Trouble Culturing Berghia????

[jlinzmaier]

Thanks for the detail explanation.

Have you seen Dr. Kempf's work? If so, is there a reason why you chose not to follow them? In particular, I would be interested to see:

1. Remove any sand and use only MFSA water. The intend here is to make sure no bacteria, fungus, virtus or micro-pods were introduced.
2. Continue to perform water change on a daily basis using MSFA water until the Berghia reaches adulthood.
3. During the metamorphosis phrase of culturing, make sure to provide the Berghia its proper food source: Bleached tiny bits of Aiptasia. This is particularly important as juveniles might not have enough energy to grow cerata properly and die prematurely.

I tried that exact method to a "T". No results from that method other than my wallet being a bit lighter from having to purchase $125 worth of millipore filters.

Appreciate the thought!!

Jeremy

 

[dzhuo]

That's unfortunate.

At what point of the culturing process you notice it's not yielding result? Was the egg mass significantly smaller? Was the eggs no longer hatching at the rate you expected? Or was the young no longer reaching adulthoods?

 

[jlinzmaier]

That's unfortunate.

At what point of the culturing process you notice it's not yielding result? Was the egg mass significantly smaller? Was the eggs no longer hatching at the rate you expected? Or was the young no longer reaching adulthoods?

If I wasn't doing an artificial hatch then most of the egg strands simply wouldn't hatch out anything. They'd just eventually start to decompose. When I did an artificial hatch then it would be hit or miss. Some batches would yield some visible hatchlings and in some batches the eggs would just lay on the bottom and never hatch. Of the few batches that would yield hatchlings, about 1 in 20 would have about 3-4 berghia grow out and one in every 40-50 batches I'd get like a hundered berghia to grow out.

It's extremely frustrating to get such inconsistent results and not being able to figure out why.

Jeremy

 

[dzhuo]

Yes it's frustrating but the problems you described aren't atypical. I still suspect your problem is related to the points I made earlier. Most of the breeders I know of only use MFSA or water filtered with membrane so I am surprise that you have decided to step away from it and trying to introduce micro-fungas to your culture. This is generally a huge no no. Another point related to the water source Kempf mentioned is that he has never been able to use freshly mixed salt water for egg or larvae so this is something to keep in mind.

Aside from that, you haven't mention (or I missed along the discussion) how you feed the juvenile which must go through a metamorphosis stage and is critical that the proper food item is present.

Anyhow, if you have follow Kempf's method to the "T" and is still not having success, the problem might be elsewhere and one we don't fully understand yet.

 

[jlinzmaier]

Yes it's frustrating but the problems you described aren't atypical. I still suspect your problem is related to the points I made earlier. Most of the breeders I know of only use MFSA or water filtered with membrane so I am surprise that you have decided to step away from it and trying to introduce micro-fungas to your culture. This is generally a huge no no. Another point related to the water source Kempf mentioned is that he has never been able to use freshly mixed salt water for egg or larvae so this is something to keep in mind.

Aside from that, you haven't mention (or I missed along the discussion) how you feed the juvenile which must go through a metamorphosis stage and is critical that the proper food item is present.

Anyhow, if you have follow Kempf's method to the "T" and is still not having success, the problem might be elsewhere and one we don't fully understand yet.

Thank you for all your suggestions!!

I also thought it was rediculously ironic that using a container with a sandbed full of fauna produced more berghia than without. It makes no sense but the results are clear that I get more adults with that variable.

In regards to feeding, I introduce tiny aiptasia (about 1/4th the size of a pencil eraser) at the 9th day. I continue to feed those tiny aiptasia to the berghia until they are about 1/8th of an inch long. At that size I rarely lose any berghia so they must be OK with eating larger aiptasia at that point in their maturity.

I'm not giving up yet. I'll continue experimenting As long as I can continue to get at least a couple from a culture now and then I'll have a steady supply of adults to lay egg strands for me to experiment with.

Jeremy

 

[Reef Noob]

The final batch was kept and cultured in water with a SG of 1.010 and I've gotten some juveniles to grow out. I'm not sure why they would do better at such a drastically low salinity...

I have the answer that will make perfect sense: They are from brackish water. There is a local discussion (Central Florida) about them. One member had been collecting berghia from where I will be collecting your aptasia (Ponce Inlet, which is just south of Daytona). The salinity changes through out the day from full marine to some degree of brackish (depending on the tide change). I'll get some water samples to test, and will post them here.

(Next scheduled boating outing is on the 23rd, but will depend on the local weather.)

 

[jlinzmaier]

I have the answer that will make perfect sense: They are from brackish water. There is a local discussion (Central Florida) about them. One member had been collecting berghia from where I will be collecting your aptasia (Ponce Inlet, which is just south of Daytona). The salinity changes through out the day from full marine to some degree of brackish (depending on the tide change). I'll get some water samples to test, and will post them here.

(Next scheduled boating outing is on the 23rd, but will depend on the local weather.)

Awesome! That could explain why my cultures with a SG of 1.010 typically do better than others.

Jeremy