Der ABT
Active Member
well finally found some nudi babies from my breeding attempt - so far count around 6 or 7 babies from the orig 2 adults and 2 subadults. thought i would chronicle my eperience and put up a blurb i did on our local board about my experience and do's/donts..hopefully i can raise them to adults and get a colony going.
To start out we had a local reefer asking for aiptasia and i graciously gave him a ton. Did a little research via google and then kinda tried some things out, failed the first time....I had one and some eggs i ended up putting in the tank in a small overflow acrylic box i usually use to acclimate fish as i can make it out of the water or move it down enough to use the tank water as well. it ended up filling up with pods and then the adult nudi disappeared, moved it into the frag tank just in case the eggs made it with a little piece of rock and some aiptasia in there..and my wopping 2 mangroves then forgot about it.
Started up my 10g qt/hospital tank that usually sits dry. used old tank water from a water change done during lights on in hopes of not getting a ton of pods (they can be a pest for nudi/eggs) used an airstone and a heater, plucked a bunch of aiptasia of all sizes from gigantic to small and dropped in 2 adult nudi's and a cover to stop evap.
read copps and a few others saying that aiptasia tend to reproduce faster in high flow...BIG MISTAKE on my part as i put the pump in the same tank the nudi's were in and of course 2 of them crawled in there and got chopped up...but lived somehow. they liked hanging out on the pump so i just unplugged it and left it in there.
SO basically if you want to add flow for aiptasia do it in a seperate tank.
Keep it low light and the aiptasia will send of new polyp aiptasia faster supposedly. DO not put any live rock in the nudi tank, bristle worms and pods/etc will sometime eat/hunt nudi's and nudi eggs.
then one day i took out a nori clip to refill from my frag tank and noticed something funny in the middle, hey a nudi woo hoo dropped him in the 10g, then few days later notice another one in the initial overflow box, wohoo up to 4 adults/subadults in my "breeding 10g"....maybe more i havent seen.
Then i just do a 95% water change (approx 6 of around 7 gal) change once a week. Add aiptasia as needed, well technically as time would allow me to "harvest" them from my tank..then comes patience, i probably look every day to see if i can still count the adults which got annoying but was promising they stayed alive.
it has been a little over a month/month and a half (guessing the adults werent technically adults yet so the eggs may not have been viable). they lay eggs all the time in little strands that are usually circular.
they can eat anywhere from 0-5 aiptasia a day per adult - had them in a little tupperware for the first week doing daily water changes and they would plow thru the aiptasia and could be all sizes from nickle size aiptasia (4 a day) to little ones 5-7 a day.. then they may not eat for a few days
Now im filling my 10g every 3-5 days or so trying to keep a good base of food for them.
boy thas more work then i thought now that i write it out.
they are very cool looking and really only thing i do is add aiptasia, so if you start aiptaisia in a bare tank/ No rock etc just a bare tank, do close to 100 percent water chagnes weekly and feed the heck out of it till you have a good population of aiptasia some say close to or over 1000 to get a good population that can sustain them, add nudi's and dont feed as much (keep water quality a little better) then wait, and if you are about to give up wait 2 more weeks and then get out the magnifying glass.
very cool project..my wife found it nuts till i told her they can go for like 15 a piece online why not try to make a close to free colony...I hope to be able to spread the wealth especially once i rid my main tank of aiptasia.
sorry to be long winded hope this helps anyone trying to breeed them if anyone has any pointers id be all ears. Happy reefing
To start out we had a local reefer asking for aiptasia and i graciously gave him a ton. Did a little research via google and then kinda tried some things out, failed the first time....I had one and some eggs i ended up putting in the tank in a small overflow acrylic box i usually use to acclimate fish as i can make it out of the water or move it down enough to use the tank water as well. it ended up filling up with pods and then the adult nudi disappeared, moved it into the frag tank just in case the eggs made it with a little piece of rock and some aiptasia in there..and my wopping 2 mangroves then forgot about it.
Started up my 10g qt/hospital tank that usually sits dry. used old tank water from a water change done during lights on in hopes of not getting a ton of pods (they can be a pest for nudi/eggs) used an airstone and a heater, plucked a bunch of aiptasia of all sizes from gigantic to small and dropped in 2 adult nudi's and a cover to stop evap.
read copps and a few others saying that aiptasia tend to reproduce faster in high flow...BIG MISTAKE on my part as i put the pump in the same tank the nudi's were in and of course 2 of them crawled in there and got chopped up...but lived somehow. they liked hanging out on the pump so i just unplugged it and left it in there.
SO basically if you want to add flow for aiptasia do it in a seperate tank.
Keep it low light and the aiptasia will send of new polyp aiptasia faster supposedly. DO not put any live rock in the nudi tank, bristle worms and pods/etc will sometime eat/hunt nudi's and nudi eggs.
then one day i took out a nori clip to refill from my frag tank and noticed something funny in the middle, hey a nudi woo hoo dropped him in the 10g, then few days later notice another one in the initial overflow box, wohoo up to 4 adults/subadults in my "breeding 10g"....maybe more i havent seen.
Then i just do a 95% water change (approx 6 of around 7 gal) change once a week. Add aiptasia as needed, well technically as time would allow me to "harvest" them from my tank..then comes patience, i probably look every day to see if i can still count the adults which got annoying but was promising they stayed alive.
it has been a little over a month/month and a half (guessing the adults werent technically adults yet so the eggs may not have been viable). they lay eggs all the time in little strands that are usually circular.
they can eat anywhere from 0-5 aiptasia a day per adult - had them in a little tupperware for the first week doing daily water changes and they would plow thru the aiptasia and could be all sizes from nickle size aiptasia (4 a day) to little ones 5-7 a day.. then they may not eat for a few days
Now im filling my 10g every 3-5 days or so trying to keep a good base of food for them.
boy thas more work then i thought now that i write it out.
they are very cool looking and really only thing i do is add aiptasia, so if you start aiptaisia in a bare tank/ No rock etc just a bare tank, do close to 100 percent water chagnes weekly and feed the heck out of it till you have a good population of aiptasia some say close to or over 1000 to get a good population that can sustain them, add nudi's and dont feed as much (keep water quality a little better) then wait, and if you are about to give up wait 2 more weeks and then get out the magnifying glass.
very cool project..my wife found it nuts till i told her they can go for like 15 a piece online why not try to make a close to free colony...I hope to be able to spread the wealth especially once i rid my main tank of aiptasia.
sorry to be long winded hope this helps anyone trying to breeed them if anyone has any pointers id be all ears. Happy reefing
