Aiptasia and Berghia Nudibranch breeding project

[William Bruckmann]

This is a nice project, and I applaud the effort to experiment with Aiptasia propagation to try to improve efficiency.

Ultimately you will probably want to dedicate much more space to the Aiptasia than to the berghia-at least 5x more space for the Aiptasia than Berghia, as the latter eat a lot and grow/reproduce much faster.

As you said heater is not essential, but it does make a big difference in growth rate.

Are you planning lights over the Aiptasia? Not required but I think it improves growth.

You are correct. No one raises berghia. You are first and foremost an Aiptasia farmer with a Berghia side tank. lol

 

[silent1mezzo]

Farm 2.0 in the works. I've got a couple Berghia left but need to totally restart the aiptasia farm.

I've switched from one tank for each to two dedicated aiptasia tanks and two Berghia tanks. I don't need all of that space for the Nudibranchs but I like the redundancy. I still need to finish the stand with a plywood top and the silicone mat.

I've almost 5x my aiptasia growth footprint (going for 0.8sqft to 4.2sqft) and doubled the volume of water. I've also laid down silicone mats to make cleanup easier.

Now it's a waiting game.

 

[Jmp998]

Farm 2.0 in the works. I've got a couple Berghia left but need to totally restart the aiptasia farm.

I've switched from one tank for each to two dedicated aiptasia tanks and two Berghia tanks. I don't need all of that space for the Nudibranchs but I like the redundancy. I still need to finish the stand with a plywood top and the silicone mat.

I've almost 5x my aiptasia growth footprint (going for 0.8sqft to 4.2sqft) and doubled the volume of water. I've also laid down silicone mats to make cleanup easier.

Now it's a waiting game.

Nice clean setup. Airstones in those shallow containers may result in a lot of fine salt spray/mist. Make sure there is nothing nearby that will be destroyed-including power bars/electrical plugs/etc-salt spray leading to rusting and a short circuit could be dangerous.

Waiting for the Aiptasia to grow out will be frustrating, stick with it. When I started it was 6 months or so before I started trying to grow Berghia in any significant numbers.

Redundancy is a great idea, especially on the Aiptasia part of the system. I have killed Aiptasia cultures which is frustrating. I am in the latter stages of downsizing/consolidating and will have all my Aiptasia in one 40 gallon tank, but I am keeping two separate 5 gallon backup Aiptasia cultures just so I have a few hundred to restart if I crash my main Aiptasia system. It is much faster and easier to recover from a Berghia crash, they breed so fast.

 

[silent1mezzo]

Nice clean setup. Airstones in those shallow containers may result in a lot of fine salt spray/mist. Make sure there is nothing nearby that will be destroyed-including power bars/electrical plugs/etc-salt spray leading to rusting and a short circuit could be dangerous.

Waiting for the Aiptasia to grow out will be frustrating, stick with it. When I started it was 6 months or so before I started trying to grow Berghia in any significant numbers.

Redundancy is a great idea, especially on the Aiptasia part of the system. I have killed Aiptasia cultures which is frustrating. I am in the latter stages of downsizing/consolidating and will have all my Aiptasia in one 40 gallon tank, but I am keeping two separate 5 gallon backup Aiptasia cultures just so I have a few hundred to restart if I crash my main Aiptasia system. It is much faster and easier to recover from a Berghia crash, they breed so fast.

100% I toss a couple plexiglass sheets over top to help with the salt spray and evaporation.

Do aiptasia grow faster with a better light? Right now I've got a shop light over the ranks but I've got a spare AI prime I could put over them. Would this help?

 

[silent1mezzo]

I've been trying to source aiptasia for weeks now and can't. I realize how privileged this comment is

 

[William Bruckmann]

100% I toss a couple plexiglass sheets over top to help with the salt spray and evaporation.

Do aiptasia grow faster with a better light? Right now I've got a shop light over the ranks but I've got a spare AI prime I could put over them. Would this help?

In my experience they need light but not much. Blasting them with light is a waste of electricity. I use kessil A80’s turned down.

 

[silent1mezzo]

Alright, farm 2.0 has aiptasia again.

 

[silent1mezzo]

I've also been working on a new website while I regrow the farm. Would love any feedback

Salty Slugs

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[William Bruckmann]

Following along. The Berghia Farm. I have had the opposite problem of most Berghia growers. Plenty of Aiptasia but can’t get a decent hatch rate of Berghia. After 8 months of halfheartedly trying, I purchased a microscope to see what was going on. To my surprise just about every egg was covered in shrimp like pods chowing down on the eggs. I had suspected this all along, but was hoping spiral production would outpace any death by pods. So, now I am all in on this project. Tank water goes in a beaker and is microwaved until 190degrees. After cooling an air stone goes in on a trickle, and the next day a Berghia spiral. On day 10 I will add some newly released Aiptasia. So far my Berghia are clean and active. I have posted days 1,3,6 so far….
Here is a link to my YouTube channel if you want to follow along.

