My Berghia Nudibranch Experience

[DeepBlueSea]

Placed what was two 'aiptasia covered rocks' from the 10g berghia breeding system to main display. Watched at least 10 berghia float off those rocks into the main display.

Still have at least a dozen berghia in the 10g breeding system, which I think I will attempt to bring down to the LFS and trade for a couple frags.

Have my 3rd tank, which most likely will have a 3rd generation breeding in the next couple of weeks.

Slowly running out of aiptasia to feed.

 

[DeepBlueSea]

Attmped trade berghia for frags at LFS didn't pan out. $30 frag offered for 16 berghia. At that point still had visable aiptasia in the main display. Brought home those 16 berghia and placed them directly into the main display. Some might have made it, at least two were gormet meal for peppermint shrimp and 1 was a snack for the filefish.

Anyhow, 10 days later, I'm having a hard time finding any aiptasia in the main display. I can see a few small aiptasia in the fuge. However a slew of aiptasia have disappeared from the fuge, which means that berghia have made it through a pump to land into the fuge. My fuge is not flow through and is pump fed).

Still attempting to raise a seperate batch of 'clean' aiptasia in 5 gallon buckets as I'm running out of aiptasia to feed. Running out of aiptasia to feed might be my failure in keeping my 'breeders' alive long term.

Will attempt to capture egg spirals this weekend, which will buy me about 10-12 days of aiptasia cultivation before placings egg sprils into that bucket and waiting a month to see if I've had enough aipatsia to cultivate another generation.

 

[DeepBlueSea]

2 months since recieving my berghia from reeftown, my aiptaisa plauge has been eradicated from the main display.

I transferred my last 6 berghia from my breeding system to the fuge of the main display as I have run out of aiptaisia to harvest and feed them. I have a few aiptasia in the fuge that need to be wipe out. Might as well get rid of them before the berghia starve to death.

In the mean time, I'm going to try to culture another 10g system with clean aiptasia. Just in case the do come back in the main and I need to purchase more berghia. If ever need to purchase more, I'll only look to grab maybe 4 and I'll know that I can successfully breed them in a month... that is if you have the dedidicated food source for the breeding.

A observation... while everything I read suggested peppermint shrimp will eat berghia. This is no joke. It's been a month since I added peppermint shrimp. I'd be surpised if I have any berghia left. When I added a few berghia to the main display, I watch the peppermint shrimp zero in on them so quickly it wasn't even funny.

This weekend I placed the last rock from my berghia breeding tank into the main display. Within minutes the peppermint shrimp were all over that rock feasting on a number of egg swirls that I hadn't even seen. After witnessing that, I don't beleive there is any chance what-so-ever to have a succeful breeding of berghia in a tank with peppermint shrimp.

With that said, if I have have to purchase them again, I'd purchase the 'breeders' (like 4 berghia), breed them into 100 or so. Maybe adding so many, so quickly would give the berghia a chance to get into the crevices.

 

[shred5]

Yea never had luck with them in a full reef, they disappear.
Might be the flow because I guess they cant handle allot or maybe a fish ate them, who knows..

I have know some they have worked for and other not.

Glad it worked out for you...

 

[DeepBlueSea]

Yea never had luck with them in a full reef, they disappear.
Might be the flow because I guess they cant handle allot or maybe a fish ate them, who knows..

I have know some they have worked for and other not.

Glad it worked out for you...

This was my second attempt and I have spent $200 on berghia on two seperate purchases 11 months apart. (Total $400) I used what I learned from the first time for this round.

No doubt Berghia will eat aiptasia, it's just creating an environment where they can survive long term. My solution of creating a seperate system with just a heater and airpump created the ideal environment for them to survive. (No powerheads to chew them up, no overflows to be sucked into the sump, no fish to eat them). Since my main display was realativley young, I was able to transport aiptasia covered rock from the main to the berghia tank. I'd let them clean those rocks and I'd then swap out rocks

Addionally, before I placed a single berghia in the main, I placed at least 8 egg swirls into the main display. They did hatch and I had some survive as I did see a couple in the sump one day. The real solution was my 10g aiptasia grow out system that I had prepared for 5 months leading up to my purchase. That allowed me to have a succesful breeding of a minimum of 100 babies berghia. I had only placed egg swirls into that system and a month later the system was aiptasia free with too many to berghia to count. I started placing small pieces of aiptasia covered rock into that system for a night then moved those rocks to the main. Eventually, I had no more rocks to move. I manually moved at least 40 berghia from that system into the main, but have not idea how many were on the rocks that I swapped out.

Bottom line... Right now I have an aiptasia free (visually speaking) main display. I'm hoping the file fish and peppermint shrimp keep it that way. If not I won't ever spend $200 on purchase of berghia. I can get away with just 4 berghia, as long as I have the food supply ready for a generation or two.

Right now I have at least 1 egg swirl that was laid within 24 hours. If I had a system filled with baby bleached out aiptasia, i could easily have a 3rd generation, but I've run out of aiptasia :-(

 

[DeepBlueSea]

4 months after having berghia delivered, eradicate a 120 system full of aiptasia, I Have managed to keep at least 5 berghia alive, while rearing another 10g system full of bleach out aiptasia.

Thinking, I'll have a 4 generation of babies sooner than later.

Good news, Just found a medium sized berghia in the sump of the main display.
Bad news... there are so many bleached out aiptasia in my sump it's unbelievable. LOL

A few visible aiptasia starting to grow back in the main display. Should be interesting to see if the peppermint shrimp and file fish keep them at bay or not.

If I have another generation 'bloom' outside the main display, I should be able to have just the right amount of Berghia's to tackle the next outbreak of aiptasia.

Would be quite happy if in November of 2019, I'm still breeding berghia's and keeping my system relatively visible 'free' of the aiptasia.

 

[DeepBlueSea]

Another note...

I've been treating with Fluconazole to eradicate bryopsis patches for the past 18 days. Therefore, I can confirm that Fluconazole will not kill berghia (at least in 18 days), since I found a good size berghia in the sump last night.

 

[DeepBlueSea]

Good news - April 12, 2019 - I have 6 new berghia egg swirls in the 10g bleached out aiptasia grow out tank.

Going to be placing 4 pieces of egg crate light diffuser material from the sump of the main display, into the 10g system These egg crate diffusers are littered with baby bleached out aiptasia, which will be perfect for the newly hatched berghia to feast upon and mature.

3rd or maybe this is the 4th generation from my purchase of berghia and it hasn't been all that much work.

Main display, I see aiptasia making a comeback. File fish and peppermint shrimp might be doing something, but nothing like an army of berghias do.