CBB and Berghia?

[Jedi1199]

My poor tank is absolutely infested with Aiptasia. To the point where I have already lost more corals that I wish to think about. I got a CBB a week or 2 ago but it hasn't even attempted to go after the Aiptasia.

Now, I have tried Berghia twice in the past to no avail. I suspect that the hermit crab wiped them out. The hermit has been removed now and I was thinking of investing in Berghia again.. ANYTHING to get rid of this blink blanking Aiptasia!!!

It occurred to me that since CBB are specifically designed to nab little bits out of rock crevices, that Berghia might just become an expensive snack for him.

Anyone have experience with this?

 

[therootcause]

What's your stocking list? It's a wrasse that may wipe out the berghia, not the CBB. I also find it funny that you mention hermit crab in the singular sense. Did you only have one solitary crab? In my WB180 I have 300 blue legs. Excessive, I get it.

 

[Jedi1199]

What's your stocking list? It's a wrasse that may wipe out the berghia, not the CBB. I also find it funny that you mention hermit crab in the singular sense. Did you only have one solitary crab? In my WB180 I have 300 blue legs. Excessive, I get it.

My stock list is:

1 Blue Hippo Tang
1 Mata Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Bristletooth Tang
1 Copperband Butterfly
1 Foxface Rabbitfish
1 Royal Gramma
1 Wyoming White Clown
1 Red Saddleback Anemonefish
1 Bluegreen Chromis
1 Talbots Damsel
1 Lemon Damsel
2 Black Capped Damsels
3 Pajama Cardinals

As far as I know, I only ever had 2 hermit crabs in my tank. One of them got eaten a while back and I pulled one out last night. If there are any more then that is not my doing lol

 

[therootcause]

hm, no wrasse, no peppermint shrimp...I'm not sure who would have been the predator.

 

[1112-425XL]

I added 6 tiny Berghia Nudibranch in August to get rid of an aiptasia problem in my tank. I added them after lights out when my Melanurus Wrasse was sleeping. Used pvc and was able to get them safely in the rocks. After about 8 days over a dozen aiptasia spread out thru the tank were gone. Never saw them again until a few days ago. One was crawling up the back wall. I grabbed it with a turkey baster and placed it near the only small aiptasia I could find. Today both are gone. I'm confident there's still some berghia left in there somewhere.

 

[Reeferbadness]

Berhia take a while and it's good to add them in 2 or 3 different groups of say 5. They need to breed to get the numbers to take on your Aiptaisia. It took me a couple of times to get it right but when i did, they pretty much wiped out my aiptaisa problem. I say "pretty much" because you'll probably never eradicate them completely. Once under control, i used F Aiptaisa to spot kill the 1 or 2 that pop up ever few weeks. Good luck!

 

[Dburr1014]

My poor tank is absolutely infested with Aiptasia. To the point where I have already lost more corals that I wish to think about. I got a CBB a week or 2 ago but it hasn't even attempted to go after the Aiptasia.

Now, I have tried Berghia twice in the past to no avail. I suspect that the hermit crab wiped them out. The hermit has been removed now and I was thinking of investing in Berghia again.. ANYTHING to get rid of this blink blanking Aiptasia!!!

It occurred to me that since CBB are specifically designed to nab little bits out of rock crevices, that Berghia might just become an expensive snack for him.

Anyone have experience with this?

How did you add them the 1st and 2nd time?
How many aptaisia were in your tank at that time?

My experience:

1st time, didn't have a whole lot of aptaisia but quite a few. Not too dense of a population. I bought 12 nudies, added at night. I did have a wrasse but don't remember the name of it.
They nudies worked and after a few months 95% of the aptaisia were gone. I was happy... For a little while. Then aptaisia returned.

Fast forward a couple years.
2nd go at aptaisia, now my tank had a good supply of aptaisia. They were everywhere and stinging coral. I buy 25 nudies and split them with another reefer. We split the cost and nudies. I added 13 nudies to the display at night and this time I had a leopard wrasse. After a couple months nothing was happening. I call salty underground and they though my cb shrimp must have ate them. I waited. After a few more months I see the aptaisia start disappearing. This time, 99% gone. It took 6 more months to see any aptaisia. The ones I saw I took care of them either outside the tank or lemon juice mixed with lots of patience.
Today, I don't see any, I havn't seen any in 4 months'ish.

My take aways,

Add at night

Add when you have a lot of aptasia so they don't have to roam your tank.

When the nudies eat aptaisia they will taste like aptaisia. So most fish/crabs won't eat them if the nudies are brown.

I don't see anything on your list that will get them and I'm not sure about the CBB. But if it's not eating aptasia now, well, maybe it won't eat the nudies.

 

[marinebreeders]

Also how is big is your tank? When you received the nudis were they white or brownish, perhaps you had a bad batch.

 

[Pamperedfish]

Release them at night together they are pack hunters and aptasia will eat them. A group of 4-6 should mow down a softball size rock of medium aptasia in 3 days. I never had a problem with fish listed in the thread, or my engineer gobie, trigger, splendid dottyback, royal grama. The fish may look @ them but never bite.