Aiptasia Eating Berghia Nudibranch Army

[@TheFatwelder]

I bought some of these guys after trying peppermint shrimp and a file fish. No more aiptasia and they are hardier than I was lead to believe, after a routine clean of an external filter I found them happily scurrying about on the filter medium.Once established you can forget about them. I think I paid £45 for 5 but it was sometime ago.

[@ReefDrama]

Hey, yeah you're right, once added you can forget about them. The only thing was for the 1st few weeks to a month you don't see them, doesn't seem to be any reduction of the aiptasias and presume there all dead!! Then what seems all of a sudden there's a massive dent in the aiptasia population. I almost brought another 5 as well !! I can't be happier with their progress as virtually all aiptasia has gone now. How long after your aiptasia had disappeared did you find some in the external filter? I've been told once there is no more aiptasia they starve and die 😞 Thanks for supporting my channel 😀

[@TheFatwelder]

After speaking to my local shop owner, you will never completely erradicate aiptasia unless you remove all your coral and sterilize it by boiling for at least 20mins. In the same way that we can't see all the minute critters in our tanks you don't see all newly formed aiptasia. I think I had the berghia for nearly 2 years and still no visible aiptasia and I still find active berghia in my filter. My shop owner has a degree in ichthyology and is something of a superstar in marine fish keeping community, only found out after coming across an article online.So just leave them to do their job and enjoy your tank😃@@ReefDrama

[@Nick-o1h]

@@TheFatwelder they didn't work for me, first time I put them in tank (no shrimp, no wrasses), they disappeared and nothing happened. never saw them again. Second time, a year or so later, I set up an aiptasia tank and a breeding tank with no pods or worms. After 6 months of feeding them, getting huge numbers of egg swirls but no juvenile berghia I gave up and put them all in the tank. Again they all disappeared and aiptasia were unaffected. I think maybe I wasn't able to supply enough tiny aiptasia for the larva in the breed tank, and in the main tank amphipods were killing them. in the end I accepted aiptasia were always going to be there, sometimes in large numbers, other times not so much

[@StephenJeal]

Fricking Massive 😂. Me too, absolutely stacks of them. I’m planning on the same approach. Are you seeing a reduction in Aiptasia now?

[@ReefDrama]

Hi Stephen, thanks for your message. Mine have been in now for just over 2 months, and yes, the aiptasia is virtually gone now 😀 Some of the Burghias are quite big! Also, I've seen some of their spiral egg laying too which is great. Going to be doing an update video very soon 😀 You won't regret getting them so long as you don't have any wrasse or other known predators that will eat them! Thanks for supporting my channel 😀

[@TGC1775]

Nature found a way, they are expensive though. $15-25 each here. You’ll need at least 1 per 5 gallons of water. They move slow.

[@ReefDrama]

Don't think I will be buying 32 of them! 1 per 5 Gallons seems a lot, and most say 1 per 10 Gallons. As you say, they are expensive and I think it's important to buy enough so they can find each other to breed as well as taking into consideration the size of the tank and the amount of aiptasia. For me £100 on something that I will never see again and may or may not work is enough for now! Thanks for supporting my channel 😀

[@linxlogiic2117]

Where’s an update

[@ReefDrama]

There is no update yet. It has only been 28 days. It can take up to 3 months for them to establish themselves fully. Thanks for supporting my channel 😀

[@michaelstupples3140]

Your berghias wont last long with you having two wrasse in tank

[@ReefDrama]

Hi, yes, I guess this is a risk, but at the moment, the fish are still in the QT, and the main tank is fallow for at least another 40 days. Also, unfortunately, I now only have 1 wrasse as Piney (Porcupine Puffer) finally got pissed off with the cleaner wrasse and ate him or at least that's what I believe as I can't find the cleaner wrasse anywhere! Thanks for supporting my channel 😀