is correct but I don't think anyone field such as climatology or any other will be able to figure this out. There are millions of variables that will effect the global climate and nobody knows what is going to happen. Sure if you want to do your part and use less resources that is great but some people take this way to far. Personally having Al Gore as a spokesman pretty much eliminates any respect I am going to have for your point of view. I just laugh when I see all of these people that use more natural resources than most of us are telling the rest of us that we are bad and need to take drastic steps to change it. Like buying carbon offset credits from this new company. Well this company just happens to be owned partially by Al Gore. If you want to obsess over the global impact of humans on the planet that is your right. I personally want to enjoy my life and don't for a minute believe that humans have a signifigant impact on the global climate. Ok here is my question. If Co2 levels are increasing and the ocean is being polluted why are we not having a huge explosion in the levels of phytoplankton in the ocean. Phytoplankton are the largest producers of oxygen on the planet by a long margin so if we were to give them more food in the form of Co2 and nutrients wouldn't we see a signifigant increase in phytoplankton levels wouldn't we? Someday people are going to quit believing everything they hear and start doing some thinking and come to their own conclusions.

Simple I am good at. Just don't ask me to help you build one of those sumps.

I was just curious what your process is with the hatchery tank? Have you tried bleaching the tank and equipment that is in it between batches. It is an old angelfish breeding trick sometime you get a bacteria or something in the tank that will start killing the young fish like that. Just something to try if you are not already doing it.

You could always spray paint the cardboard black.

They call them deaths because the people that own them just get sick and die so I think I better come by and carefully remove them from your aquarium so that nothing happens to you. (whistle)

Glad to hear it I was beginning to think the fish you got from me had something against your tank. You must have had some goodies hiding in the back of your tank or something.

1. acan echinata 2. gonipora 3. Pagoda cup - turbinaria 4. Torch Coral Euphyllia 5. Ricordia Yuma 6. Diplostrea heliopora 7. Montipora 8. Monastrea Brain some places refer to this as a favia 9. Palythoa 10. Trachyphyllia - Open Brain 11. Bubble Coral 12. Toadstool Leather Sarcophyton 13. Colt Coral 14. Trachyphyllia - Open Brain 15. Lobophytum Leather Coral 16. Oxypora 17. Acropora 18. Spaghetti Leather There is my attempt.

Probably my e-bay auctions at that. It is commonly called the Dimpled Brain Coral or Pineapple brain from what I understand. It is pretty easy to keep much like the favia. I have kept it directly under 400 watt metal halides and in an 8 gallon Oceanic Bio Cube. I don't know that there is a lot of info out there because it is fairly unusual from what I understand. I think the complete name is Diplostrea heliopora

The bottom one on the first page is Diplostrea

Wow that is crazy.

I think it is normally called betadine but I am not sure I think it is normally used as a disinfectant but I did not do any reading on it so I may be wrong.

What you two do behind closed doors is none of our business.

I don't remember which brand they carry off the top of my head it is either Mrs Wages or Balls Pickling Lime. They have it in the canning section and therefore only have it out when canning season is going on so make sure you buy a couple of extras for the winter time.

Where you feeding live rotifers or the roti-feast?

I haven't checked yet but it is almost the time of year that walmart will start to carry it in the one pound containers for like $2.

Yeah luckily for most of the Solomons that two islands took the brunt of it. If the quake would have been farther off shore the damage would have been much more severe.

Yep this is the reason people need to quarantine their invertebrates also.

One here. You definately used one of the right words in your message to get some people on here to come a running and that word would be beer. If we can get this weather to stay nice like it is today so we might be able to plan something I might have a BBQ at the house.

I will bring some sand out of the 100 gallon tank that I broke down I don't know how much good stuff is left in it but it has been kept in circulating water since the tank was broken down. I know it is free of parasites.