Setting expectations of B.Nudibranch's

PapaBear941 · Feb 25, 2022

Hello,

So I wanted to gauge from others who have experience with Berghia Nudibranch's, what to have as far as expectations of the critters.

I have been dealing with an Aiptasia problem for about a month now. I tried using "F-Aiptasia" but the problem im having is most of the Aiptasia are coming from the underside of Live Rock edges where you cant apply the F-Aiptasia solution and get it to stick.

So I have ordered a single B.N for my Fluval 13.5 tank that is a Coral Only tank in my office at work.

I want to know what can I expect as far as how many aiptasia in a day, a single B.N will get to? What are their feeding habits? I know they are nocturnal. What size Aiptasia do they typically go for? I have 1 that is on the larger side I would say, at the moment, probably about a nickel/quarter size, that I believe is doing of the most reproducing at the moment. Will the aiptasia go after that one in the beginning? Just trying to decide if I treat anymore of the aiptasia I am currently seeing now, as it is Friday 2/25, and I wont take delivery of my B.N until next week on 3/2.

Thanks in advance.

Nate Walls
Bradenton, FL

T-J · Feb 25, 2022

Nudis hunt in packs. Not sure how a single one will do.
I've put several hundred $$$$ worth of nudis in my tank. I saw them once eating an aiptasia. Never seen again. Aiptasias persisted.
I finally got a CBB and now I can't find a single aiptasia in the tank. In fact, I put rocks into the tank from another system that has aiptasia for the CBB to clean. It's completely cleared in an hour. The CBB destroys aiptasia FAST!
F-Aiptasia just spreads them.
Peppermint shrimp are hit and miss
My filefish has never eaten an aiptasia.

SaltyT · Feb 25, 2022

I would discontinue using F-aiptasia to avoid having the aiptasia spread more. A single berghia nudibranch will not be successful. I recommend ordering 1 or 2 more so that the berghia can reproduce enough to eradicate your aiptasia, but this takes time - several weeks to months. You will not see your aiptasia decline overnight. If your vendor didn't already tell you, make sure you do not put your berghia directly on an aiptasia - the aiptasia could eat it. And if you have peppermint shrimp remove them before your berghia arrives. Good luck!

Midrats · Feb 25, 2022

I think I put 4-5 in a 50g and it took some time but they got all the aiptasia. I started seeing them out during the day and on the glass then.

ColoredRock · Feb 25, 2022

Im having an aiptasia problem as well. Nudi's hunt in packs.. from what I have read once there is no more of their food source they die..

I have done the kalk paste and all the the other off the self products.. turn all pumps off for an hour to let it cake on and encapsulate them
enjected boiling water.. lemon juice. etc

the little buggers wave at me and and say not this time sucker.

Heck.. on one of the local forums I read.. it was posted:

"To prop aiptasia, you can pick up a plastic storage bin and toss is some rubble or tiles, small heater and a bubbler. Then grab a razor and start chopping. Tiles, might be easier and cleaner for both aiptasia and berghia to navigate? Don't forget to feed the aiptasia, they multiply faster when they get a steady source of food.
When adding berghia to a tank, I'll lower the flow at night until they get established or they're finished cleaning up the mess!"

I have been reading about CBB's and still researching.. ugh.

Freenow54 · Feb 25, 2022

T-J said:
Nudis hunt in packs. Not sure how a single one will do.
I've put several hundred $$$$ worth of nudis in my tank. I saw them once eating an aiptasia. Never seen again. Aiptasias persisted.
I finally got a CBB and now I can't find a single aiptasia in the tank. In fact, I put rocks into the tank from another system that has aiptasia for the CBB to clean. It's completely cleared in an hour. The CBB destroys aiptasia FAST!
F-Aiptasia just spreads them.
Peppermint shrimp are hit and miss
My filefish has never eaten an aiptasia.

Please tell me what CBB is thanks

Geebs19 · Feb 25, 2022

Freenow54 said:
Please tell me what CBB is thanks

Copperband Butterfly Fish, way to big for a 13.5g tank. I would suggest ordering a few more NB, they need a pack to hunt and reproduce and dont expect a change instantly, it takes them time to reproduce but they do the job, at least in my case.

