Berghia question

[PhilMStudy]

Good morning, I’ve noticed a few pieces of LR I put into my sump/fuge have aiptasia growing on them, if I can see it I assume I have some in display too… lots of rock, lots of crevices… hard to confirm/deny

There are at least 3-4 good sized stalks and some babies in sump.

I want to buy some natural remedies… I do have two Sherman nems and one rainbow bta that turned into 3 lol

they will only eat aiptasia right? And I can only find .25” sized ones… would 10 of those be enough for maintenance?

 

[Jmp998]

If I understand your questions correctly, the berghia will only eat Aiptasia-they are no risk to anything else. Berghia will not provide any ’maintenance’ protection against aiptasia, because the berghia will starve and die once they can no longer find aiptasia. If they find and eat all the aiptasia, then your tank will be aiptasia-free unless you introduce more. However it is possible the berghia will miss one aiptasia in which case the aiptasia will spread again once the berghia die.

i have used berghia in the past with good results, but I am currently struggling with an infestation of aiptasia. I think I must have something in my tank now which is eating the berghia unfortunately. I have a million aiptasia, but I am having difficulty establishing a growing berghia population.

 

[Dburr1014]

If I understand your questions correctly, the berghia will only eat Aiptasia-they are no risk to anything else. Berghia will not provide any ’maintenance’ protection against aiptasia, because the berghia will starve and die once they can no longer find aiptasia. If they find and eat all the aiptasia, then your tank will be aiptasia-free unless you introduce more. However it is possible the berghia will miss one aiptasia in which case the aiptasia will spread again once the berghia die.

i have used berghia in the past with good results, but I am currently struggling with an infestation of aiptasia. I think I must have something in my tank now which is eating the berghia unfortunately. I have a million aiptasia, but I am having difficulty establishing a growing berghia population.

Correct^^^^^

The thing about berghia is, I like to put them in when there's a lot cuz if you only have a few aptaisia they don't get a lot of them because they're so far and few between. Berghia won't find them if they have to walk across a whole tank. But if you have a good infestation they tend to wipe them all out except maybe one or two and you might have to redo the process in a couple of years.
This has been my experience the last 2 times I bought them.

 

[PhilMStudy]

Thank you both, by maintenance I mean keeping most in a 2-3’ long area of my sump where there quite a few aiptasia now… probably 5-6 nudis

then have 2-3 in main tank (I can see one decent sized aiptasia on back of rock work

but I’m thinking now that maybe just 4-5 total might be all I need

 

[vetteguy53081]

Good morning, I’ve noticed a few pieces of LR I put into my sump/fuge have aiptasia growing on them, if I can see it I assume I have some in display too… lots of rock, lots of crevices… hard to confirm/deny

There are at least 3-4 good sized stalks and some babies in sump.

I want to buy some natural remedies… I do have two Sherman nems and one rainbow bta that turned into 3 lol

they will only eat aiptasia right? And I can only find .25” sized ones… would 10 of those be enough for maintenance?

Yes on your questions and the berghias will have babies which will consume the aptasia and too have babies and so forth. Once the food source is gone, you will need to find them aptasia

 

[Gophish1982]

I’ve got a 100 gal and I had about 20 aiptasia. I bought (12) 1/4” guys. They were TINY. I decided to put them in a 1 gal jar with a rock that had a couple aiptasia on it and some aeration hoping to leave them there for a week or so so they could grow a bit. The 3 aiptasia were gone in 3 days so I felt confident they would be able to tackle the ones in my tank that were the same size (and I couldn’t get them anymore aiptasia out of my display). I moved my wrasses to another tank because I read they would potentially eat the berghai, minimized my power heads after the tank would be completely dark, and placed them in a group on the rocks where there were several aiptasia. It’s been over a week and not a single one of the aiptasia I can see have been eaten. I haven’t seen a single berghai after I put them in the tank. I have a feeling they either got eaten by my other CUC, or got blown away by my power heads. If I ever decide to try them again, I would wait until whichever vendor you buy from has the ones over 1/2”. That way they are breeding age and can withstand some more flow from what I understand.

 

[Dburr1014]

I’ve got a 100 gal and I had about 20 aiptasia. I bought (12) 1/4” guys. They were TINY. I decided to put them in a 1 gal jar with a rock that had a couple aiptasia on it and some aeration hoping to leave them there for a week or so so they could grow a bit. The 3 aiptasia were gone in 3 days so I felt confident they would be able to tackle the ones in my tank that were the same size (and I couldn’t get them anymore aiptasia out of my display). I moved my wrasses to another tank because I read they would potentially eat the berghai, minimized my power heads after the tank would be completely dark, and placed them in a group on the rocks where there were several aiptasia. It’s been over a week and not a single one of the aiptasia I can see have been eaten. I haven’t seen a single berghai after I put them in the tank. I have a feeling they either got eaten by my other CUC, or got blown away by my power heads. If I ever decide to try them again, I would wait until whichever vendor you buy from has the ones over 1/2”. That way they are breeding age and can withstand some more flow from what I understand.

Berghia work best when you have an infestation of aptaisia. If you have a few hundred in a 100 gallon, sure. 20, they won't find them and your left a year later worse off.
I had a bad infestation 2 years ago. Added berghia, gone. Couldn't see any until 6 months ago. I have maybe 10 aptasia right now and expect to need more berghia next summer.

 

[billyocean]

I had them bad in a 29 a gallon. Bought 3 berghia and it took about 2 months and they were all gone. Ended up with 9 or 10 berghia and just sold them local after that