Aiptasia Removal

[Garry thomas]

There seems to be a new trend over here in the removal of aptasia from our beloved tanks. They are using a nudibranch called BERGHIA VERRUCICORNIS and they are alledged to be totally reef safe and will not harm our corals. They are also begining to become available commercially. :thumbsup:

[Bachlum Chaam]

It appears a shame they feed only on aiptasias though, almost worth having them as they are gorgeous

Tim

[fishman]

just stateside or home? im after something not copperband to put in my frag system as it is becoming overun with them i just want sommat that will be ok in the frag setup, maybe put a few pieces of liverock in the corner.what you reckon frag system 8x18x18.FISHMAN..

[Garry thomas]

fishman you got fed up with HCL? :lol:

[fishman]

aint got thetime m8 :rolleyes:

[shaun2]

good ol peppermints dusted all mine. anyone got a piccy of the slug??

shaun

[Garry thomas]

Here's one of the little beauties :)

[Garry thomas]

Originally posted by shaun2@Sep 7 2004, 22:04
good ol peppermints dusted all mine. anyone got a piccy of the slug??

shaun
And the copperband and or peppermint shrimp has NOT demonstarted consistancy in the eradication, more of a controlled depletion(Grazing) of aptasia. In a heavilly infested aquarium they recomend 1 specimen per 5 gals (us) And if you have 4 to 6 specimens they Will breed and begin a culture in the tank.

[Garry thomas]

:rolleyes:

[halfpint]

hi GT i learned the hard way with aps I tried all sorts of weird and wonderfull mixes that i injected into them, also bought a couple of pepermints and to be honest never once seen them touch my aps well in the end they got so bad they started stinging my corals and managed to kill a few of them , my encrusting exenia has still got damage but is now slowly recovering anyway tocut a long story short in the end i took out as much of the live rock as i could and used a BLOW TORCH on the things, i could not belive how big some of them had grown after my kids and misses moaning about the smell cause when u burn them they smell like burning flesh, this seems to have got rid of the majorty of them, im now gonna get a copperband to kill the small ones before the problem starts all over again, the rock that i torched seems to be making a good recovery its pretty amazing to see just how fast the rock becomes live again. only wish they would hurry up and start selling the nudis over here

cheers

[Garry thomas]

They are now available commercially, so hopefully your very reliable reef shop should be able to get some possibly? :unsure: As long as they import from the caribbean. And they grow to aprox 1 to 1.5 inchs and are pretty things. Certainly dont look out of place in any one's reef tank

[Reef bloke]

Do they except any other food stuffs GT.It would be a shame to loose them to starvation after they have done such a good job.Also have there been any reports of them having ago at other Anem's like BTA's,Malus etc?
Cheers Tony

[Garry thomas]

if anyone would like to know more, this company offers tank raised specimens
you should email info@proaquatix.com or www.proaquatix.com :rolleyes:

[Bachlum Chaam]

:wub: Seems they only eat Aiptasia on the search I did

[Kevster]

I tried folowing up a few commercial suppliers a couple of years ago, but getting them from over there to over here was a problem...and most of the suppliers were out of stock most of the time anyway. You should go into exporting livestock to the UK Garry. You'd make a mint with a steady supply of BERGHIA.

Kev

[Reef bloke]

I managed to kill a few of the little gits this weekend with a soldering iron.Basically lifted the rock out real slow so as not as to disturb them too much.Then i stuck a red hot soldering iron up thier arse.Sizzle sizzle!Most of them immediatly let go of the rock and fried.Wot a pong!but it sure felt good.
Tony

[Garry thomas]

Thats one way Tony :lol:

[Moistness]

I love the smell of burning aips in the morning, smells like victory!! :D

[Garry thomas]

Burn baby burn :thumbsup:

[Phil]

yeah - I took similar drastic action - I had prob 45-50 Kg of rock covered in Aips - nothing touched them (Peppermints). I found Joe's juice had limited effect to be hoest - you thought you'd killed the Aip then 10 appeared

Anyhow, I removed the rock and dipped it into boiling water - alright it killed everything else, but then I stored the rock in a cold water tank with fresh salt water - of course I got a massive ammonia spike as it cycled, but then I added it back to my main tank, and within a couple of weeks, it was full of life again (worms / pods etc)

Phil

[Ian501]

have i just wasted 9 quid on joes juice :(

[Moistness]

