My berghia experience - no more aiptasia

[NEFFx]

I'm going to quit my day job and start a breeding operation of nudies

Honestly. This would be so hard. They devour aiptasia. You’d be breeding aiptasia really. I’m stunned how fast they ate all the aiptasia. I never even saw any nudis, I was hoping to make some money selling some near the end but the 2 I saw went to the LFS.

I talked to him about them and in the past he had a bunch but same thing. It was too hard to sustain aiptasia colonies. he said he could barely keep Them sustained in his tanks that had lots of Aiptasia.

That said there’s certainly a need out there for them.

 

[Jmp998]

I'm going to quit my day job and start a breeding operation of nudies

It is very doable but more work than you would think. They eat A LOT of Aiptasia. If you see 50 Aiptasia in your display tank, you probably really have 5x that many, so take that into account when guesstimating how much the Berghia really eat. However many Berghia you want to produce per week, multiply times 100, and that is about how many Aiptasia you need for long term production. This tub supports production of about 15 adult Berghia/week (and that assumes nothing goes wrong).

 

[Devaji]

my hopes is that more and more people will breed even at the LFS level so these guys are a cheap and easy way to add a once a year to control.

I had a RS650P that got infested in 4-6 weeks to plunge level.

 

[kevgib67]

So I thought I’d share my thoughts on how I went from thousands to none.

I’ve had some aiptasia for two+ years in my 240 gallon tank and I moved everything to 210 gallon tank a year ago.

I’ve always had one or two aiptasia that I would use aiptasiaX with 80% success. But I thought I’d try an aiptasia eating filefish in order to mitigate that and see if that would actually work. One day he jumped out of the tank and shortly after I realize that there were thousands of Aiptasia in the tank and he was, I guess, just nipping at them so they weren’t visible. See green goblin anacropora for aiptasia density.

So here I am I’m left with this beautiful sps tank full of thousands of Aiptasia and they seem to be growing even faster.

I looked into Berghia Nidibranchs to control this, based on great success with harlequin shrimp and asterid sea stars, plus, what other choice did I have.

I got the Berghias from salty underground, who were very knowledgeable. The came in a cup with cut syringe so I could place them on the rocks. I got 6 x 1/2” size (1 cm) to try. I don’t have any aggressive shrimp or fish in the tank. Worst was a cleaner wrasse. (Who was caught and removed after he was eating the insides of my clams, especially my blue Squamosa).

For about 2 1/2 to 3 months I was looking at the tank for two hours a day (standard) though would never see any Berghias just more aiptasia. I left for Africa for three weeks and when I came back to look for losses I saw 2 berghias! Then realized I had aiptasia, but there wasn’t any. I looked all over the tank and there wasn’t 1 Aiptasia!! Just 3 berghias from what I could see. Magic.

I have two berghias away so they wouldn’t starve. Though would write this off as a success! Be patient. Took about 4 months.

I currently have some in my tank now. Used them a year ago and I was aptasia free. I have added a lo to my tank recently and inspect everything real well they still seem to find a way in.

 

[Jmp998]

my hopes is that more and more people will breed even at the LFS level so these guys are a cheap and easy way to add a once a year to control.

I had a RS650P that got infested in 4-6 weeks to plunge level.

I think most typical small LFS will find it difficult to justify a Berghia breeding program. An LFS would need a separate system for the Aiptasia (don't really want them in the coral tanks), and then another system for the Berghia, each with their own separate nets/buckets/water change hoses/etc. That is a lot of extra space/maintenance for an item that is really not that expensive. Plus even in a large city, the local market is really not that big, so sales volume would be low without shipping. Certainly it could be done, but would it be more profitable to dedicate that retail space and employee effort to Aiptasia and Berghia rather than another coral tank?

With regard to cost, reef clubs could be doing periodic group buys on Berghia, which would really reduce the effective price as shipping is so expensive. However it doesn't seem like there is much interest in that.

 

[GARRIGA]

Honestly. This would be so hard. They devour aiptasia. You’d be breeding aiptasia really. I’m stunned how fast they ate all the aiptasia. I never even saw any nudis, I was hoping to make some money selling some near the end but the 2 I saw went to the LFS.

I talked to him about them and in the past he had a bunch but same thing. It was too hard to sustain aiptasia colonies. he said he could barely keep Them sustained in his tanks that had lots of Aiptasia.

That said there’s certainly a need out there for them.

One colony of aiptasia to feed the colony of nudi. No different than farming any other life form. Grow grass to feed cattle. Grow green water to feed pods which feed fry. Just need to ensure the feeder colony large enough to feed what it's being fed to and fact they are being sold means they can be farmed.

I was obviously being facetious but were I younger and back to wanting to breed for greed this sounds like a solid business plan.

 

[Rocketfish]

I have a pesky peppermint shrimp that I can't catch, who doesn't eat aptasia but loves berghia nudis. I am hoping he is approaching the end of his lifespan so I can add berghia again

By the way, in my experience, a single peppermint shrimp will eat anything but aphasia including assorted LPS corals, but when I added 2 or more, aptaisia was on the menu and they totally wiped it out!

