Berghia in overflows and sumps

[Ocelaris]

So I have some berghia coming tomorrow and the biggest infestation is in my overflow. It's a large space, 6x20x37", and I was wondering if people saw the berghia migrate from the main display to overflows and/or sumps? Just trying to cover all my bases for eradication.

The tank is 60x36x27, about 250 gallons, so I was going to split them up, some in the overflow and some in the main display unless anyone has feelings one way or another. Jeff from reeftown suggested starting them in the overflow and moving the ones that get swept into the filter socks into the main display, but that seems iffy that they'll survive in the socks for days between changing.

Thanks, Bill

 

[Retro Reefer]

I would split them between tank and overflow and then follow advice given for removing them from socks periodically or you could temporarily remove socks and let them find their way into your sump.

 

[SneakyTortuga]

I would split them between tank and overflow and then follow advice given for removing them from socks periodically or you could temporarily remove socks and let them find their way into your sump.

Be careful when dropping them in the overflow. I had a large aptasia eat a burghia once lol. Expensive little guys

 

[Ocelaris]

Yeah, I'm going to try and get them on some rock or a separate container and drop that in the overflow. I'm just very anxious about the wrasses, but hopefully they will go to sleep if I put the lights out once the berghia get here and are acclimated.

Will berghia climb out if a container or will they stay in the water? I'm thinking about leaving them in a container until night with a drip from the tank... But I don't want them crawling out into the sump.

 

[lactose]

I would split them between tank and overflow and then follow advice given for removing them from socks periodically or you could temporarily remove socks and let them find their way into your sump.

+1 for this. Worked best for me in a heavily infested tank once where I put them within 6" of where the aptasia where and then removed socks/filter pads. When they'd 'get lost' down in the sump (where I had no aptasia) I then diligently & repeatedly relocated them back to where the problem was.

 

[Ocelaris]

I'm assuming you had no strainers on the overflows? I'm thinking they'd get stuck to the drain pipes. I have two 1.5" drains and that's powered by two big AC submersible Sicce pumps (ADV 9.0 ~2500 gph and a earlier model ~2000 gph). Otherwise if they could pull themselves back from the strainers, it would be nice to keep them in the overflow.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Yeah, I'm going to try and get them on some rock or a separate container and drop that in the overflow. I'm just very anxious about the wrasses, but hopefully they will go to sleep if I put the lights out once the berghia get here and are acclimated.

Will berghia climb out if a container or will they stay in the water? I'm thinking about leaving them in a container until night with a drip from the tank... But I don't want them crawling out into the sump.

I just left mine in shipping container and let them crawl out on their own..

 

[BZOFIQ]

Where did you guys source them?

 

[Retro Reefer]

Where did you guys source them?

Salty Underground: The best online store for saltwater livestock

Salty Underground is the online store for the saltwater aquarium hobbyist. We have a large selection of saltwater fish and other marine livestock for sale and always free shipping after $169

saltyunderground.com

 

[lactose]

Salty Underground: The best online store for saltwater livestock

Salty Underground is the online store for the saltwater aquarium hobbyist. We have a large selection of saltwater fish and other marine livestock for sale and always free shipping after $169

saltyunderground.com

Same here.

 

[Ocelaris]

What's this? A tasty morsel?

 

[Ocelaris]

NOM NOM NOM NOM GONE!

 

[lactose]

you may already know this but in my and others' experiences the pattern looks like this:
add the nudis

watch them for first couple of days, see a couple aptasia disappear

you get bored and don't feel like you see progress for a few weeks (they seem to go after smaller ones first & inside nooks/holes you don't see in)

about a month or two later you start seeing lots disappear by nudi ninjas in the middle of the night

meanwhile the only time you tend to see them is lost in a sump/wherever (hopefully move them back to where there are aptasia when you see them lost)

since they reproduced a lot in that time now the aptasia disappear very noticeably day by day

at some point 99+% are gone and then you see them wandering hungry all over

you either rescue them and send them off to someone else's tank full of 'food' OR they then die off as they emptied out all their food

 

[Ocelaris]

Thanks, I've read every article and post I could find. I have a friend who has one or two now, so by the time I'm done I should have some for him. I knew it was going to be a long slog, so I waited until I had enough for them to not starve. I'm just crossing my fingers at this point. I was surprised that the wrasses laid down when I turned out the lights, but I'll keep the lights out until I can't see the Berghia anymore, probably the rest of the day. Almost everyone made it out of the containers, so I turned back on the pumps, but not the gyres. I would call it a successful deployment. Some points for others reading this later besides the obvious acclimation:

After acclimation, use containers that have lids, fill them up to the brim and put the lid on. Then open the container underwater so that there's no "rush" of water into the containers and the Berghia go flying. They're not paratroopers, they need something to stick on.

The egg sacks if you have them are very light, suction those out first and place them in the rock before you put the berghia container in. I did that for one and didn't for the other, so the egg sac blew down the overflow almost immediately when the overflow kicked back on (it's a really really gentle flow).

 

[Coronus]

Any progress ? How are these guys doing.

 

[Ocelaris]

They worked great, all aptasia were gone about a month ago. I've had three small ones pop up but I quickly took care of them and crossing my fingers. They took a long time to get started and then seemingly over a week or two they all disappeared. As long as they get settled they do their job, even though I had a leopard and melanurus wrasse.

 

[Bob Lauson]

Where did you guys source them?

Reeftown

 

[LarLarsLair]

Here's a pic of my nudi. Took like 20 minute video of him eating the aptaisia. I wanted to start like a separate culture of aiptasia to keep them fed but they don't seem to grow fast enough