 

[Jmp998]

Following along. The Berghia Farm. I have had the opposite problem of most Berghia growers. Plenty of Aiptasia but can’t get a decent hatch rate of Berghia. After 8 months of halfheartedly trying, I purchased a microscope to see what was going on. To my surprise just about every egg was covered in shrimp like pods chowing down on the eggs. I had suspected this all along, but was hoping spiral production would outpace any death by pods. So, now I am all in on this project. Tank water goes in a beaker and is microwaved until 190degrees. After cooling an air stone goes in on a trickle, and the next day a Berghia spiral. On day 10 I will add some newly released Aiptasia. So far my Berghia are clean and active.
Here is a link to my YouTube channel if you want to follow along.

That's interesting. I have lots of pods of various types in my system, you must have something different that is predatory. DO you have any pics or videos of them?

 

[William Bruckmann]

Not currently because I did not think to make a video. I have about 6 spirals in beakers now, so I am ready to sacrifice one for a video lol. Will post it here when I make it.

 

[GARRIGA]

My thought process was a tub with TLF Reborn as a substrate for the aiptasia.

 

[GARRIGA]

Since Berghia avoid light then couldn't one side be lit 24/7 and that side scraped periodically to increase amount of Aiptasia vs trying to have a clean room type tank setup to avoid contamination?

 

[silent1mezzo]

My thought process was a tub with TLF Reborn as a substrate for the aiptasia.

I've never used this before. It'd probably work pretty well. My issue with the carbon was that it got pushed around during each water change.

 

[Jmp998]

Since Berghia avoid light then couldn't one side be lit 24/7 and that side scraped periodically to increase amount of Aiptasia vs trying to have a clean room type tank setup to avoid contamination?

They avoid light-unless they are hungry. For this to work, you would need to manually limit the Berghia population. Otherwise they will breed until they overwhelm the Aiptasia on the dark side, then eat all the ones on the light side as well.

 

[silent1mezzo]

Since Berghia avoid light then couldn't one side be lit 24/7 and that side scraped periodically to increase amount of Aiptasia vs trying to have a clean room type tank setup to avoid contamination?

In my experience they'll wander out at all times, especially once you've got significant numbers. You definitely need at least two tanks and need to be careful. In my case I'm fairly certain I introduced it by bringing an aiptasia infested rock in my from my main display. There was probably an egg clutch or baby berghia's on it that I missed (you can't see baby berghias). As they grew they just decimated the aiptasia population.

Going forward, nothing I use in my aiptasia tanks will ever come into contact with my display or berghia tanks.

 

[GARRIGA]

I've never used this before. It'd probably work pretty well. My issue with the carbon was that it got pushed around during each water change.

This stuff holds well in high flow. Why I started using it back in 2021. Seen now WWC and a custom builder in Miami using it as well. Very attractive on the bottom too. Although will grow GHA and releases phosphates being it's old coral skeleton.

 

[GARRIGA]

They avoid light-unless they are hungry. For this to work, you would need to manually limit the Berghia population. Otherwise they will breed until they overwhelm the Aiptasia on the dark side, then eat all the ones on the light side as well.

Daily scraping of Aiptasia wouldn't propagate that quick enough?

 

[GARRIGA]

In my experience they'll wander out at all times, especially once you've got significant numbers. You definitely need at least two tanks and need to be careful. In my case I'm fairly certain I introduced it by bringing an aiptasia infested rock in my from my main display. There was probably an egg clutch or baby berghia's on it that I missed (you can't see baby berghias). As they grew they just decimated the aiptasia population.

Going forward, nothing I use in my aiptasia tanks will ever come into contact with my display or berghia tanks.

Amazing they grow that fast then one has to wonder why so expensive to obtain. Seems simple enough if two separate systems running as you describe.

 

[Jmp998]

Amazing they grow that fast then one has to wonder why so expensive to obtain. Seems simple enough if two separate systems running as you describe.

Berghia are not expensive because it is hard to grow berghia. They are expensive because it is hard to consistently grow enough aiptasia to feed them. And to be fair, it is really not hard, just work-as you say it is conceptually simple. The berghia themselves are hardy, not picky about water quality, have a complete diet in Aiptasia with no supplements required, and breed continuously as soon as they are big enough.