Beghia breeding (Aeolidiella stephanieae)

[kilnakorr]

I started a breeding setup for bergjia nudibranches a few weeks back (dec.19), and thought I'd just create a thread here if anyone would be interested.

Not much space so simple setup:

15 L plastic container for aiptasia
3 L acrylic box for nudis

Small sponge filter for nudis, and just bubbles for the aiptasia - heater for both.

I have recently converted my pod culture tank, to aiptasia tank also, to be able to propagate aiptasia faster.

A few pics:

Berghia on the left and first aiptasia tank on the right. (bottom is black worm culture, so unrelated)

The new additional aiptasia tank.

Berghias, about 1 - 1.5 inches.

Berghia eggs. - And alot of small copepods.

So far I've counted 12 clusters of eggs, and first ones hatched around dec. 29 th.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Looks good, what you feeding your Aipatasia?

 

[kilnakorr]

Looks good, what you feeding your Aipatasia?

Newly hatched brine shrimp.
I like how the stay alive and swim around until they are caught and eaten. Nothing to rot and foul the water.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Newly hatched brine shrimp.
I like how the stay alive and swim around until they are caught and eaten. Nothing to rot and foul the water.

That was my preferred choice too,it’s amazing how fast they can digest it. am I wrong to believe that you have two Aipatasia separate systems?

 

[kilnakorr]

That was my preferred choice to, am I wrong to believe that you have two Aipatasia separate systems?

That is correct.
I was worried my small container might be to small, so started another one.
I do have a lot of baby aiptasia in the first one, so I should be good for the next few weeks.
I'm mostly concerned about how many of the newly hatched berghias might survive as they could really go through a lot of aiptasia if I have just 1% survival rate.

 

[sixty_reefer]

That is correct.
I was worried my small container might be to small, so started another one.
I do have a lot of baby aiptasia in the first one, so I should be good for the next few weeks.
I'm mostly concerned about how many of the newly hatched berghias might survive as they could really go through a lot of aiptasia if I have just 1% survival rate.

Have you tested the water on the aip system for nitrate and phosphates, one important aspect to keep them thriving is also to ensure that phosphates are available for tissue building and nitrogen, the feeding supplied from the baby brine should be enough although if you add some to the water column it may speed up the healing process a little wile they can’t eat the baby brine. Would you be interested in adding a couple drops of soya milk daily in one of the aip farms as an experiment? Milk is often used in brine shrimp farming as a source of energy for the shrimps.

 

[kilnakorr]

Have you tested the water on the aip system for nitrate and phosphates, one important aspect to keep them thriving is also to ensure that phosphates are available for tissue building and nitrogen, the feeding supplied from the baby brine should be enough although if you add some to the water column it may speed up the healing process a little wile they can’t eat the baby brine. Would you be interested in adding a couple drops of soya milk daily in one of the aip farms as an experiment? Milk is often used in brine shrimp farming as a source of energy for the shrimps.

With a pretty clean tank, I wouldn't be very comfortable adding to much bio degradable stuff.
I could easily add some PO4 and NO3, as I have it on the shelf, and can easily control the values.
I have only tried cutting one aiptasia, so not sure I need to speed up healing.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

Intrested to see how this goes for you . I did it along time ago but couldn't keep up on aiptasia. Having a carbon bed makes it very easy to remove the aiptasia if you want to look into that .

 

[kilnakorr]

Intrested to see how this goes for you . I did it along time ago but couldn't keep up on aiptasia. Having a carbon bed makes it very easy to remove the aiptasia if you want to look into that .

This seems to be the hurdle.
As soon as I see some surviving babies, a couple of the adults goes into DT.

A few shots just for fun:
Baby berghia I think.

Egg spial, where it looks like a few tiny berghia has crawled out in the bottom. Top critter is just a copepod

Small new aiptasia, grown from pedal laceration from the mother aiptasia next to it.

 

[kilnakorr]

A quick update.

I'm a bit unsure if the baby berghias are surviving.
I have plenty crawling around, but none seems to get bigger, and several eggs have hatched.
I have tried catching rougly 10 babies and put them in a tiny acrylic box with 4 smaller aptasia, 3 of them are very tiny.
I hope to see at least a few bigger berghias soon, if not I must conclude the first ones have not survived.

The little acrylic box in the right corner.

Baby aiptasias - grow faster dangit!

