Berghia breeding questions

[LFGJP]

I just take only the heads so the base grows back. I never lose an Aiptasia that way. Feed them frozen rotifiers every couple days and you will start to see new “baby” aiptasia popping up everywhere. Feed them a powder like Reef Roids. When you think you have enough Aiptasia, try to double that number lol.

Been following this thread, thanks for the great info, do you just take a razor blade and cut the aptasia head off?

 

[William Bruckmann]

Been following this thread, thanks for the great info, do you just take a razor blade and cut the aptasia head off?

Scissors….slowly sneak in from underneath. My tank is mostly flat bottom acrylic. Getting them of the rock work section is more challenging but I can usually find one that has extended enough.

 

[LFGJP]

Scissors….slowly sneak in from underneath. My tank is mostly flat bottom acrylic. Getting them of the rock work section is more challenging but I can usually find one that has extended enough.

I’m going to try that and the berghias are good just eating the head of it? I’ve read somewhere that like bad aptasia can hurt the berghias? Not true I assume

 

[Jmp998]

I’m going to try that and the berghias are good just eating the head of it? I’ve read somewhere that like bad aptasia can hurt the berghias? Not true I assume

Cutting the heads off aiptasia and feeding to Berghia is fine. Get stainless steel surgical scissors from Amazon etc (Mayo dissecting scissors). They will last much longer, but you should still rinse salt water off after use. I found the curved ones easier to use.

Don't feed them sick/dying Aiptasia, e.g. from an aiptasia culture that is crashing due to lack of maintenance or pump failure. That can kill the Berghia.

 

[LFGJP]

Cutting the heads off aiptasia and feeding to Berghia is fine. Get stainless steel surgical scissors from Amazon etc (Mayo dissecting scissors). They will last much longer, but you should still rinse salt water off after use. I found the curved ones easier to use.

Don't feed them sick/dying Aiptasia, e.g. from an aiptasia culture that is crashing due to lack of maintenance or pump failure. That can kill the Berghia.

Ah! Understood! I’ll try there out
Thank you so much!

Quick question how long does it take for the eggs to hatch?

 

[Jmp998]

At room temp (68F) up to 3 weeks to hatch, at reef temp (78F) about 1.5-2 weeks. It seems to vary some. Newly hatched will be a variable mix of plankton and TINY crawling larvae. Make sure that there are tiny aiptasia for them to feed on when they hatch. A couple of days after hatching, look for tiny 'commas' around tiny Aiptasia, assuming you are hatching in a small container. Unless you know what you are looking for and have them a small container, it is easy to miss them until they are 2-3 weeks old and 2-3 mm in size. A magnifying glass is very helpful to see them, or one of the cheap 'wireless digital microscopes'. However there is not really any need to see them, as long as you have tiny aiptasia for them to eat.

If the eggs just turn into a soggy mess, then that is probably a failed batch. If the eggs synchronously disappear over a 1-2 day period, that is a good hatch. If you are hatching in a small container, keep it for at least a month after hatching even if you don't see any larvae. It is not uncommon for me to see nothing for a couple of weeks post-hatch, then suddenly find small juveniles that were overlooked.

 

[William Bruckmann]

I’m going to try that and the berghias are good just eating the head of it? I’ve read somewhere that like bad aptasia can hurt the berghias? Not true I assume

 

[William Bruckmann]

Yes they eat them just fine. The only danger Berghia have from aiptasia is if you put them in contact with it. They have to attack on their own to avoid getting stung.

 

[LFGJP]

At room temp (68F) up to 3 weeks to hatch, at reef temp (78F) about 1.5-2 weeks. It seems to vary some. Newly hatched will be a variable mix of plankton and TINY crawling larvae. Make sure that there are tiny aiptasia for them to feed on when they hatch. A couple of days after hatching, look for tiny 'commas' around tiny Aiptasia, assuming you are hatching in a small container. Unless you know what you are looking for and have them a small container, it is easy to miss them until they are 2-3 weeks old and 2-3 mm in size. A magnifying glass is very helpful to see them, or one of the cheap 'wireless digital microscopes'. However there is not really any need to see them, as long as you have tiny aiptasia for them to eat.

