Berghia and Dr. G's coral dip?

[Ocelaris]

So about two months have passed since I introduced about 25 Berghia Nudibranch into my display tank and they've just started making a dent in the aptasia population. But I also noticed that I now have red bugs on some corals... So the obvious solution if I didn't have berghia in the tank would to dose Dr. G's coral dip, which is milbemycin oxime. But does anyone know if this will kill the Berghia? Ideally I'd remove the berghia, but there's almost zero chance of catching most of them, and they probably have another two months to do their work. Thanks for any help.

 

[SeaDweller]

Why not let the berghia do their work first then treat red bugs later? If I were you, I’d do that and not worry bout the RB in the meantime. Treating with interceptor and the likes is easy nowadays.

 

[Ocelaris]

Yeah, that's probably the right way to go. Just lost one frag and with heavy feeding everyone else is holding on, so I'll give the berghia some leeway,and try to extract them temporarily if at all possible.

 

[SeaDweller]

Yeah, that's probably the right way to go. Just lost one frag and with heavy feeding everyone else is holding on, so I'll give the berghia some leeway,and try to extract them temporarily if at all possible.

Were your corals starving before?

Good luck with your course of actions, I’m sure you have some time before the RB become an issue.

 

[Ocelaris]

Yeah, pe was minimal a few weeks ago, but I've been doing reef chili, reef roids and acro power and everything has perked up. So partially my fault, but it's lose the tank or lose a few frags. The hairy millepora are basically unaffected. The new coral quarantine tank has been set up for a few months now, so I'm slowly learning my lesson.

 

[SeaDweller]

Yeah, pe was minimal a few weeks ago, but I've been doing reef chili, reef roids and acro power and everything has perked up. So partially my fault, but it's lose the tank or lose a few frags. The hairy millepora are basically unaffected. The new coral quarantine tank has been set up for a few months now, so I'm slowly learning my lesson.

Nice recovery plan. I’d rather lose a few frags than the whole system.

 

[minus9]

Dragonface pipefish do a great job at eating RB and they're fun to watch, given that you have a large enough tank to support their diet of pods?

 

[Ocelaris]

I thought pipe fish didn't like strong flow? I'm not sure a pipe fish would be able to sustain direct flow from a gyre 8" away? I've stayed away from any fish that doesn't like a lot of flow. It's a bare bottom 250g with four xf250s and two jebaos and probably 2000gpm actual return flow. I also have a leopard wrasse and melanurus which are always on the prowl.

 

[minus9]

It depends, if there are areas of lower flow, they'll get by just fine and in heavy flow, they anchor themselves as they move around. In larger systems, they fair rather well, but in smaller tanks with a lot of flow, it could pose a problem. I have one in my 90g sps tank, and he finds his way around just fine. When I put the tank in feed mode, he goes right up to the gyres and mp40's and pecks around, when everything turns up again, he goes about cruising around rock to rock.

 

[Ocelaris]

So my friend came over to get a few berghia, since I coludn't find any aptasia anymore, and after about an hour we found three... so I'm assuming the aptasia war is over for now. I removed almost all the chaeto, which was probably hosting some smaller aptasia, and doesed 10 caps of Dr. G's tonight. I'll do a water change tomorrow and run some carbon. I had thought about pulling out some of the sps which were rtn'ing from below, but there were a few which were encrusted so well it wouldn't be possible to pull them all out and dip separately. Crossing my fingers!

 

[duke62]

You most likely will never get rid of Aiptasia. Maybe control them to a extent but you will always have them. They are in your pipes, overflows, sump where the nudis can’t get to them. Once the nudis are gone you will see them pop up yet again. Red bugs would be my first priority

 

[Capitol Reef Corals]

Any news on how Dr. G's handled the Red Bugs and if the aptasia came back again?

 

[Ocelaris]

I know this is old, but thought I'd give an update. The Dr. G's did a good job; but I introduced a new mari colony which may have brought something in, so i'm going back to Dr. G's for some precautionary measures. I have pods up the whazoo, so not eager to lose them.

As for Aptasia, I've gone through two rounds. The first time I put like 30 big Berghia in, and it took about 3 months. That wiped out the Aptasia, but after a few months they came back. The second time I put in about 15, smaller, and this time it took much longer for them to get up to a size where they were reproducing and numbers were increasing. But it was about a 6 month time period where I still saw them. I've been clear of Aptasia for 3+ months, and still saw a Berghia a few weeks ago. So I'm in favor of smaller numbers with a bigger ramp up. My theory is that the longer the scavenging period after the majority are gone, the less baby Berghia I'll see. In the long run, I think they're the right solution, even though I may have to use them again every 6 months to a year. Only time will tell how effective they are, but they persist despite my hungry leopard and Melanurus wrasse.