Added som well rinsed, but used GAC to the other aiptadia tank. Let's see if they move to grow here instead of the bare bottom.
Might start cutting them in half soon, as the one I test-cut has completly regrown the top part.

 

[Jmp998]

Berghia yield from eggs varies a lot. For me, sometimes almost all die at hatching, or stop growing either as larvae or very small juveniles and slowly waste away. I do not know why. I just set up multiple batches and pick from the best to grow out. Keep trying, soon you will get a good batch and have hundreds of Berghia and your only problem will be feeding them.

 

[kilnakorr]

Berghia yield from eggs varies a lot. For me, sometimes almost all die at hatching, or stop growing either as larvae or very small juveniles and slowly waste away. I do not know why. I just set up multiple batches and pick from the best to grow out. Keep trying, soon you will get a good batch and have hundreds of Berghia and your only problem will be feeding them.

Well, they lay eggs constantly so that is not a problem.
It might be an issue having the adults in the same container. The babies need small aptasia I believe, but the adults will eat these in a second.
I will remove to of them to me DT, and hopefully they'll lay eggs and start reproducing there. Will also cut the aiptasia need by almost half.

 

[Jmp998]

Sorry I thought you had already separated from the adults, this is highly recommended. It takes larvae a long time to eat, the adults will just gobble up small Aiptasia in minutes.

 

[LOVEROCK]

I started a breeding setup for bergjia nudibranches a few weeks back (dec.19), and thought I'd just create a thread here if anyone would be interested.

Not much space so simple setup:

15 L plastic container for aiptasia
3 L acrylic box for nudis

Small sponge filter for nudis, and just bubbles for the aiptasia - heater for both.

I have recently converted my pod culture tank, to aiptasia tank also, to be able to propagate aiptasia faster.

A few pics:

Berghia on the left and first aiptasia tank on the right. (bottom is black worm culture, so unrelated)

The new additional aiptasia tank.

Berghias, about 1 - 1.5 inches.

Berghia eggs. - And alot of small copepods.

So far I've counted 12 clusters of eggs, and first ones hatched around dec. 29 th.

Which tote are you using ? Do the materials matter

 

[kilnakorr]

Sorry I thought you had already separated from the adults, this is highly recommended. It takes larvae a long time to eat, the adults will just gobble up small Aiptasia in minutes.

Could I simply remove the eggs?
I could use my first aiptasia tank for this, as it holds a lot of small aiptasia already (counted 70 smaller ones before I stopped).

 

[kilnakorr]

Which tote are you using ? Do the materials matter

What does 'tote' mean?

 

[Jmp998]

Could I simply remove the eggs?
I could use my first aiptasia tank for this, as it holds a lot of small aiptasia already (counted 70 smaller ones before I stopped).

Yes. The egg spiral is usually only strongly attached at the beginning/center. You can poke at it with a pipette and then once it is loose use the pipette to transfer the eggs to a new container. It takes up to two weeks for the eggs to hatch. When the larvae start feeding, you will see them cluster as a group of small ovals around one tiny Aiptasia. It may take them a day or more to eat it, so it is hard for them to compete with adults for food.

These are larvae several days old clustered around an Aiptasia. You can see the twin eyespots on a few larvae that are better in focus. Sorry the picture is not better.

 

[kilnakorr]

Yes. The egg spiral is usually only strongly attached at the beginning/center. You can poke at it with a pipette and then once it is loose use the pipette to transfer the eggs to a new container. It takes up to two weeks for the eggs to hatch. When the larvae start feeding, you will see them cluster as a group of small ovals around one tiny Aiptasia. It may take them a day or more to eat it, so it is hard for them to compete with adults for food.

These are larvae several days old clustered around an Aiptasia. You can see the twin eyespots on a few larvae that are better in focus. Sorry the picture is not better.

Very interesting.
I had a frag in there with aiptasia (all eaten now) - those larger ones, with a hole in the center.
There was 3-4 egg spirals in there!
I've placed it in my smaller aiptasia tank, so there should be plenty of food for the new ones. Should hatch in a week or so.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

This is turning out to be a really enjoyable thread

 

[kilnakorr]

All though the pictures are blurry, and the light is reflecting, something is going on with the small aiptasia in the little extra box.
The aiptasia are closed and pedal is swollen. I hope/think it's the berghia babies eating off them.

Aiptasia all rectracted, and pedal swollen, and cloudy. Could be berghia babies but unsure.