Originally posted by Ian501@Sep 14 2004, 20:40
have i just wasted 9 quid on joes juice :(
No mate, the people who posted above you are just nutters!! :D :thumbsup:

[Reef bloke]

Alas its true we are rather nutty. My LFS is getting some Joes juice in this week, I just wanted to see the ones I could get at fry! They made a lovely squealing sound as my red-hot poker plunged into them.
As I form of stress relief I can whole-heartedly recommend it.
Tony

[Moistness]

LOL!!! They squeal??? I MUST try that!!!! :lol: :thumbsup:

[Reef bloke]

I think its just the heat on their moist ugly bodies but its close enough for me lol.
Squeal like a piggy!
Tony

[Moistness]

He sure got puuurty tentacles!!!


*plays banjo*

:lol:

[Reef bloke]

Lol,i see we both have mental pictures of inbreed country bumpkins from Americas deep south proding out our glass anems then moistness. :blink: :wacko:
Tony

[Moistness]

Yeeeeeeehaaaaaw! :thumbsup: :D

[wayne in norway]

As a aiptasia ridden saddo recently I did some research around these beasts. What is for sale in the US is a Berghia something but not verrucicornis as to the best information I could get that's a mediterranean endemic. However it doesn't seem to matter as most Berghia seem to have a great appetite for anemonaes including Aiptasia. It was suggested to someone on a seaslug bulletin board that you could find them in Denmark so someone with a bunch of patience mind find a suitable native alternative that would do the job. It wouldn't last too long in trop temps though.
They seem easy enough to aquaculture, but seem to require some delicacy putting them in - they are prone to getting killed by power heads at first, or indeed being eaten by the devil anemonae. Noone here has them yet as far as I know - Midland Reefs were thinking about it. You can get thme from Germany though - about 50 Euros a pair.
Perosnally I thought Joes Juice worked quite well, though not as well as Chaetodon kleinii.

[isekiman]

Hi all. I had an infestasion of the little bu--ers so i bought a red sea butterfly fasticatus and he loves them so much that i am now breeding them for him. When i put a piece of rock in the tank for him to clean you dont get chance to put it down before he's picking them off the rock. I keep mainly softies so he does'nt bother them and he his hand tame, plus he eats like a pig when i feed the tank.HTH. Eric.

[digitise]

Hi all,

Just a word of caution about the berghia slugs.

I have a customer who collects zoo colonies. She called me on Wednesday to say that 8 of her 9 colonies were closed up and dying. She had introduced a new colony the day before and the tank was teeming with slugs.

She freshwater-dipped the affected colonies and moved them into another tank and they are recovering. She brought me some of the slugs in a jam jar and they look to all intents and purposes like berghia verrucicornis.

They may have been a variant species, but if youre planning to use them and have zoos in the tank, please be careful.

cheers

Neil

[Garry thomas]

Neil have you got any pics?

[narthur]

just used Joes Juice on mine and if you get the syringe in the feeding part i.e the mouth its lights out for aipstasia, it seemed to work very well in my tank.. Nic

[mbeast]

has anyone in the uk got these for sale?


:cheers: mark t

[wayne in norway]

Midlands Reefs were talking about getting some, or you can now buy pairs in Germany (breed them yourself and make some cash). They were NOT cheap though - about 50 -60 euros I think. Search for Anthony Calfos guide to breeding them.

I have no idea if the the slugs from Germany are the same as those from the US as it seems most Berghia sp. will do a number of pest anemonaes(sic). Presumably zo's are at some risk from some sp.

[mbeast]

i dont spose anyone would have a link for where to buy some from then hopefully i can get some breeding.

:thanx:

mark t

[ginac]

There is also an article in issue 5 of Coral, for anyone that wants to read up about breeding etc.
(Sorry if this has already been pointed out but haven't read all the replies.)

[bobkat]

Has anyone come to a conclusion about what you do with these slugs after all the aptasia are gone? They must either die from starvation or eat something else, but what?

If people are breeding them??? What do they feed them on? or do they also breed aptasia?

Seems a pointless exercise to me unless you know lots of people who have a continual infestation of the Anemones.

I am not aware of anyone within my marine keeping aquaintances who have any great problem with aptasia and when they do appear, it's no great problem to get rid.
Bob

[wayne in norway]

I know plenty of people with aiptasia problems so passing them on wouldn't be a problem. Beginners with small over fed reefs often have some fun with them.

