Group Buy: Aiptasia Nudibranches, Berghia verrucicornis

[TheReefGeek]

Chris, glad it is going well for you so far.

Psiyre, your sister picked your up at 3pm.

I think I am going to release mine into a 20g as a rock cleaning tank, instead of breeding them in the container. Hopefully they breed and I too can try to get everyone else who lost some, their nudis.

Anyone found good information on how to breed aiptasia's quickly? I am going to take a few heavily infested rock and some non-infested dry rock and put them into a tank, but im not sure if I will need heat/light/oxygetn for the aiptasia or not?

[Funky_Fish14]

I think any average reef temperature is fine, 74-79?

I also know that lots of light and nutrient rich water+feedings can help grow aiptasia. From my readings, I saw that it was suggested they stay in a dark, nutrient rich container for them to start producing clones by a-sexual reproduction, but I also noted that damaging them(Ie: Chopping them up) can cause lots of budding and regeneration of pieces. I figure decent lighting(a fluorescent strip or so) and heavy feedings, as well as hacking at them, should produce good results of growth. This is what im about to try.

Chris

[TheReefGeek]

Well for me it doesn't matter, my berghia are now toast. And I was about to put them into my 20g tank too. At noon they were fine, 9 hours later they turned into expensive small piles of white goo.

Chris, hopefully you continue to have success.

*warning, following is venting!*

I don't know what to do. even if I took out all my rock to "cook" it, that wouldn't get rid of the aiptasia. Besides selling off all my livestock, draining the tank and letting it sit, I don't know what else to try with these darn things, it is ruining my reef aquarium experience, I can tell you that!

And with my 3 week wedding/honeymoon coming up, shutting down the tank now is becoming dangerously tempting. Maybe I will change my mind by the morning! !@#$!@#$%

[Funky_Fish14]

I'll do my darndest to keep mine going! So far, 4 out of 5 are eating well. One didnt eat the last time I fed, but still has a slight pigmentation from when I picked it up, or maybe it ate a little here. Im taking it real slow. I hope to work them into a 1g acrylic container. I hope I dont have any problems!

Rory, Im sure the aiptasia's in your tank wont cause too many problems? I can also say that if berghias were able to colonize in there, im sure they'd clean 'er out real quick.

Did you guys drip acclimate right away real quick? Im still floating in the original water, and could even smell some decay from the dead aiptasia remains I added, but the berghias seemed fine. I am starting to add small amounts(squirt-tubes full) of water from my tank that has been temperature matched. Will slowly quadruple the volume of water in their container.

I'll keep everyone updated!

Rory, any chance of cross contamination between tools you were using? I rinse everything I use with RO/DI water all the time, also, I dont let chlorinated water near any of my tank stuff except test tubes when I clean them, then they are rinsed with RO/DI anyways. I use new towels all the time, and completely dry anything thats wet. I also only used new containers thus far with anything I did reguarding the Nudis.

Chris

[Psyire]

Mine seem to be doing fine, I'll report back in the future... as I see progression,

[TheReefGeek]

I think they died from the decay from the feeder aiptasia.
I only fed one small aiptasia per day though, and syphoned out any remains the next day, but with such a small water volume the decay was probably too much, so everyone with berghias left should be carefull of that.

I also fed some aiptasia "bits", maybe stick with whole aiptasias so they are alive and not decaying right away?

[muck]

What was the water temp you had them in Rory?