Berghia Experience
- Thread starter Dsnakes
- Start date
- Tagged users None
I'd be really surprised if the hermits didn't bother them.
All you need to get Berghia eggs are two adult Berghia. And, they reach sexual maturity when still quite small. But you can't breed them in a typical reef setup - the eggs will quickly be consumed by your pods. Maintaining a pod-free rearing tank isn't as easy as it sounds, and your aiptasia grow out tank will also need to be pod-free.
EddieJ
Active Member
I dumped like $450 in Berghia into my old 210 gallon which was infested with aphasia. Unlucky for me is that I had a large population of some kind of predatory amphipod that actually killed all the Berghia so they never got to amass the army.. Was a bummer...
OP
OP
Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
This guy was on the menu tonight! I did notice a lot of amphipods around the area and they seemed to be eating on the aiptasia as well.
I've looked into it, biggest thing is having enough aiptasia, I don't currently have the space.
Here's a good read if your interested
https://www.amazon.com/Breeding-Berghia-Nudibranches-best-secret/dp/1461065674
OP
OP
Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
They starve or get passed on to fellow reefers. They only eat aiptasia.
They breed easily in a tank with aiptasia. After the eat off the anemones the will starve. I plan to pass them along if I can catch them as my problem is eliminated.
Man. I haven’t seen an aipasia in years. I get a lot of majanos. Wonder why. I don’t have any aiptaisia predators. I breed peppermint shrimp and was wanting to get ahold of some aiptasia for them to see if I can get them to settle quicker.
OP
OP
Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
I just found them on eBay. Seemed like a good price!
I hope they keep it up! ;Happy
OP
OP
Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
Tonight's menu! Yet again, there are multiple amphipods joining the feast. Funny how they won't touch them until the berghia wear them down.
domination2580
Reef-a-nator
Your lucky! I haven't seen even one of mine...
OP
OP
Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
I am at my tank with a flashlight every 30 minutes to check their progress
talk about a hovering boss. No breaks allowed!
PhreeByrd
Active Member
I have used and bred Berghia in the past, and they are indeed very effective and very interesting little critters. The tanks I originally placed them in have been aiptasia free for many years now.
I originally purchased 5 Berghia for a 75g display with a 35g sump/refugium. I knew that wasn't enough and I worried about them getting eaten by crabs, ground up by circulation pumps, stuck in overflows, etc., or just getting beaten to death by high flow before they ever had a chance to do their job. So I set up a 5g clean breeding tank; basically just a bare tank without any filtration, powerheads or lights. It didn't even have a heater, so it just stayed at room temperature. Put the 5 little Berghia into that tank, harvested a few aiptasia from the main display and put those into the tank with them. In minutes they had completely consumed those aiptasia. I remember thinking "Uh-ooooh..."
The next day I started up a second 5g tank to raise aiptasia (believe it or not) for the Berghia. I fed the aiptasia with skimmate from a skimmer and every day macerated a few aiptasia to get them to propagate. After a couple of days I had several clusters of eggs on the glass of the Berghia tank, and after a month I had about 40 nice sized Berghia, so I put half of them in the main display. After everything got settled in, I was putting 5-10 new Berghia into the display every week and selling 20-30 adults to my LFS every couple of weeks. It took about 2 months to completely rid the main display and the sump of aiptasia. If well-fed, the Berghia multiply and grow very easily and quickly. The new hatchlings start hunting for aiptasia immediately, and would grow from little larger than a pinhead to about 1/4" in 2-3 weeks. At one point I actually had to buy aiptasia cultures to keep all of the Berghia from starving. I was able to keep this up for a couple of years before it all just got to be too much.
Definitely worthwhile, and there is no better way to eradicate aiptasia from a reef tank. The little guys will find aiptasia that you can't see or reach, and completely eliminate them. They reproduce quickly as long as food is available, and their population is self-regulating. They are so small that when they ultimately die, there are no repercussions in terms of fouling the water. I never saw any of the fish in my tanks bother them. Likewise, amphipods will clean up after them but will not bother the Berghia themselves.
I would do this again without hesitation if I needed to, but I haven't seen an aiptasia in my tanks for many years.
I originally purchased 5 Berghia for a 75g display with a 35g sump/refugium. I knew that wasn't enough and I worried about them getting eaten by crabs, ground up by circulation pumps, stuck in overflows, etc., or just getting beaten to death by high flow before they ever had a chance to do their job. So I set up a 5g clean breeding tank; basically just a bare tank without any filtration, powerheads or lights. It didn't even have a heater, so it just stayed at room temperature. Put the 5 little Berghia into that tank, harvested a few aiptasia from the main display and put those into the tank with them. In minutes they had completely consumed those aiptasia. I remember thinking "Uh-ooooh..."
The next day I started up a second 5g tank to raise aiptasia (believe it or not) for the Berghia. I fed the aiptasia with skimmate from a skimmer and every day macerated a few aiptasia to get them to propagate. After a couple of days I had several clusters of eggs on the glass of the Berghia tank, and after a month I had about 40 nice sized Berghia, so I put half of them in the main display. After everything got settled in, I was putting 5-10 new Berghia into the display every week and selling 20-30 adults to my LFS every couple of weeks. It took about 2 months to completely rid the main display and the sump of aiptasia. If well-fed, the Berghia multiply and grow very easily and quickly. The new hatchlings start hunting for aiptasia immediately, and would grow from little larger than a pinhead to about 1/4" in 2-3 weeks. At one point I actually had to buy aiptasia cultures to keep all of the Berghia from starving. I was able to keep this up for a couple of years before it all just got to be too much.
Definitely worthwhile, and there is no better way to eradicate aiptasia from a reef tank. The little guys will find aiptasia that you can't see or reach, and completely eliminate them. They reproduce quickly as long as food is available, and their population is self-regulating. They are so small that when they ultimately die, there are no repercussions in terms of fouling the water. I never saw any of the fish in my tanks bother them. Likewise, amphipods will clean up after them but will not bother the Berghia themselves.
I would do this again without hesitation if I needed to, but I haven't seen an aiptasia in my tanks for many years.
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