They don't eat anything else, and yes people who farm also farm aiptasia to feed them.

[mbeast]

Originally posted by wayne in norway@Feb 14 2005, 10:52
I know plenty of people with aiptasia problems so passing them on wouldn't be a problem. Beginners with small over fed reefs often have some fun with them.

They don't eat anything else, and yes people who farm also farm aiptasia to feed them.
That was what I would do, Let then eat mine then pass them on to the next reef keeper who would do the same but no one seem to sell them near me so the search is still on.

:cheers:


mark t

[Philfish]

A friend got rid of his by syringing them with boiling water. Dunno if this has already been discussed, but it worked for him,

[Sam Hilton]

Am I the only one who thinks using a living creatures to get rid of a problem, knowing damn well that it will die of starvation shortly afterwards, is wrong?

There's plenty of chemical alternatives.

[Glenn@home]

Am I the only one who thinks using a living creatures to get rid of a problem, knowing damn well that it will die of starvation shortly afterwards, is wrong?

I doubt you are but for what its worth in my view it is a strange issue.

on the one hand we do our damndest to maintain the critters we want, on the other we kill off those that displease us and basically we do this for aesthetic reasons.

to me this is an irony, personally i dont believe in the 'save' everything at all costs approach, but i would prefer not to kill something that i didnt consider a pest simply because i couldnt provide the food for it.

JMHO

Glenn.

[popsock]

I think I know what Glenn is saying, but Aiptasia is unwanted guest in the our tanks that very quickly destroys the animals that we want to keep. It's effectively vermin, and I think should be destroyed if it becomes a problem. I also think that chemicals is the way to go, not nudibranchs, unless it is proven definately that they can be easily fed - to my knowledge most nudibranchs' diets are still a complete mystery.

[bobkat]

Originally posted by Sam Hilton@Feb 14 2005, 20:33
Am I the only one who thinks using a living creatures to get rid of a problem, knowing damn well that it will die of starvation shortly afterward, is wrong?

There's plenty of chemical alternatives.
I'm sure that you are not but if you have a plague of some creature in your reef tank and you see that the plague are destroying many of your very expensive corals and you know of a creature that will eradicate them then I for one will not hesitate to use the said critter to get rid of the problem. The fact that it dies afterward, unless you can pass it on to someone with the same problems, is to me irrelevant, as is the way in which I feed shrimp and other creatures to the fish and corals. It's nature in action and if we are going to take a piece of nature and confine it to a relatively small piece of pretend ocean, it's up to us to protect that patch and if it means a sacrifice of a small number of critters to do it then I will continue to think that way.

I don't like killing for killings sake but I shoot a number of magpies and tree rats because they have had a population explosion and kill an enormous number of small birds in the Spring. The small birds are under threat and the squirrels and maggies are not.

I shoot rabbits for similar reasons. They consume a great amount of farming crops and it is the law that anyone who has them on their land must take steps to cull them. Pigeons go the same way.
Bob

[mbeast]

Originally posted by Sam Hilton@Feb 14 2005, 20:33
Am I the only one who thinks using a living creatures to get rid of a problem, knowing damn well that it will die of starvation shortly afterwards, is wrong?

There's plenty of chemical alternatives.
i've tryed many chemical alternatives includeing lemon, kalk, tmc's and joes and they still come back after feeding it to them, i've even tryed injecting them and sure they go back into the rocks but only to come back a few days laterand some times with young.

a lot of them get into places that you just can't get to and i would be more then happy to let a living creature do the job properly then pass it on the the next person that has them.

by the time all its food has gone i'm sure in the mean time i could set up a tank just for growing apts to feed it untill i need it in my tank or someone tells me they have a problem and need to use it/feed it

the only problem i have with this is getting some in the 1st place and of course i don't want to stress them out to much transporting it around to my tank and then on to others.


mark t

[wayne in norway]

Well Berghia obviously are easily fed else we wouldn't be using them to control aiptasia.

I see the points re: letting them starve to death but practically I don't think it's necassarry as I think there are plenty of people with aiptasia problems. I presonally have a lot more problems morally with people going through numerous copper band butterflys to solve the problem before they find that eats.

I've used chemical treatments in the past, but found that once I'd started I always had to keep using them as you will never be 100% effective with chemicals - you only kill what you can see.