How to breed aiptasia on purpose?

[SimplyVibing]

Hear me out!
I’m considering breeding berghia nudis as a side project. They exclusively eat aiptasia, so does anyone know how to make those ugly anemones multiply quickly?

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

If breeding a lot of nudis they will not give the aiptasia time so I think your best bet will be two separate tanks. 1 to house the nudis and one to breed the aiptasia. I know a lot of the nudis breeders even buy aiptasia rocks to keep up with the feeding.

 

[andrewey]

I once tried to get aptasia to multiply for an experiment to test rates of propagation via pedal laceration. It wasn't super scientific, but my big takeaway is if you find the right type of aptasia, they'll grow faster then anything else you can manually do to increase their growth rate (heavy feeding, cutting off their tentacles, stressing the system, etc.). You might want to try and collect a bunch of different specimens- most tend to be pretty "docile" and will grow large and stay put, but a couple of the specimens I got seemed to have a doubling time of 4-7 days!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Agreed with above. Stressing the out seems to make them multiply. Poking at their mouth seems to force them to release spawns.

 

[andrewey]

Also, keep us informed of your progress! I'd love to see how the breeding program comes along - Exciting!

 

[SimplyVibing]

Also, keep us informed of your progress! I'd love to see how the breeding program comes along - Exciting!

Tysm! Will do

 

[SimplyVibing]

If breeding a lot of nudis they will not give the aiptasia time so I think your best bet will be two separate tanks. 1 to house the nudis and one to breed the aiptasia. I know a lot of the nudis breeders even buy aiptasia rocks to keep up with the feeding.

Thanks! I’m thinking about filling a 10-20 gal with aiptasia and putting a mesh divider in the middle so that one side can house aiptasia and the other can house nudis.

The divider would also help soften flow on the nudis side, since I’ll be putting a sponge filter with the aiptasia for moderate flow/filtration.

 

[jerrod]

Easiest way to propagate aptasia is to convince yourself you don’t want aptasia then they’ll start spreading everywhere.
On a closed loop system messing with them and making them retract will help them spread I did it for awhile separate from display to ensure berghia eggs survived and had food before transferring them.

 

[UCF Alum]

does anyone know how to make those ugly anemones multiply quickly?

Yeah, come to my house. Let me know how your project goes and I’ll follow your lead.

 

[SimplyVibing]

Yeah, come to my house. Let me know how your project goes and I’ll follow your lead.

Thanks will do! If you want to mail me some aiptasia I wouldn’t say no

 

[SR Reefing]

Yeah, My nudi just lay eggs yesterday. As i am posting WTB aiptasia rock today.

Good thing of growing aiptasia is tank can be new, no light needed, no skimmer.

It give aiptasis babies fairly quickly. I would say in 3 weeks.

I have feed some Reefroids to promo growth.

Downside.

Berghia eat too fast.

 

[SimplyVibing]

Yeah, My nudi just lay eggs yesterday. As i am posting WTB aiptasia rock today.

Good thing of growing aiptasia is tank can be new, no light needed, no skimmer.

It give aiptasis babies fairly quickly. I would say in 3 weeks.

I have feed some Reefroids to promo growth.

Downside.

Berghia eat too fast.

Nice pic. I thought aiptasia needed light though? I read that they contain zooxanthellae and therefore photosynthesize.

Also I would love to know more about your setup in regards to your breeding tank. Are the aiptasia and nudis mixed or in separate tanks? Also, is the water heated? And what substrate/filter do you use? What aiptasia to nudi ratio do you recommend?

Thanks for responding to my post!

 

[SR Reefing]

So, Heater is a must. So, set up is like this. 14G AIO tank, Heater, ATO. Crush coral bed.

Problem with light is, it will grow algae more than it grow aiptasia.

Aiptasia is so strong, it reproduced very well with out lighting ( it does get very little light from window)

 

[JonoB]

The most effective way I have found for breeding aiptasia is to use Aiptasia-X on them....

 

[SimplyVibing]

So, Heater is a must. So, set up is like this. 14G AIO tank, Heater, ATO. Crush coral bed.

Problem with light is, it will grow algae more than it grow aiptasia.

Aiptasia is so strong, it reproduced very well with out lighting ( it does get very little light from window)

Thanks for the help!

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Step 1: Hate yourself

Step 2: don't make your RODI in a church, its really bad for them idk why

Step 3: crying audibly in front of the tank and yelling "WHHHYYYYY" hysterically, Ideally they'll be able to see the misery and defeat in your eyes. this will count as one feeding. If you can't do that then shattered dreams/midlife crisis are an ok substitute but I would expect growth to be slower

Jokes aside I'm interested to see how this goes! Sorry I couldn't resist. ;Hilarious

 

[WilyGuy]

Thanks! I’m thinking about filling a 10-20 gal with aiptasia and putting a mesh divider in the middle so that one side can house aiptasia and the other can house nudis.

The divider would also help soften flow on the nudis side, since I’ll be putting a sponge filter with the aiptasia for moderate flow/filtration.

I would think mesh divider wouldn’t keep the little nudi foxes from invading the Aiptasia henhouse?
I’m thinking along the same lines as you all. I find them fascinating. It would hurt to have them local in my market.

 

[LuizW13]

Ask this guy

Looking for someone who has been here, advice welcome.

www.reef2reef.com

;Dead

 

[Poseidon03]

Honestly, it is hard to breed them. They eat a lot and you need the aiptasia set up for a while before hand to make sure you have enough. I would use 2 different systems or you will have trouble. The best way I found after about 12 months of "breeding" was to put either rock rubble or carbon in the bottom of the aiptasia tank. Next, you feed baby brine shrimp to them every 3 day, keep the heat elevated in the tank to about 80 and have a good light. Yes, aiptasia will grow without good light, but it grows best with good light. The biggest trick is with the carbon/rock rubble. You want to use it to pull the aiptasia out and cut them in half about every 7 days or so. Your limiting factor is your aiptasia, so you want to maximize that to maximize the bhergia. The bhergia themselves can thrive without heaters, and make sure you do not use powerheads/pumps unless they have a super fine filter inline with them. The baby bhergia are small and can get into anything. You can use airline and bubbles, but do not use a stone. I ended up giving up due how much labor it takes out of my day. It was more work intensive than my reef tank. Due to cutting, feeding and plucking out the aiptasia all the time. It was also under my stairs, so it was not the easiest access, which caused more burdens in the long run.

 

[GK3]

Hear me out!
I’m considering breeding berghia nudis as a side project. They exclusively eat aiptasia, so does anyone know how to make those ugly anemones multiply quickly?

Copy my build thread, you’ll have tons of them.