If the eggs just turn into a soggy mess, then that is probably a failed batch. If the eggs synchronously disappear over a 1-2 day period, that is a good hatch. If you are hatching in a small container, keep it for at least a month after hatching even if you don't see any larvae. It is not uncommon for me to see nothing for a couple of weeks post-hatch, then suddenly find small juveniles that were overlooked.

Oh okay so have a separate tank just for the eggs?
Use the siphon and take out the eggs manually?

 

[William Bruckmann]

Oh okay so have a separate tank just for the eggs?
Use the siphon and take out the eggs manually?

I use a Pipette and put them in beakers.

 

[LFGJP]

I use a Pipette and put them in beakers.

Got it same sponge filters with small heater? And drop in some baby aptasia in there?

 

[LFGJP]

Got it same sponge filters with small heater? And drop in some baby aptasia in there?

or just airstones?

 

[Jmp998]

For the eggs-you can scrape off and transfer with a pipette, or just put adult berghia in a tupperware or whatever for a couple of days until they lay eggs and then take the adults back out. For the eggs, you don't need a sponge filter just a very little gravel or small rock that is cycled (from the adult berghia tank), a few tiny aiptasia so food is available when they hatch, and SLOW bubbles from an airline. The eggs and larvae produce almost no waste, and they are tolerant of nitrate/phosphate/etc anyway. Heater will shorten hatching and development time but is not required if your house is >65F. I never use heaters in the hatching containers because a heater in a small container is such a fire hazard. I do use heaters in the grow out tanks just to make sure they are well adapted to normal reef tank temps, but I don't know if that is necessary.

 

[LFGJP]

For the eggs-you can scrape off and transfer with a pipette, or just put adult berghia in a tupperware or whatever for a couple of days until they lay eggs and then take the adults back out. For the eggs, you don't need a sponge filter just a very little gravel or small rock that is cycled (from the adult berghia tank), a few tiny aiptasia so food is available when they hatch, and SLOW bubbles from an airline. The eggs and larvae produce almost no waste, and they are tolerant of nitrate/phosphate/etc anyway. Heater will shorten hatching and development time but is not required if your house is >65F. I never use heaters in the hatching containers because a heater in a small container is such a fire hazard. I do use heaters in the grow out tanks just to make sure they are well adapted to normal reef tank temps, but I don't know if that is necessary.

Wow thank you so much for the info! I’ll look at the bigger aptasia tank to see if I see any babies in there or bring one large one to start forming some baby aptasia in the egg containers.
thank you for the generous wealth of knowledge!

 

[LFGJP]

For the eggs-you can scrape off and transfer with a pipette, or just put adult berghia in a tupperware or whatever for a couple of days until they lay eggs and then take the adults back out. For the eggs, you don't need a sponge filter just a very little gravel or small rock that is cycled (from the adult berghia tank), a few tiny aiptasia so food is available when they hatch, and SLOW bubbles from an airline. The eggs and larvae produce almost no waste, and they are tolerant of nitrate/phosphate/etc anyway. Heater will shorten hatching and development time but is not required if your house is >65F. I never use heaters in the hatching containers because a heater in a small container is such a fire hazard. I do use heaters in the grow out tanks just to make sure they are well adapted to normal reef tank temps, but I don't know if that is necessary.

Few more questions lol
Aptasias looking a little soft or slouched means it’s bad aptasia? Or just like a regular anemone it means that’s it’s digesting etc?

How long until berghias reach maturity?
Also if I leave the eggs in the same tank and just let it hatch will there be any danger?
I’ve bread clowns before and I know they just eat the hatchlings or other tank mates will, but wasn’t sure if separating them is 100% necessary?

 

[Jmp998]

Aiptasia that are just temporarily slumped or whatever should be ok. I was trying to do really high density Aiptasia growth for a while, and sometimes those cultures would crash. A couple of times I tried feeding those dying Aiptasia to Berghia, and then the Berghia died.

