Berghia's

[Reefland]

Anyone know someone with a surplus of Berghia's or where to get a handful reasonably priced?

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[UTCreefer]

IMHO these are a waste of time unless you have some crazy infestation of aiptasia, get 5 or so peppermint shrimp.

[Ninong]

Anyone know someone with a surplus of Berghia's or where to get a handful reasonably priced?

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Why do you want them???

[Reefland]

Eat Aiptasia. The problem is finding a place for them when they are done in my tank...

[Ninong]

Eat Aiptasia.

Scott,


That doesn't really work for a number of reasons.

• It's cost prohibitive if you buy individuals; however, you can frequently find egg strands advertised. They're easy to ship and they hatch in your tank, if all goes well.
• They won't make it in your tank. Your water current is way too strong. They will be constantly going over the overflow.
• They don't really finish off the Aiptasia. You would have to have probably a dozen or more to come even close. Any tiny pieces of tissue left behind can regenerate into new Aiptasia.
• This is more a fad than a practical solution to this problem. All of the other options are better.

Your tank is not large enough for a Chelmon rostratus but if you could borrow one temporarily, that would almost certainly do the trick. Have you tried peppermint shrimp?

[almostdiva]

Scott,

Inland Aquatics used to stock them at a not crazy price. I don't know if they still do.

Rebecca

[Ninong]

Rebecca,

Inland still has them but I'm not sure that $24.99 each fits into the definition of not crazy.

[Samper]

Scott I've seen three Lysmata wurdemanni diminish all sign of aiptasia in a matter of a month in a 75 gallon with a moderate infestation. I also had five of them eliminate all aiptasia in a 90 gallon that was in bad shape. I ordered two from premium and three from bluezooaquatics to increase my odds of getting a few that would do the job. They won't all eat them. My own 75 gallon has been free of aiptasia for a few months. I killed all I could find and then ordered two shrimp.

I have a few of these pests in the 180 at school but the hawk has kept me from purchasing shrimp. I'm just staying on top of the few I can find with kalk injections and don't plan on letting them get out of control. I know I'm missing a few big guys though because I keep finding really small anemones in places.

[almostdiva]

I'm not sure that $24.99 each fits into the definition of not crazy

most definitely NOT... they used to be cheaper.

[Ninong]

most definitely NOT... they used to be cheaper.

Yeah, and coffee used to be a nickel a cup all the way up until the late 1950's. When coffee went to a dime a cup, so did the price of soft drinks (CocaCola, etc.) in vending machines.

[Ninong]

Scott,

As I mentioned in an earlier post, you can sometimes find egg strands advertised at fairly reasonable prices (usually $29.95 + shipping) on that other board. They can be shipped USPS priority mail for about four bucks.

Here's a thread from a couple of weeks ago where somebody was offering 13 egg-laying adults, plus eggs. Looks like he sold them all to one guy almost immediately.

I don't remember ever reading a post where somebody reported complete success with these guys unless they started out with a lot of them. Because of the price, most people buy just a couple and that usually doesn't work.

I still think the other options are better -- either peppermint shrimp or a copperbanded butterflyfish. Ideally you would want to have at least a 135-gal tank for the butterflyfish but it might work in a 120-gal. I think a 75-gal would be really too small. Do you still have your Siganus unimaculatus? My foxface was going nuts in my 120-gal tank. I gave away all of my fish to a guy in Baton Rouge with a 300-gal tank before I sold my live rock and equipment.

[Poseidon]

Scott, I have heard that these guys do a good job on Aiptasia too....

Choice Aquariums - Product Detail

[Ninong]

Yes, they do eat Aiptasia, but they're definitely NOT reef-aquarium safe. They're omnivorous but they feed mainly on soft coral polyps in their natural environment.

[Poseidon]

Oh. Well who likes soft corals anyway!?

[Ninong]

[Ninong]

Scott,

Anthony Calfo's article on Berghia.



I'm going to excerpt a few of his caveats for you:

• One of the biggest obstacles to the care and culture of this sea slug has been their small adult size and vulnerability to common aspects of aquarium filtration, e.g. pumps, overflows, etc.

• Placing newly purchased Berghia directly into a display tank is not recommended – they will almost certainly die or be killed by any one of a number of pitfalls in the aquarium before they completely eradicate plague Aiptasia populations.

• Many common community fishes and invertebrates will damage or eat small “nudis” out of curiosity if they are simply dropped into an aquarium.

• There is also the concern that they will fall to the perils of high water flow, and the aforementioned pitfalls of pump intakes, overflows, etc., before they can establish themselves and breed.

• Considering how expensive they are to acquire, it only seems sensible to provide them a good start in isolation; a mere matter of days or couple of weeks is all that it takes to collect egg masses from active breeders.

• “Can we expect Berghia to completely decimate populations of Aiptasia in our aquariums and if so, what happens to the nudibranchs when they do?” -- Eric Borneman, (1998). It’s a matter of inverse predator-prey relationship: Berghia flourish (population goes up) while consuming Aiptasia (population goes down) and then high densities of Berghia can no longer be supported and crash (population goes down) while Aiptasia recover (population goes up).

I think the problem is that most people order two or three of these guys and then drop them into their aquarium expecting them to completely take care of their Aiptasia problem. Based on the posts that I have read, that rarely happens. What Anthony is saying is that they must be kept in a QT tank for the first couple of weeks and fed Aiptasia in the QT tank until they can get established and reproduce BEFORE you try to introduce them to your main display tank. And you must accept the fact that the ones in the main display tank are very likely to run into problems related to water flow (going over the overflow daily), etc.

One thing Anthony doesn't mention is that the natural lifespan of these critters is measured in months, not years. I haven't bothered to research this for Berghia in particular, but, in general, most nudibranchs have a lifespan of 12 months or less.

It's easy to keep a steady, breeding population of these guys in isolation, provided you feed them Aiptasia daily, but it's an entirely different matter to keep them going once you place them in a small tank, such as yours, with very high water flow.

[Reefland]

Ninong,

The only fish we have are our Powder Blue that we have had for over a year now and the Copperband we have had for 5 months or so. The Copperband has eaten some but not much. I have used 3 bottles of Joes Juice which has helped but there is no way to eliminate them with that stuff. Therefore I think my options are to try some peppermints, or remove all the rock and get all new (which may be an option if I could make up y mind on upgrading to a 120).
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