Question about Berghia Nudibranch

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mikelush78

mikelush78

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Jun 30, 2006
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Is there anything in the aquarium that would eat them? I am still fighting a serious problem with aptasias and am thinking of getting a bunch of them...

I have a 90 gallon reef tank with a 10 gallon refugium and a 20 gallon sump...
The problem is the aptasias are everywhere in the main tank where i can and cannot get them... so if I kill all the ones in the open where I can get them... there are so many in places I cannot get they reproduce so fast they are back in a week... been doing this for about 2 months strait and i am about to loose it lol....

I have tried peppermint shrimp 2 times I bought a group of 3 and they stayed in the aquarium for about a week and then disappeared... (not sure if something in there is stressing them and killing them) I have 2 skunk cleaners and a blood red shrimp...

I also have a blue Linckia Sea Star and i am not sure that if he would eat the Berghia Nudibranch seeing no one knows what they eat. I would not want to spend a tun of money on Berghia Nudibranch to be an expensive snack for something in the aquarium...

I have also tried a copper banded butterfly fish. I have tried 3 of them now and the fish in the aquarium I think stress him out make him an outcast and they just starve themselves.... I did feed live foods.. an assortment and none of them lived....

I am at a crossroads.... I can try getting a larger group of peppermint shrimp and seeing if they will live and maybe help the problem.... or i can get 5 or 6 Berghia Nudibranch and see if they help the situation... eather way it will cost me online about $120 - $150 to try either situation and in the LFS closer to $200... so not sure what to do seeing no matter what i have tried so far I have failed and every try i make is expensive......

:help:
Any ideas?
 
archer772

archer772

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The peps will usually only eat the small ones, the Berghia Nudibranch as I have been told will make short work on them but just remember when you run out of aptasia they will end up dieing so if it was me I would only get 2-3 that way they will clean up your tank and you will have a chance to find someone else that might need them when they are thru in your tank. There was an LFS here in MI that was taking in aptasia infested rock and trading it for clean rock so they could keep the Berghia's alive and they still had problems getting enough for them, just thought I would offer that little bit of info
 
Grins

Grins

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I've heard what Archer has, but I've also heard that when you use Berghias you don't want them to eradicate the aiptasias, but rather control them so that they don't take over your tank but the berghias have a continuing food source. I've also heard yet another recommendation that because of the size of the berghias it is better to remove the rocks you want them to work on and place them into a separate container with the berghias so they can find them. Otherwise you risk them not finding them and starving when you still have them in your tank.

Personally I went another route, After trying many things I ended up taking my tank apart and inject Joe's Juice in each rock, inspecting it carefully and hitting it again if needed. It was not a fun process but it got rid of most of them and I'm about to hit a few strays again.
 
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buzzbombtom

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my pep hid for about 1 month till he started becoming really active, he still prefers no lights though. it is possible that your skunk or your blood ate/killed them sometimes they fight. i know that its not totally on topic but it adresses questions of your shrimp going missing
 
mikelush78

mikelush78

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Trust me the Pepermint shrimp are dead i have not seen them in months and look at the tank day and night with an led flashliht...

But anyway what do you guys think my next step should be?

Also removing the Rock piece by piece into another container to treat is not an option... My tank is full of corals and i am not wiulling to risk the death of any of them...

Need an option for the 90 gallon that will work lol and one thta does not include me taking all the rock out of the tank :)
 
archer772

archer772

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mikelush78 said:
Trust me the Pepermint shrimp are dead i have not seen them in months and look at the tank day and night with an led flashliht...

But anyway what do you guys think my next step should be?

Also removing the Rock piece by piece into another container to treat is not an option... My tank is full of corals and i am not wiulling to risk the death of any of them...

Need an option for the 90 gallon that will work lol and one thta does not include me taking all the rock out of the tank :)
Click to expand...
Well then I would go with a couple of the Berghia's but I would also try to add 3-4 Pep's and you might have better luck adding the peps after lights out if possible
 
Grins

Grins

Girl Reefer...we do exist
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I'd add even more peppermints, I'd up it to 7 in a 90g. And I'd get as many as the aiptasias as you can with with one of the liquid methods available. I tried many (boiling water, lemon juice, lime juice, and both boiling and cold versions of the former two. I had the best luck with Joe's Juice which is essentially the same as kalk paste. The difference is that the Joe's Juice is pre-mixed and I liked the ease of that.
 
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buzzbombtom

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my lfs made me some sort of white liquid paste that was made from a mixture of powder, i will ask for you what it was :) worked on my aip very well. one dose and bam you remove a dead aip. ps my single pep went nuts on my tank and i have not seen one single aip ever sense he got put in the tank.
 
G

ggmichael

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Sep 1, 2006
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Berghia

I added 6 peps into my 75 gallon, but after I added them was told that the problem with putting peps in an existing tank is that there is so much other food for them to eat that they don't pay much attention to the aiptasia. So in the meantime I ordered 6 berghia, got them, acclimated them carefully put them in like they said and never saw them again. I have nothing else in the tank to eat them so I am convinced the peps ate them very quickly after I put them in. Now several weeks later, the peps have totally got the aiptasia under control. So my advice for what it's worth is get several more peps and give that a try -- plus they are alot cheaper.
 
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