Hypselodoris bullocki and aquarium shops

November 21, 2004
From: joshua sampson

A while back i bought a nudibranch from https://www.aquacon.com which they advertised as being an algae eater. Knowing that the ones there were selling were purple and yellow i thought that they might be blue dorids, and only eat certain types of sponges. I specifically asked them about this and they reassured me that it was a different type that was a great algae eater, also saying that they had had them in their systems for years. after getting the nudibranch he did well at first, but with time shriveled up and died.... I can now only guess that these people were blatantly lying or something else happened to my nudibranch. what can i do about this? I want to call this company and give them a piece of my mind, but i want to be sure first and it would be nice if i had some information to back it up. I'll keep ya'll updated and if they are selling a species saying that it eats something that it doesnt and refuse to change this i would appreciate some others from this forum to write and call them as well. i dont know, i just want to do everything i can to stop this, even if it's just one store at a time.

Joshua Sampson

josh@joshuasampson.com

Sampson, J., 2004 (Nov 21) Hypselodoris bullocki and aquarium shops. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12736

Dear Joshua,
Your animal is, or rather, was, Hypselodoris bullocki, or at least something closely related. As you'll see from the correspondence on that page, and this page. these animals are sponge feeders, and most species feed only on one or a very few sponges particular to them. I can't say if the aquarium shops are deliberately misleading you, I suspect they just don't know. Either way it is inexcusable. People selling live animals have a responsibility to know how to care for them, and to pass correct information on to customers. Imagine the outcry if they told buyers of kittens and puppies that all you need to feed them is a handful of grass each day!

Best wishes
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2004 (Nov 21). Comment on Hypselodoris bullocki and aquarium shops by joshua sampson. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12736

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