Berghia complication

[Crab Rangoon]

A customer has a problem with aptasia in their tank, and due to the sheer size of the tank (dementions complicating access to the aptasias by hand), injecting them with any sort of solution is ruled out. Also, due to the amount of rock in the tank, removing affected rocks and putting them in a lowered temperature environment temporarily to get the anemones to let go of the rock is also ruled out. The conclusion has been to use Peppermint Shrimp, or Velvet Nudibranch.

They would prefer to utilize Velvet Nudibranchs, and pass them on to others who need them, once finished wiht them, rather than buy an amount of PS. However, the tank in question has a rather large and healthy Green Carpet Anemone. There isn't a lot of concern over the Nudibranch's preying upon or disturbing hte GC, but more over the GC actively grabbing hold of and consuming the Nudibranchs, thus stressing/killing them, and promoting them to release/exude toxins or other such undesirable negative chemicals into the tank, potentially effect a lot of tank life.

Any comments or reccomendations on this situation?

[caferacermike]

I thought velvets were for controlling flat worms.

Berghia nudi's are for aptasia. But again I can't remember if those are the ame nudis that eat zoas. http://www.berghia.net/

[irishtexan]

caferacermike-check your PM's please!

Thanks!

texx

[Crab Rangoon]

I thought velvets were for controlling flat worms.  

Berghia nudi's are for aptasia.  But again I can't remember if those are the ame nudis that eat zoas. http://www.berghia.net/

You're entirely correct.

Shortly before making the post, I was discussing using Berghias to eliminate someones aptasia, Velvet's for eliminating another persons flatworms, and various things for controlling or ridding others of bristleworms, Asterina stars, and other critters that weren't manually selected as inhabitants. I just got confused and mixed my words up when making my post.

[caferacermike]

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[caferacermike]

Glad I could help then randy. I've been thinking about getting a pair of harlequins to help with my micro stars. I've only seen a couple but I'd like them gone as the judge is still out if they are harful or not. I saw one at the base of a SPS that shed it's skin the same day...yes I'm drawing a line back to the star.

So are you guys going to buy some Berghia to give it a go? It sounds so complicated waiting 8 months or so for the population to boom.

[Crab Rangoon]

Well, the person who maintenances the tank would be able to probably order a handfull of them, and add them to the tank, and get a few uses out of them. It would be optimal to take them out of hte tank once they've done the job, and be able to move them to other needy tanks, but I dont even know if it's going to happen. I'm just trying to clarify one way or another whether it's a true risk or not to introduce a could-be food item that would toxify the tank upon being consumed confused2.gif

But.... seeing as how I'm at MACNA this weekend blob7.gif I'll be asking Calfo, Borneman, & Pro about this exact topic tomorrow, as a few of my friends accounts have something undesirable living in the tank, and most of the tanks would need a predatory means of removing their pests, as generally the tank is too large, or too inaccessable due to canopy height / being in a wall to reach by hand. We're really getting a wealth of information here, and it's way cooler than I could have imagined.

I did end up buying over $250 worth of books today, so maybe some information on this very topic lies in them, but only one of them has even come out of the wrapper yet, so we'll have to wait and see. Who knows how many books and corals I'll be buying tomorrow (not to mention the gobs of raffle tickets I plan to get).

P.S. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we're gauging interest on doing a group order of Berghia, I'd have to get an solid idea of how many (total) of them other people would need in all (only people willing and able to pay for them) in order to get any kind of pricing figured out, but if we're ordering them, it'll be through an online source probably, as our distributors simply dont have them 95% of the time, meaning the more we order, the cheaper they should be :fingers crossed:

[caferacermike]

Unfortunately I don't have a single aptasia.

[Crab Rangoon]

Unfortunately I don't have a single aptasia.

Haha, "unfortunately."

I feel for you icon_thumright.gif

[caferacermike]

You know randy I've had quite a few nudis over the past year. A handful of lettuce and a few purple with yellow gills and a blue with orange gills. I've had 2 go through power head ( why are they drawn to them?), a few were eaten by my panther grouper and my former wrasse, I saw one torn apart by a saron shrimp, but my tank never crashed. I also believe it helps to have a good skimmer and lot's of flow so the waste can actually get to the skimmer.

The thing I'd be more afraid of is spending about $20 each for the things only to have them picked out and eaten.

What about going to the coast and netting a few hundred peppermint shrimp? Maybe they'd eat the aptaisa and also help to control wastes in the tank as detrivours. Hopefully if the tank is slightly aggressive (I can't keep cleaners or peppermints because of my grouper, oh wait I yanked him last night and set up a tank for him ) placing that many might overwhelm the fish for a few weeks.

Just a thought. And also because I want to go to the coast.

[auSS/Tin]

Having spent almost $200 on berghia's to put into my 200 gallon aiptasia farm was pretty much like going out to the barbecue pit, firing it up, wadding up a couple of Benjamins, tossing them in and walk back into the house. Literally was a waste of money. I tried to keep them contained to collect some egg spirals, which they did lay a bunch of eggs. So I decided to release them into the wild. Within about an hour they had all made it from the sand bottom onto rock. Then adios, never saw them again, never saw any egg spirals on the glass, never saw aiptasia go away, just my $200 went away.

So I nuked them with Joe's Juice. Hit them again in about 2 weeks, then we moved. When setting up the tank I hit the remaining ones with Joe's Juice once more. I still saw a few growing, but they weren't multiplying. About this time I went FOWLR and got a Koran Angel. Haven't seen an aiptasia since that fabulous day.

Good luck, but for a large tank, I think that you need a larger predator such as Peppermint Shrimp, CBB, or other angel fish. Of course if you are reefing I would avoid a large Angel.

Bill

[auSS/Tin]

edit

[caferacermike]

Sweet.

[Crab Rangoon]

Well, after talking to Anthony Calfo for a while today (every day, I've talked to him about Anemones, and I dont even keep any myself, but I had to know for customers), it was decided that using the PS would be a much better (and cheaper) idea than trying Berghia.

He just recommended that I introduce about 2 dozen of them, and use a baited trap to remove a majority of them after they've done their work.

So, I guess no more on the Berghia, as they've been ruled out.

[caferacermike]

Sweet let's plan a collection trip. I've been dying to see if that veewee of yours can run.

Oh and I did some research about where saltwater shouldn't be, seems the only place it isn't really welcome is around electronics and uncoated steel.

I did find a great link about using it to flush your insides. I gave it a try and trust me clean as a whistle... Who'd a thought? Only took a few seconds to get the cramps and wow did it go well.

[auSS/Tin]

I am glad to hear that experts are agreeing with my sentiments on the berghia. In a nano, I think that they would be an excellent solution, but in a big tank with bigger fish, no way.

Cafe-you are correct, forgot about the usefulness of saline solution for that nice cool cleansing sensation.

Bill

[Crab Rangoon]

Haha, witty as ever. I love the "veewee" comment, lol, but it's race seats are generally uncomfortable for most people, and it only accomodates 2 blob7.gif