Berghia Experience

[Dsnakes]

Ok... so I'm not sure what to think of this.... but the other day found a large adult nudi on the back glass... my tank still has a lot of aiptasia.... What gives?

Perhaps he’s solo and can’t breed? Or maybe you have a few that are very well hidden and they are just eating to stay alive, but not enough to defeat the aiptasia?

 

[Tbyram]

I just put 20 into my tank. I've been beating the aiptasia back with Aiptasia X but decided to try this. $175 for 20. Hope they work. Will let you know more in a month or so. Also hope that my emeral crabs or others don't get them first....was worried about that.

 

[Dsnakes]

I just put 20 into my tank. I've been beating the aiptasia back with Aiptasia X but decided to try this. $175 for 20. Hope they work. Will let you know more in a month or so. Also hope that my emeral crabs or others don't get them first....was worried about that.

Let us know how they do!

 

[domination2580]

I found 2 adults and a baby the other day. But yet my aiptasia is still thriving.... it's been about 6 months... do peppermint shrimp eat the nudis?

 

[PhreeByrd]

I've heard stories of peppermint shrimp and crabs eating Berghia, but I don't keep peppermints and never witnessed this personally. For me the biggest threat to them was high flow in the tank and getting chopped up in powerheads. Once I dealt with those issues, they seemed very safe, secure and prolific in my tanks.

Trust me, if you put them in the tank 2-3 months ago and you still have Berghia in the tank, then they are eating aiptasia. They starve very quickly (2-3 days tops) without their food source.

Domination2580, can you post a full tank shot photo so we can see what you're dealing with?

 

[Dsnakes]

I found 2 adults and a baby the other day. But yet my aiptasia is still thriving.... it's been about 6 months... do peppermint shrimp eat the nudis?

I would imagine they have to be eating some of them. There’s no way they would survive if not. I just can’t believe you don’t see more of them. Have you searched the tank at night with a flashlight? That’s when they feast.

 

[domination2580]

Look closely. You will find the rocks covered in the crap

 

[Tbyram]

Let us know how they do!

So it has only been about 1.5 months or so since introducing them to my tank. I have a 125 gal. I put a few in one of the overflows where there were some aptaisia growing and they are all gone. I put some in the other side but they may have gotten sucked down the overlow initially because I haven't seen any of them in there and the aptaisia are still in that side. I have seen 3-4 at night at various times so I know they are still going at it. I know you aren't supposed to use the Aptaisia X when introducing them but there were some larger ones that are on the opposite side of the tank that I just had to kill this weekend. I know they will eventually get to them but they are multiplying quickly with smaller ones so I'm being patient. I also purchased last weekend a tank bred Aptaisia eating filefish. He seems to be doing some good too.
Once again, only about a month or so into it. Not sure how many are still around with my emerald crabs and pistol shrimp but I know there are some still going. Will update more in another month or so. Waiting on the big explosion of the next generation that was promised...although I did see one small one recently so maybe I have some babies already. Fingers crossed.

 

[jd371]

I also purchased last weekend a tank bred Aptaisia eating filefish.

I added a total of 16 Nudis, 10 mixed sizes in April and another 6 of the 1/2" size in May. So far I have seen the Aptasia gone on the side of the tank where the Nudis were first introduced, looking into the caves at the sand level I see them gone from there as well. So my tank is on course from what I've read of them eating all the ones deep inside the rocks before venturing out. Still more Aptasia on the middle and top of the rock work.
Once the Nudis are done with the Aptasia I was thinking of getting a Filefish for Aptasia control. Have you noticed the Filefish picking at any corals?

 

[Injoynit]

I never got anywhere with my Nudis. Put about 20 in and never saw another one again. A few months later I put in 2 peppermint shrimp and aptasia problem is now gone. I also have 200 gal tank so for the money the peppermint shrimp are the way to go. But, it is a hit and miss with all aptasia problems. Some remedies work for some and some don't. Just a hit and miss with the remedies to see what happens.

 

[PhreeByrd]

I added a total of 16 Nudis, 10 mixed sizes in April and another 6 of the 1/2" size in May. So far I have seen the Aptasia gone on the side of the tank where the Nudis were first introduced, looking into the caves at the sand level I see them gone from there as well. So my tank is on course from what I've read of them eating all the ones deep inside the rocks before venturing out. Still more Aptasia on the middle and top of the rock work.
Once the Nudis are done with the Aptasia I was thinking of getting a Filefish for Aptasia control. Have you noticed the Filefish picking at any corals?

Once the Berghia are 'done', you should not need anything for control unless you introduce new aiptasia to your tank. In my experience, the Berghia will eradicate aiptasia completely from a reef tank.
The important things are:
Make sure they can pretty easily travel to all areas of the tank. They seem to prefer to travel across rock and glass rather than sand.
Try to eliminate the possibility of them being killed by unprotected powerheads and the like. Temporarily reduce the flow within and through your tank as much as you can.
Don't have other animals in the tank that might prey upon the Berghia and their eggs. Crabs and shrimps are real killers.
Do NOT use products like Aiptasia X or Joe's Juice while they are working unless you want to kill the Berghia.

 

[Tbyram]

I just put 20 into my tank. I've been beating the aiptasia back with Aiptasia X but decided to try this. $175 for 20. Hope they work. Will let you know more in a month or so. Also hope that my emeral crabs or others don't get them first....was worried about that.