I have also had great success with Berghia, but as everyone else said, there is always one hidden somewhere that makes a.comeback into a colony again.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I'm going to quit my day job and start a breeding operation of nudies

Been there done that and then nobody wants them and you’re sitting on 100 Nudie branch that you have to feed all of your aptasia to believe me it’s not worth it

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I am in Chicago and am in process of selling my setup for 2500$ I’m done with it.I have thousands of aptasia

 

[Jmp998]

Been there done that and then nobody wants them and you’re sitting on 100 Nudie branch that you have to feed all of your aptasia to believe me it’s not worth it

Yes inventory management is a big issue. If you don't sell the Berghia, you still have to feed them. It is very easy to let the Berghia to Aiptasia ratio get too high. It can spiral out of control fast if you don't keep the Berghia moving out.

 

[olaf]

I've had both great sucess and also recurrence with my clients that had/have Aiptasia Anemones.
One of my clients, berghia absolutely didn't work, I added Lysmata kuekenthali and Lysmata wurdemanni, along with a Green Filefish, all visible Aiptasia gone.
Another client, I just added 10 berghia again a year later when the anemones returned. The Berghia in this tank multipled and went everywhere, in the overflow and sump, but must have missed one or two hence the return.
Others the anemones are gone and no signs of return and its been several years.

 

[thecitadel]

I've been fighting a never ending battle for about a year now. Aiptasia is everywhere in my 220 and my 120 sump, every chamber, overflow, and my cheato is just covered in Aiptasia. I've got 20+ Peppermint Shrimp that have been in the tank about 2 years, another 5 in the Refugium. Ive got 8 nudis in display, 4 in Refugium for about 4 months now and have seen no drop. Wondering if my Shrimp ate them as I've never seen them after putting into the tanks. I made sure to put them in groups with each other and placed by some aiptasia. As I said, been about 4 months and no difference. This is the worst spot on my tank. I've also got a file fish who I've watched eat Aiptasia, but he just can't keep up. I don't want to introduce a butterfly fish as I've been suggested due to the difficulty in keeping them and my Sailfin is a brat. I'm almost to the point of breaking down everything and restarting.

 

[Jmp998]

For sure peppermint shrimp, especially large numbers, are a risk to the Berghia. With that level of infestation, thousands of aiptasia, it may take a couple of generations to generate enough Berghia to see a difference, even in the absence of numerous predatory shrimp. If the shrimp are not eating the Aiptasia, maybe try to trap/remove them and then try Berghia again?

 

[thecitadel]

For sure peppermint shrimp, especially large numbers, are a risk to the Berghia. With that level of infestation, thousands of aiptasia, it may take a couple of generations to generate enough Berghia to see a difference, even in the absence of numerous predatory shrimp. If the shrimp are not eating the Aiptasia, maybe try to trap/remove them and then try Berghia again?

I'm not sure if I can trap them but worth a shot before the total breakdown lol

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I'm not sure if I can trap them but worth a shot before the total breakdown lol

I breed nudibranch in for my experience an outbreak like that first of all, I would recommend in a 200 gallon tank at least 20 or 30 just for the display alone and even with that many would not expect to see any results for many months, at least three or four, and that is without any predators in the tank. The peppermint shrimp are definitely eating the Nudie branch and adventure to say you have none left. It would be a great idea to catch the shrimp and try the Knooty again but like I said for a tank of that size, you’re gonna need to put 20 or 30 in there to ensure breeding is done between them, and many generations are grown to eat the aptasia. Along with one of the other main things about Nudie branch is they always seem to climb into the overflows and get sucked through the filtration before anything else this is why I always recommend having filter socks when using Nudie branch and every couple days checking the sock so you can remove them and put them back in your display

 

[MelodiB]

What I think we need to do is form local berghia clubs. When your aptasia is gone, give them to someone else. When the aptasia comes back, borrow a few more berghia from whoever has them. Just keep passing them around !

I just posted to my local reef group on FB about needing some berghia and already got 2 responses from those that have them and 2 from others looking as well.

This hobby is already expensive. If we could pass the berghias, none starve, and when they come back, you have access to more!

 

[((FORDTECH))]

What I think we need to do is form local berghia clubs. When your aptasia is gone, give them to someone else. When the aptasia comes back, borrow a few more berghia from whoever has them. Just keep passing them around !

I just posted to my local reef group on FB about needing some berghia and already got 2 responses from those that have them and 2 from others looking as well.

This hobby is already expensive. If we could pass the berghias, none starve, and when they come back, you have access to more!

Or you buy them from someone like me who sells them for less than 50% of the store…..I’m in Chicago

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Matter a fact I’m about to sell my aptasia and nudi farm for 2500$ tomorrow to a guy who is local here. I’ve been doing it for about 1.5 years and neglected my other 1000 gallons of saltwater in my home due to it so time to start paying attention to my other systems.

 

[Jmp998]

Matter a fact I’m about to sell my aptasia and nudi farm for 2500$ tomorrow to a guy who is local here. I’ve been doing it for about 1.5 years and neglected my other 1000 gallons of saltwater in my home due to it so time to start paying attention to my other systems.

I don't blame you, my small Berghia farm is much more work than my display tank. I think Berghia farming could be an awesome post retirement job some day when I have plenty of free time. I would also like to breed some other inverts cleaner shrimp etc. However for now Berghia breeding is becoming a bit of a beat down on top of a full time job, family, etc. I will keep going for a while to fully fund my next display tank but then may be getting out as well. I'm curious how you sorted out pricing, but will PM.