T-J · Feb 25, 2022

Geebs19 said:
Copperband Butterfly Fish, way to big for a 13.5g tank. I would suggest ordering a few more NB, they need a pack to hunt and reproduce and dont expect a change instantly, it takes them time to reproduce but they do the job, at least in my case.

Sorry, didn't realize you only had a 13g tank. Yeah, you can't put a CBB in there. Get yourself 3-6 more nudis. Yes, they are expensive. Yes, they will work, but like others have said, it's going to take some time.

Chrisv. · Feb 25, 2022

I have a little tank of burghia going right now. I have 10 medium sized nudibranchs and they are eating 1-2 medium aiptasia per day. This is in a dedicated system with nothing but burghia, calcium reactor media (as substrate and for shelter) a heater, and an air pump.

SPS2020 · Feb 25, 2022

Never had any success with them. Basically never saw any of them again after I put them in the tank.

Chrisv. · Feb 25, 2022

SPS2020 said:
Never had any success with them. Basically never saw any of them again after I put them in the tank.

This was my experience before setting up a dedicated grow out tank for them. I plan to breed enough of them in the grow out system that I'm able to add a massive colony at once.

ReeferSamster · Feb 25, 2022

IMHO:

1) Berghias travel together to mate. (And they do that alot! ;Woot ) Although I've seen them group together to eat 1 large aiptasia, I've also seen them go solo on a different aiptasia for each of them. For hours. You also have a small tank. so I think if you had a couple of them, they'd make short work of your aiptasia.

2) I think if you had 1 breeding pair of berghias, the eggs won't make it. The amphipods will eat the eggs. Now if you had an army of berghias then each pair will lay hundreds of clutches a day. Very often. So just like in nature, a few will make it to hatch.

3) They will eat the largest aiptasia. Even ones that are much larger than them. The largest aiptasia, Willie the copperband won't touch. But tiny berghias will eat them.

4) I've seen them get eaten by Aiptasia too. They are at the weakest when they don't feed. When they eat aiptasia, they get stronger against aiptasia. You can tell if a berghia is weak or strong by their color. If they have a hint of brown highlights on their cerata, the "spikes" on their body, then the easier it is to eat the aiptasia and not get eaten by one. (I assume they get the brown highlights when they eat aiptasia. They absorb not only the nemacysts, but also the zooxanthelle too)

5) They are hardy regarding water conditions. I have a little nano tank to breed them but a few times I forgot to top off and have survived hypersalinic levels. (Worst they've been through is 1.028) They also survived 72 temperature when my cheap nano heater crapped out.

6) The most annoying part of propagation is to make sure you get rid of the amphipods on the live rock you bring in for aiptasia cleaning. Even a brief freshwater dip on the rocks that need aiptasia cleaning isn't enough. Amphipods are like cockroaches. They'll survive.

ColoredRock · Feb 25, 2022

SPS2020 said:
Never had any success with them. Basically never saw any of them again after I put them in the tank.

.. hit and miss.. but it looks like they can work.. might want to go back and read thru this tread... what worked for you?

Chrisv. · Feb 25, 2022

ReeferSamster said:
IMHO:

1) Berghias travel together to mate. (And they do that alot! ;Woot ) Although I've seen them group together to eat 1 large aiptasia, I've also seen them go solo on a different aiptasia for each of them. For hours. You also have a small tank. so I think if you had a couple of them, they'd make short work of your aiptasia.

2) I think if you had 1 breeding pair of berghias, the eggs won't make it. The amphipods will eat the eggs. Now if you had an army of berghias then each pair will lay hundreds of clutches a day. Very often. So just like in nature, a few will make it to hatch.

3) They will eat the largest aiptasia. Even ones that are much larger than them. The largest aiptasia, Willie the copperband won't touch. But tiny berghias will eat them.

