Aiptasia and Berghia Nudibranch breeding project

[Jmp998]

Oooh that's really helpful. The movements of the berghia larvae align with what I'm seeing. They're much jerkier then I was expecting.

No-the jerky movers are pods. The ones that look like they are barely cruising along or not moving at all are Berghia. I was trying to show pods and Berghia together, no predation.

 

[silent1mezzo]

I just found an adult Berghia in my aiptasia growout. Sucked it out quickly but now I'm worried. I'm not sure how it got there. I've been careful not to cross contaminate anything.

 

[dochoot]

Jurrasic Park-ish.

 

[Jmp998]

I just found an adult Berghia in my aiptasia growout. Sucked it out quickly but now I'm worried. I'm not sure how it got there. I've been careful not to cross contaminate anything.

This is my worry, Berghia larvae are tiny and effectively invisible if they contaminate something (including your hands) until the grow up. However I suspect as long as you monitor daily you will be ok, since Berghia must be very macroscopic to breed. It is probably not as bad as contaminating phyto with pods or something like that where you basically have to discard the whole culture.

I am ultra careful, every day when I feed or do other maintenance I always handle the Aiptasia first and then once I handle the Berghia do not go back to the Aiptasia until the next day, do not use any of the same equipment for both systems, and the very few items that I must use between systems (e.g. a cup to pour Aiptasia into the Berghia system) gets washed and/or soaked in HOT fresh water before going back to the Aiptasia system. Hot water seems to be pretty fast and effective at killing both Berghia and Aiptasia.

 

[silent1mezzo]

This is my worry, Berghia larvae are tiny and effectively invisible if they contaminate something (including your hands) until the grow up. However I suspect as long as you monitor daily you will be ok, since Berghia must be very macroscopic to breed. It is probably not as bad as contaminating phyto with pods or something like that where you basically have to discard the whole culture.

I am ultra careful, every day when I feed or do other maintenance I always handle the Aiptasia first and then once I handle the Berghia do not go back to the Aiptasia until the next day, do not use any of the same equipment for both systems, and the very few items that I must use between systems (e.g. a cup to pour Aiptasia into the Berghia system) gets washed and/or soaked in HOT fresh water before going back to the Aiptasia system. Hot water seems to be pretty fast and effective at killing both Berghia and Aiptasia.

This is what I was doing. I did move an invested rock in from my display tank early on and I wonder if there was juvenile on it.

 

[Jmp998]

This is what I was doing. I did move an invested rock in from my display tank early on and I wonder if there was juvenile on it.

Sounds likely. Hopefully just the one and you have already solved it.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

This is what I was doing. I did move an invested rock in from my display tank early on and I wonder if there was juvenile on it.

sounds like a good possibility

 

[silent1mezzo]

Starting to see some results. I'm picking out 1-2 floating berghia in my sump a day now. I can see at least 4 in the overflow (lots of aiptasia) and I've got at least 4 confirmed in the breeding tank with what looks to be a lot of juveniles (still very hard to see).

Aiptasia is growing amazing well, babies all over the glass and the tank. At almost the 2 month mark now I would not recommend using charcoal. It moves around too much with water changes and most of the aiptasia attach to the bottom of the tank, not the charcoal. The bio media and rubble are much easier to move between tanks.

 

[Doctorgori]

I just found an adult Berghia in my aiptasia growout. Sucked it out quickly but now I'm worried. I'm not sure how it got there. I've been careful not to cross contaminate anything.

“ Aptasia colony cross contaminated”? …gotta admit that does sound funny LOL …
rock on, carry on ….back to lurking thread

 

[silent1mezzo]

“ Aptasia colony cross contaminated”? …gotta admit that does sound funny LOL …
rock on, carry on ….back to lurking thread

I'm one of the crazies actually trying to grow aiptasia

 

[silent1mezzo]

I've got another tub on top of my tank that I just started growing in too. Short term I'm just making sure I can sustainably growth both before investing in a larger setup. Longer term I'd look at racking a few 50 gallon lowboys for aiptasia growth

This set up definitely "failed". Berghia got sucked in through the pump and then started living in here. I can't grow aiptasia fast enough. The plan was to seed aiptasia here and then move it over to the berghia tank.

 

[Jmp998]

This set up definitely "failed". Berghia got sucked in through the pump and then started living in here. I can't grow aiptasia fast enough. The plan was to seed aiptasia here and then move it over to the berghia tank.

That’s disappointing, but I think the only way is to have an isolated aiptasia system. Berghia larvae are too small and will get everywhere otherwise.

 

[silent1mezzo]

That’s disappointing, but I think the only way is to have an isolated aiptasia system. Berghia larvae are too small and will get everywhere otherwise.

Ya I definitely agree with you. I've definitely learnt a lot so far