Berghia Nudibranchs -Anyone tried these???

I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have used any "old" rock in my new tank.  I am seeing those dastardly little aiptasia's crop up here and there and most of them are growing in the back rocks where I can't get to them to zap them.  Not that I've found anything that zaps them very permanently.  I've tried everything and they just come back.  The fact is, everything is really happy in my new tank, INCLUDING the aiptasia!!
I thought at one time that someone on here tried breeding them?  How did that go??  I'm considering get a few and trying them and just thought I'd see if there was any experience on here to draw from.
Thanks!!

 

a group of people in the club tried them last winter and they all just died off. but jb had great luck with his copper banded and also people have had good luck with the larger breed of peppermint shrimp that carries pink eggs and does not have a spot of purple in it's tail, the type that does not eat as much aptasia is the opposite and has green eggs.

 

I got 4 peppermint shrimp a week ago and I don't see one of those buggers (aiptasia) gone.  I believe I'm going to try breeding the bergia's and see what happens.  That means I'm going to need MORE aiptasia just to get them off to a good start.  Should be interesting....

If that fails I may try a CBB but I hadn't really thought I wanted one in my tank because they are not always reef safe.  I'd like to hear people's experiences with CBB please??

 

if you need some aptasia just let me know ill get you some from the store

 

I will need to get a crop of aiptasia for sure since I intend to breed a batch or two and then put the adults in the tank while some more grow out.  I wonder how one would go about "trying" to grow aiptasia without rockwork in a small tank with sand.  Take a few and crush them and smush them around??  
I would love to get some aips from you but I'm guessing you and I are hours apart (I'm 1 hour from the QC).   Still thinking about this whole thing...........

 

i wonder if you got lysmata rathbunae and not lysmata wurdemanni, the latter would be the true peppermint shrimp and the kind that eats aptasia. if you get those berghia and they don't work out, i'd hunt for the right shrimp.
i would talk to a few club members before you order them, JB tried the same thing you are doing, along with a handful of other people and they all just wasted away.

 

FWIW I've always had good luck with peppermint shrimp from SOM. Sometimes it takes a week or two before they find the first aiptasia, then they seem to go to town on them.

Anna

 

Sounds like there's a lot of hit and miss. I too, have tried peppermint shrimps with no luck. I got a CBB ~6 months ago and my tank has been free of aiptasia and tube worms. I never see him eat anything but he's still alive and looks healthy. And I have never seen him pick on any coral.

 

I wouldn't mind getting rid of the small duster worms but what about large feather dusters?    I just don't want these guys getting out of hand and I can see how fast that might happen.

 

Robyn,
Here's my aiptasia story...
Early this year, my tank was so overrun with aiptasia that I was actually considering getting out of the hobby because of it. It seemed like everything that I did to try and treat them lead to them coming back a few weeks later in even greater numbers.
After doing a lot of reading about "Berghia" being the only shure fire cure to Aiptasia, I decided to give them a try and organized a group order at our January club meeting. I ended up getting 6 of them (at @ $15 each) with the intention of breeding them to make my money back. I found that it was actually pretty hard to find aiptasia for them to eat even though my rocks were covered with them. There simply wasn't any that I could get to easily. After about 3 weeks, I had already lost 3 of the 6 and decided to just cut my lossed and put them in my display tank.   I placed the 3 survivors in my display tank and never saw any sign of them again.   My aiptasia problem was completely unaffected.  I'm pretty sure that they became very expensive food for other tank inhabitants.
So, after doing a bit more reading, I came across a product called Aiptasia-X from RedSea that was cheaper than "Joe's Juice" and getting better reviews.   I decided to give it a try and ordered 3 bottles of it.   I treated my infested 125 with it twice.  One day I treated every aiptasia that I could see and a couple days later I treated all of the stragglers.    This stuff was majic.    After the treatment, the Aiptasia stayed dead and did not rebound at all.   Usually they release their larva when you try and kill them making the problem worse a few days later.  Aiptasia-X fools them into thinking they are feeding, so they actually ingest it and get sealed up and implode before they have a chance to release any larva.  Both treatments only took 2 bottles total, so I still have one unopened.
So, I attribute most of my success in the war on aiptasia to that product.
However, there were still numerous aiptasia in my tank that I had no chance of reaching without damaging coral colonies, so I needed another solution to complete the irradication.   This is where the Copperband Butterfly came in.   I saw a nice copperband for sale one day and I noticed that he was actively feeding and picking at the rockwork in the shop.   This indicated to me that he was probably healthy and would eat in my tank.   Once he was in my display tank, it didn't take long at all for him to start picking at the rockwork which he still does constantly.   It's worth noting that he is the only fish in my tank that has no interest in flake food, so I have to make sure and feed frozen brine/mysis periodically.   The other cool thing about this fish is that it appears that it eats those annoying red flatworms as well.   I used to have a TON of those on my rock work, but since adding the copperband, they have completely disappeared.  I haven't read about them eating flatworms anywhere, but I don't have any thing else to attribute it to.
Today I have ZERO visible aiptasia in my display tank that was completely overrun 6 months ago.   There are a ton of them in my overflow still, but I really don't care about that.    I can't swear that the berghia's didnt' have something to do with the aiptasia disappearance, but I hightly doubt it.   If there were still berghia in my tank, I believe they would have found their way into the overflow and killed those aiptasia by now.
So... Thumbs up to both CBB's and Aiptasia-X.   Thumbs down to berghia's.
-JB

 

JB,
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experience with me. I do have Aiptasia X and haven't felt it was that successful but I'm going to give it another try. I also think that between you and Sone's good experience with a CCB, I will add one of those to my tank. I will keep everyone updated as this is something that challenges us all from time to time.

I'm going to pass on the berghia's. Just too expensive if they aren't foolproof.

 

I didn't have luck with the peppermint shrimp either. (not sure what color of eggs they carry because I never see them)

Home made kalk paste seems to work pretty well for me.... I think it is basically the same thing as Joe's Juice. ( I know you aren't able to reach them, but maybe you could hook a syringe to some airline tubing or something.)

 

Thought I'd update:
I added a Copperband Butterfly shortly after JB's suggestion. It was touch and go the first day I put him in the tank because my smallish Powder Brown Tang thought that the CBB should be a goner and tried to kill him for half a day. After that, he got over it and they have been fine ever since. I have to say that at first I didn't think I liked the looks of the CBB but I've since decided he is one beautiful fish! What a graceful creature, always looking for bugs or whatever and sticking that pointed snout in all the cracks and crevices. It took several weeks and I don't know if the CBB got the aiptasia or the pepp shrimp, but they are all gone. All of them. yea!!!

 

That's great to hear Robyn

 

Good to hear. So is the CBB eating any of the food you put in the tank? i hear they can be hard to keep alive once the live food is gone.

 

Mine will eat anything frozen. It won't eat flake at all.

-JB

 

Mine has never eaten any food put into the tank and just picks at the rock all day. I must have enough to keep him happy as he is very healthy looking.

 

I love the looks of the Copperband Butterfly.

--AJ

 

I don't know if I just got lucky or what but this is a very easy fish for me so far. He's pretty comical too the way his search for food often has him upside down under a rock at times. He hasn't bothered any corals either. Thanks JB, I wouldn't have gotten him without hearing of your success with one.