4) They are at the weakest when they don't feed. When they eat aiptasia, they get stronger against aiptasia. You can tell if a berghia is weak or strong by their color. If they have a little bit of brown highlights on their cerata, the "spikes" on their body, then the easier it is to eat the aiptasia and not get eaten by one. (I assume they get the brown highlights when they eat aiptasia. They absorb not only the nemacysts, but also the zooxanthelle too)

5) They are hardy regarding water conditions. I have a little nano tank to breed them but a few times I forgot to top off and have survived hypersalinic levels. (Worst they've been through is 1.028) The most annoying part of propagation is to make sure you get rid of the amphipods on the live rock you bring in for aiptasia cleaning. Even a brief freshwater dip on the rocks that need aiptasia cleaning isn't enough. Amphipods are like cockroaches. They'll survive.

Mine haven't bred yet. I have a few questions:

Do they lay eggs on all surfaces or prefer vertical surfaces?

How do you remove the eggs without destroying them?

Do you heat your egg rearing tanks? Or do you hatch the eggs in the main tank?

Did you find a way to handle the amphipods?

SPS2020 · Feb 25, 2022

ColoredRock said:
.. hit and miss.. but it looks like they can work.. might want to go back and read thru this tread... what worked for you?

Oh, I know they CAN work...just didn't do anything for my issue. I used quite a bit of Aiptasia-X and later F-Aiptasia. However, as the OP mentioned, some of mine were under ledges, etc. So, I used reef epoxy and cut back nutrients. Fortunately, that was a few years back and not in my current Acro tank.

ReeferSamster · Feb 25, 2022

Chrisv. said:
Mine haven't bred yet. I have a few questions:

Do they lay eggs on all surfaces or prefer vertical surfaces?

They lay eggs wherever they want. I've only seen eggs on liverock, and also the smooth inside of a clam shell. I have not seen them lay eggs on glass walls of a tank.

Chrisv. said:
How do you remove the eggs without destroying them?

You don't remove them, unless you mean you want to save them from amphipods and into a dedicated tank? Use a disposable plastic pipette, and cut off the tip so the hole is larger. Then you just suck them in gently and release to where you want them to be placed. The eggs and the nudis are both hardy. I found that once I sucked in eggs, they lose "stickiness" so you can't stick them upside down (i.e. the inside of a clamshell right side up)

Chrisv. said:
Do you heat your egg rearing tanks? Or do you hatch the eggs in the main tank?

They are in a separate 5 gallon nano tank. A heater and an airstone. Thats is needed.

Chrisv. said:
Did you find a way to handle the amphipods?

Yes. I had to restart my breeding tank once I saw amphipods hang out near the eggs.
I started with a totally nuked liverock and did a deep freshwater dip. It probably wiped out a lot of microfauna and micrflora on the rock, but the coralline was still alive and I'm assuming some more made it. Then I kept introducing old tank water and a little bit of live sand to cycle the breeding nano tank.

Even then, I saw a few amphipods which I caught in an amphipod trap (small plastic container with fish flakes).
I haven't seen any amphipods since, but nowadays I don't bring aiptasia infested liverock into the nano tank anymore. I bring the berghias to the main tank. And guess what. They disappear. I think they get eaten by my fish. :mad:

I still see a few large aiptasia that Willie the copperband won't eat. I plan on nuking them (kalkwasser paste injections). It might spread them, but Willie is good at picking off the demon spawn of aiptasia. I haven't seen the aiptasia spread anymore on visible surfaces of the liverock, which means Willie is good at eating the juvenile aiptasia (and probably the berghias too!) but I still see aiptasia in the corners and crevices of liverock that Willie can't get to. So I don't think I've eradicated the problem.

I think aiptasia are like weeds in your lawn. Once you get em you'll never be able to eradicate them. You'll just keep them at bay. Maybe in your case, you can have eradication because its a small tank. I'd buy 1 dozen berghias and let them loose in your nano-tank. In my Reefer350, I think they get eaten. Note once the aiptasia is eradicated in your scenario, the berghia will die due to lack of food.

However, most likely you will reintroduce aitpasia when you do a frag swap or even from vendors.

And so the battle rages on....