Aiptasia and Berghia Nudibranch breeding project

[Jmp998]

Oooh that's really helpful. The movements of the berghia larvae align with what I'm seeing. They're much jerkier then I was expecting.

No-the jerky movers are pods. The ones that look like they are barely cruising along or not moving at all are Berghia. I was trying to show pods and Berghia together, no predation.

 

[silent1mezzo]

I just found an adult Berghia in my aiptasia growout. Sucked it out quickly but now I'm worried. I'm not sure how it got there. I've been careful not to cross contaminate anything.

 

[dochoot]

Jurrasic Park-ish.

 

[Jmp998]

I just found an adult Berghia in my aiptasia growout. Sucked it out quickly but now I'm worried. I'm not sure how it got there. I've been careful not to cross contaminate anything.

This is my worry, Berghia larvae are tiny and effectively invisible if they contaminate something (including your hands) until the grow up. However I suspect as long as you monitor daily you will be ok, since Berghia must be very macroscopic to breed. It is probably not as bad as contaminating phyto with pods or something like that where you basically have to discard the whole culture.

I am ultra careful, every day when I feed or do other maintenance I always handle the Aiptasia first and then once I handle the Berghia do not go back to the Aiptasia until the next day, do not use any of the same equipment for both systems, and the very few items that I must use between systems (e.g. a cup to pour Aiptasia into the Berghia system) gets washed and/or soaked in HOT fresh water before going back to the Aiptasia system. Hot water seems to be pretty fast and effective at killing both Berghia and Aiptasia.

 

[silent1mezzo]

This is my worry, Berghia larvae are tiny and effectively invisible if they contaminate something (including your hands) until the grow up. However I suspect as long as you monitor daily you will be ok, since Berghia must be very macroscopic to breed. It is probably not as bad as contaminating phyto with pods or something like that where you basically have to discard the whole culture.

I am ultra careful, every day when I feed or do other maintenance I always handle the Aiptasia first and then once I handle the Berghia do not go back to the Aiptasia until the next day, do not use any of the same equipment for both systems, and the very few items that I must use between systems (e.g. a cup to pour Aiptasia into the Berghia system) gets washed and/or soaked in HOT fresh water before going back to the Aiptasia system. Hot water seems to be pretty fast and effective at killing both Berghia and Aiptasia.

This is what I was doing. I did move an invested rock in from my display tank early on and I wonder if there was juvenile on it.

 

[Jmp998]

This is what I was doing. I did move an invested rock in from my display tank early on and I wonder if there was juvenile on it.

Sounds likely. Hopefully just the one and you have already solved it.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

This is what I was doing. I did move an invested rock in from my display tank early on and I wonder if there was juvenile on it.

sounds like a good possibility