The elusive berghia

[TJL]

Hey All,

After all the fiascos in trying to get some reasonably priced Berghia Nudibranchs to control the Aiptasia in my DT a while back. I ended up getting the last 4 from BRA for $20 a pop then not ever seeing them although the Aiptasia colony I released them by slowly disapeared. So today (mid-day) I was checking out my new corals from the swap and Low and behold there was a little slug high tailing it across some open ground in search of its next meal some 30" from release site. And here are some pics to prove it! For those of you that also threw a handfull of Jacksons at some of these , there is hope.

Todd

 

[tat2z_21]

Sweet to know. I threw 4 of them into my 75 gallon, next to their future meal, and they rode off into the rockwork, never to be seen again. I do notice that patches of the dreaded aptasia are missing but still have not found the creatures responsible.

 

[mal1099]

Yeah i have 2 in my tank and i seen them like once a month if im lucky they getting big too.almost an inch lol

 

[seagem]

do these just eat the small aiptasia?

 

[arman]

Oooppss! i had one of those on one of my frags from the swap, and since ive never seen one before, i wasnt sure wat it was and thought it was some sort of zoanthid eating slug. so i flushed it.......

 

[johnpeezy]

If you happened to be the one that bought a colony of red zooanthids from me for like 20 buck well uhh SURPRISE!!!
i forgot to check my frags for my little guys.....but I had em laying eggs in my tanks so what ever who knows you may have another one on it too.

 

[Redseadan74]

I put 4 in my tank and they went right in the rock and I've never seen them again,but I had about 30 aptasias in my tank and now I only see 10 and its been a about 35 days when I put them in

 

[ReefferMan]

I put 4 in my 300 g, never seen em again.....its been months..theres still some aptasias. hopefully they breed and kill all the stinking aptasias.. Anyone know how long there gestation period is? how fast they multiply?

 

[returnofsid]

They multiply FAST!!! Like, REALLY FAST!!! However, in your 300, it's not at all unusual to never see them. Some night, you'll be looking at the tank, and see one crawl across the glass.

To give you an example, we put some in Angie's Nano, about a year ago. Even when I really looked to try and find them, I'd never see them. One night, I'm watching TV and glance over at the nano, to see one on the glass. This was months after I'd stopped searching for any.

 

[TJL]

For good Berghia info check out www.berghia.net although I purchased mine elsewhere.

Todd

 

[dew2loud1]

Glad to see my little guys are working hard for everyone,
They do a great job but it does take time when you only add a few. I've had several people add 15-20 in larger tanks and the aiptasia are gone in a week or two. The thing to remember is that the aiptasia are all the while still reproducing at the same rate they were before adding berghia, so it can take some time for the berghia to catch up.

All berghia i sell are laying eggs, so if they lay eggs in the tank the first week you add them you're looking at about 3-5 weeks depending on water temperatures until the larvae hatch out. Then another 2-4 weeks until they get big enough to find. Once they settle they begin eating very voraciously as they are focused on only acquiring food, not breeding. Once they hit breeding size 1/2" they begin multitasking, eating/breeding.

This second "rush" of berghia you will see from 4-6 weeks after adding the initial adults these guys will get in all of the tiniest crevices/cracks and get any stragglers that the adults didn't get. It really is amazing how fast they can grow when they have unlimited food, they get up to 1"+ very quickly.

Feel free to pm me with any other questions about them,
again glad to see that they are working for everyone.

 

[TWallace]

Anyone know if a red coris wrasse would eat berghias? I've been considering getting some berghias to control my aiptasia, but don't want to just throw money away and have my wrasse eat them. They're rumored to eat the zoanthid eating nudibranch, so I don't see why they wouldn't also eat berghias, as well.

 

[davidr2340]

Anyone know if a red coris wrasse would eat berghias? I've been considering getting some berghias to control my aiptasia, but don't want to just throw money away and have my wrasse eat them. They're rumored to eat the zoanthid eating nudibranch, so I don't see why they wouldn't also eat berghias, as well.

I don't know about that... But I do know that my Clownfish had a ten dollar meal the other night! I found one, and was moving him off the glass to the rock with the pipette. I accidentally shot the Nudi out up high in the tank! Clown thought it was dinner time!!!

 

[MrSculpin]

They multiply FAST!!! Like, REALLY FAST!!!

Yeah they do! I think I ended up having at least 11 from the two you gave me sid..
They did a great job in my 75