Finally cultured some berghia nudibranch!!!

[Lucas]

Took me a couple tries but I finally hatched these babies. I tried the eggs in a beaker method and failed. I housed the nudies in a 2.5 gallon tank and have an aiptasia culture in another. To feed the nudis I would pull broken egg crate from the aiptasia tank. During one of the passes I noticed a tiny slug on a piece of black egg crate. Took a closer and saw a bunch! Funny how things work out. Couldn’t hatch theses guys in beakers or in their separate tank. But it happens in the aiptasia tank. Now I have to cause the plague in the other 2.5. Nevertheless I’m happy. I have like 25-30 around a half inch and a hand full of centimeter sized ones.

 

[Chris A.]

Awesome job, 2weeks late for me but now I got a connect

 

[FREAKINRICAN69]

Took me a couple tries but I finally hatched these babies. I tried the eggs in a beaker method and failed. I housed the nudies in a 2.5 gallon tank and have an aiptasia culture in another. To feed the nudis I would pull broken egg crate from the aiptasia tank. During one of the passes I noticed a tiny slug on a piece of black egg crate. Took a closer and saw a bunch! Funny how things work out. Couldn’t hatch theses guys in beakers or in their separate tank. But it happens in the aiptasia tank. Now I have to cause the plague in the other 2.5. Nevertheless I’m happy. I have like 25-30 around a half inch and a hand full of centimeter sized ones.

aWESOME JOB CHIEF...

 

[gobyvin]

Are you selling any

 

[20gReef]

Congrats that's an awesome achievement!

 

[Lucas]

Are you selling any

Yeah I’ll prob sell some. I’m gonna let them grow a little more though. I’ll post something on the selling forum when they are ready.

 

[gobyvin]

I would love to buy a couple when the time comes please! Congrats on being able to grow them. Sounds very cool. My wife teaches Marine Science at Fall River’s Public HS. Has a reef, I have a small reef at work that has some Aiptasia issues. I would like to try to keep them going, maybe culture more via her classroom if we can manage to cause a Aiptasia bloom. Did you simply feed the Aiptasia like crazy in a small closed environment? I would love to learn more about this.

 

[Andy V]

Keeping enough Aiptasia would seem to be the challenge. I don't know anything about propagating/growing Aiptasia intentionally. All I know is that I have put a single tiny Berghia in a 60 gallon and it wiped out all the Aiptasia in a week or two.

 

[Lucas]

I would love to buy a couple when the time comes please! Congrats on being able to grow them. Sounds very cool. My wife teaches Marine Science at Fall River’s Public HS. Has a reef, I have a small reef at work that has some Aiptasia issues. I would like to try to keep them going, maybe culture more via her classroom if we can manage to cause a Aiptasia bloom. Did you simply feed the Aiptasia like crazy in a small closed environment? I would love to learn more about this.

Yeah you’ll def need a small tank to grow aiptasia. I would squirt reef roids in one maybe two times a week. I would also disturb the big ones every so often so the shoot out spores. I used black egg crate, lock line and small pieces of black acrylic to grow the aiptasia on. Also you have to keep as many pods out as possible because they eat the eggs. That is the hardest part.

 

[Lucas]

Keeping enough Aiptasia would seem to be the challenge. I don't know anything about propagating/growing Aiptasia intentionally. All I know is that I have put a single tiny Berghia in a 60 gallon and it wiped out all the Aiptasia in a week or two.

Yeah having the babies birth in the aiptasia tank kinda through me for a loop. Luckily one of my tanks is still riddled with the suckers.

 

[saltwaterB]

Keeping enough Aiptasia is ALWAYS the problem. I have been breeding Berghia for decades. Always lose them due to them eating themselves out of a food source. Back at Skiptons in the early 2000s, we would literally give customers clean live rock, pound for pound, for Aiptasia loaded rock, had (2) 75g tanks just culturing Aiptasia, and still suffered colony crashes during to lack of food. Luckily there will always be a food source, and they are easy to get going again. Just tough to maintain breeding colonies long term.
But I totally agree always best results in small breeding tanks over standard aquaculture methods for initial hatchings.

 

[FishieBusiness]

Yeah I’ll prob sell some. I’m gonna let them grow a little more though. I’ll post something on the selling forum when they are ready.

I would like a couple also when they are ready for sale. Great work on the breeding program. There are so many enjoyable things with this hobby.