(WTB) Berghia Nudibranchs

[andyman]

my berghias ended up finishing off most of the aptasia but they disappeared before finishing the job. What was left was enough to grow really big and reproduce.

Its been a week or more now and the sodium hydroxide I used on them pretty much vaporized those punks. Not a trace left.

I probably wouldn't buy berghias again.

 

[Vincerama2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12080112#post12080112 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Thales
Biological controls are always iffy. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't. I don't like biological controls unless you are actually interested in keeping the control animal for itself.

There are enough cases of berghia not doing well in show tanks to make me not recommend them (my experience as well) in a show tank, however keeping them in a separate tank and rotating aptasia infected rocks through that tank seems to work well (though labor intensive).

If you're gonna rotate them to a "cleaning" tank, then try peppermint shrimps first! Peps will eat them if they aren't eating anything else. In a cleaning tank, they would do well. In a show tank, they'll ignore the aiptasias and eat whatever you feed your fish.

V

 

[Thales]

See what I mean about biological controls?
In my old tank, peps ate aptasia every time I put one in. In the newer tank, they ignored them.

 

[GreshamH]

I put a herd of Peps into my prop tank a couple months ago and they ate every last aptasia in there Last tank was the opposite Just a roll of the dice every time.

 

[stubbsz]

I never see peps after introducing them... I get told they might be there but only out at night, but I've never seen them at night either.

My Aiptasia got reducued significantly when I did a carfully controlled experiment involving elevated salinity levels

Really, a flourishing but not really really bad population dropped to maybe one of two individuals. I wouldn't suggest anyone try that though

 

[neyugn0w01]

I heard that Klein's work great against aptasia. I tried berghia (never saw them), peppermints (killed by mystery wrasse) and Joe's Juice (doesn't kill them, just irritate them). Next line of defense is most likely a Klein.

 

[Vincerama2]

What's a Klein?

In my 10g tank at work, I had a bunch of BIG aiptasia. I put in a pep and it did nothing for a while, then I took a week off and whoever was looking after my tank probably forgot to feed the tank. Later, I found all the aiptasia gone. Sadly, my stupid HOB filer had a bunch in it and I think it re-seeded the tank...and the pep is gone. They don't live very long in my tanks for some reason, possibly insufficient iodine.

V

 

[GreshamH]

Chaetodon kleini

Butterfly

http://fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=5446&genusname=Chaetodon&speciesname=kleinii