Berghia Nudibranchs

[bhammer]

What are your thoughts on these for aptasia control? I have a 280 reef so I think to make any dent, I would need quite a few of the suckers. I have read mixed reviews about these for some of the larger tanks, pepermint shrimp seem to be hit or miss as well.

[AndyH5512]

I used some in a 65G reef that was completely infested with aiptasia. I put about 35 in a few months ago. Almost all the aiptasia are gone by now. Just a few large ones remain, compared to the hundreds that were present a few months ago. The down side is that the nudis will not eat anything other than aiptasia. You can try to capture them and pass them on to someone else with an aiptaisia infestation, or find other aiptasia to feed them.

[rifishguy]

Best money I ever spent!

[Frogmanx82]

Trying to capture them is easier said than done. They are very reclusive.

[AndyH5512]

I agree about the difficulty of capturing them, just putting it out there as a small added bonus after they eradicate the aiptasia. Sometimes you can recoup your investment, or trade them for something.

[bhammer]

Thanks giys for the input. Anyone else?

[Lina5910]

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/33-reefkeeping-101-

[Lina5910]

no problem. I've been checking out the"new to the hobby" forum lately, and even though im not new to the hobby, I've learned a few new things. That forum is great, soooo much info! I wish I read it when i did start the hobby, would've made things so much easier lol

[cakemanPA]

You just have to be careful about tank mates. I had a few berghias and they were doing their jobs nicely. I have a wrasse that discovered them as a food source. They were not around for too long after that.

[Crossbow]

Copper Banded Butterfly got every last one in my tank!

[uhuru]

I'm using them on 2 different tanks right now, and after about a month I have seen them lay eggs and kill some aiptasia but definitely not all. I think the problem is that it takes A LOT of them to be effective - which is fine if you don't have anything in your tank that will eat the eggs or newborns. Most of us have critters that prevent the nudis from increasing their population though, and in small numbers they don't seem to be able to eat the aiptasia fast enough.

If I could do it again I would keep a pair in a separate container and get a sustainable population going without the threat of predators. Then I could just keep adding more and more to the display.

The poster above used 35 in a 65g tank, and I don't think that's too far off for how many you need to really be effective. These guys are tiny and very slow.

[bhammer]

Thanks for the link. I will probably set up a small 10g and place some rocks with aptasia in there and start breeding a backup colony of them.