I don't think the adults are directly aggressive to the larvae/juveniles, but adults are much faster and 'smarter' about finding food. I think it is just hard for the larvae to find food if they are competing with adults in a small space-the adults can gobble up the smaller Aiptasia like tasty little bonbons before the larvae can eat them. As long as you have plenty of Aiptasia it should be ok, just lower yield. However it is very hard to maintain an Aiptasia excess for a long time, because the more the adults eat the more eggs they lay, and it quickly gets out of control.

Generation time is about 7-8 weeks at normal reef temp, closer to 10-12 weeks at 65-68F.

 

[LFGJP]

Aiptasia that are just temporarily slumped or whatever should be ok. I was trying to do really high density Aiptasia growth for a while, and sometimes those cultures would crash. A couple of times I tried feeding those dying Aiptasia to Berghia, and then the Berghia died.

I don't think the adults are directly aggressive to the larvae/juveniles, but adults are much faster and 'smarter' about finding food. I think it is just hard for the larvae to find food if they are competing with adults in a small space-the adults can gobble up the smaller Aiptasia like tasty little bonbons before the larvae can eat them. As long as you have plenty of Aiptasia it should be ok, just lower yield. However it is very hard to maintain an Aiptasia excess for a long time, because the more the adults eat the more eggs they lay, and it quickly gets out of control.

Generation time is about 7-8 weeks at normal reef temp, closer to 10-12 weeks at 65-68F.

This all makes perfect sense! Thank you again for all the info!

 

[dbugg]

For the eggs-you can scrape off and transfer with a pipette, or just put adult berghia in a tupperware or whatever for a couple of days until they lay eggs and then take the adults back out. For the eggs, you don't need a sponge filter just a very little gravel or small rock that is cycled (from the adult berghia tank), a few tiny aiptasia so food is available when they hatch, and SLOW bubbles from an airline. The eggs and larvae produce almost no waste, and they are tolerant of nitrate/phosphate/etc anyway. Heater will shorten hatching and development time but is not required if your house is >65F. I never use heaters in the hatching containers because a heater in a small container is such a fire hazard. I do use heaters in the grow out tanks just to make sure they are well adapted to normal reef tank temps, but I don't know if that is necessary.

Thanks for all the info. The contradiction is we have to have some cycled *something* in the breeding container, but all my cycled somethings have pods that eat the eggs I guess, because the eggs never make it. How do you keep pods out of the berghia tank, and maintain some biofiltration. Even my adult nudis died during this last attempt. I was running a small airfilter, water was excellent, but everything died, I think because I didn't have enough established bacteria.

 

[Jmp998]

Thanks for all the info. The contradiction is we have to have some cycled *something* in the breeding container, but all my cycled somethings have pods that eat the eggs I guess, because the eggs never make it. How do you keep pods out of the berghia tank, and maintain some biofiltration. Even my adult nudis died during this last attempt. I was running a small airfilter, water was excellent, but everything died, I think because I didn't have enough established bacteria.

I have various copepods in my berghia system (like you would buy from any of the phytoplankton/pod sellers). In my experience they are not a concern, but rather helpful cleanup crew. I do not have amphipods-there was never enough food to maintain them.

Some batches of berghia eggs fail for reasons that are unclear to me, but some produce way too many larvae to feed/raise anyway. I just set up a few and it usually works out.

For my egg hatching containers, I just use a small amount of gravel (less than a teaspoon) taken from the berghia grow out tanks or the aiptasia tanks to provide bio filtration. Berghia do not produce much waste and they tolerate phosphate and nitrate.

I’m not sure why your adult Berghia died, they are generally very hardy. Make sure they can’t crawl into a pump or heater, this is a hazard in small spaces as they are always looking for a dark place to hide, and if there is no rock etc they will choose whatever is available.

If you are setting up separate egg hatching containers, keep in mind it may be a month or so before larvae are big enough to be noticed.

Berghia larvae hatched in a container with many pods:

 

[kris2001]

Great thread!
I initially thought the nudibranch poop will be somewhat of a dust or solid ..now it's a paste like consistency and it sticks very well to the container .can I just leave them there or if there is enough water circulation from the main tank or should I remove them often?!! I'm afraid of me damaging some eggs or larva in removal.