So as many said it was slow initially. I didn’t see them for a while. Every so often around midnight I would go looking with a flash light and see 1 or 2. There were many aptasia visible in my tank about a week and a half ago. Then I left out of town for a week and when I returned...Friday morning they (nudis) were all over the front glass. I could not visibly see any aptasia in the tank. I saw little baby nudis and large adult ones.
Seems like they worked for me. I read that when you see them on the glass like that, they are looking for food and will die in about 5-6 days. So I posted to get them a new home.
Just met a guy and gave him 25 or so nudis for some corals to trade.
Overall they seem to have worked great for me.

 

[Jwheld]

So as many said it was slow initially. I didn’t see them for a while. Every so often around midnight I would go looking with a flash light and see 1 or 2. There were many aptasia visible in my tank about a week and a half ago. Then I left out of town for a week and when I returned...Friday morning they (nudis) were all over the front glass. I could not visibly see any aptasia in the tank. I saw little baby nudis and large adult ones.
Seems like they worked for me. I read that when you see them on the glass like that, they are looking for food and will die in about 5-6 days. So I posted to get them a new home.
Just met a guy and gave him 25 or so nudis for some corals to trade.
Overall they seem to have worked great for me.

Mine have been in there 3 months and aiptasia is slowly dwindling. I see a couple here and there so I know they are still working hard. Can’t wait until that stuff is all gone!

 

[jd371]

Mine have been in there 3 months and aiptasia is slowly dwindling. I see a couple here and there so I know they are still working hard. Can’t wait until that stuff is all gone!

Same time period and results for me. Just see a few Aptasia here and there now, mostly on the top part of the rock work, it's all cleared out at the sand level and midway point.

 

[wowkingjames]

I lover the nudi's they do a great job....

 

[Dancingmad]

I wonder how these things survive in the wild - is there really that much aiptasia in the reefs?

I bet they roam the reefs (plains) like slug bison, eating all the aiptasia in a herd style operation. When I envision that they moo - don't ask me why.

 

[revco33]

I have used and bred Berghia in the past, and they are indeed very effective and very interesting little critters. The tanks I originally placed them in have been aiptasia free for many years now.
I originally purchased 5 Berghia for a 75g display with a 35g sump/refugium. I knew that wasn't enough and I worried about them getting eaten by crabs, ground up by circulation pumps, stuck in overflows, etc., or just getting beaten to death by high flow before they ever had a chance to do their job. So I set up a 5g clean breeding tank; basically just a bare tank without any filtration, powerheads or lights. It didn't even have a heater, so it just stayed at room temperature. Put the 5 little Berghia into that tank, harvested a few aiptasia from the main display and put those into the tank with them. In minutes they had completely consumed those aiptasia. I remember thinking "Uh-ooooh..."

The next day I started up a second 5g tank to raise aiptasia (believe it or not) for the Berghia. I fed the aiptasia with skimmate from a skimmer and every day macerated a few aiptasia to get them to propagate. After a couple of days I had several clusters of eggs on the glass of the Berghia tank, and after a month I had about 40 nice sized Berghia, so I put half of them in the main display. After everything got settled in, I was putting 5-10 new Berghia into the display every week and selling 20-30 adults to my LFS every couple of weeks. It took about 2 months to completely rid the main display and the sump of aiptasia. If well-fed, the Berghia multiply and grow very easily and quickly. The new hatchlings start hunting for aiptasia immediately, and would grow from little larger than a pinhead to about 1/4" in 2-3 weeks. At one point I actually had to buy aiptasia cultures to keep all of the Berghia from starving. I was able to keep this up for a couple of years before it all just got to be too much.

Definitely worthwhile, and there is no better way to eradicate aiptasia from a reef tank. The little guys will find aiptasia that you can't see or reach, and completely eliminate them. They reproduce quickly as long as food is available, and their population is self-regulating. They are so small that when they ultimately die, there are no repercussions in terms of fouling the water. I never saw any of the fish in my tanks bother them. Likewise, amphipods will clean up after them but will not bother the Berghia themselves.

I would do this again without hesitation if I needed to, but I haven't seen an aiptasia in my tanks for many years.

nice write up. can i somehow detach aiptasia from my rocks in the display and feed that to the berghia? boiling water and shooting it at the base of the aiptasia will get them to let go a bit and then i'm able to pull them into a syringe. i havent started a breeding tank yet. just want to know if i can give them basically dead aiptasia. thanks

 

[ScottR]

nice write up. can i somehow detach aiptasia from my rocks in the display and feed that to the berghia? boiling water and shooting it at the base of the aiptasia will get them to let go a bit and then i'm able to pull them into a syringe. i havent started a breeding tank yet. just want to know if i can give them basically dead aiptasia. thanks

Once you bother the aiptasia, they release spores and one becomes dozens more. I have come to the conclusion in all of my experience that, only creatures that eat aiptasia are a sure way to get rid of them forever. Peppermint shrimp worked for me but they did go after acans. But I guess I’m willing to pay that price.

 

[PhreeByrd]

I agree with ScottR.
Aiptasia are super resilient critters. You can slice them off of a rock with a razor blade or exacto knife, and it will not kill them. But I do not believe Berghia will eat dead aiptasia, so I would not go the boiling water route.

If you're able, I would place a few small rubble rocks in the midst of your heaviest aiptasia infestations, and in a coupe of days they should populate those rubble rocks. Then put those infested rocks in with the Berghia. Place some more rubble rocks in your display to be populated, and you can then start a regular rotation to keep the Berghia fed until you're ready to put them into the display.
And seriously, if you cut an aiptasia in half (basically cut the tentacles off the trunk), you will almost always end up with two viable aiptasia.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.