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Breeding / farming Aptasia suggestions


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hehe

 

Seriously.

 

I have an order of Berghia nudibranch on the way next week and have hopes of breedging or at least sustaining a group. This way when one pops up in a customer tank I can drop off a few and if/when the aptasia are gone I can bring them back home and keep em alive untill needed someplace else.

 

WE ALL KNOW THEY ARE HARD TO KILL but any thoughts on how to grow them?

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underskimming, no water change for 3 months and put in a few aptasia to start growing. How did I find that out?

 

Been busy with new business for 3 months and just kill all of them the last two days with shooting kalkwasser.

 

Good thing this aptasia only happens in my frag/hospital tank. Not sure how to get to all of them if it's in the larger tank.

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i would say high flow and alot of food combined with shredding them a little but leaving tissue behind

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You can use a sea squirt to direct feed them. Then they will take off like a California wild fire.

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hehe

 

Seriously.

 

I have an order of Berghia nudibranch on the way next week and have hopes of breedging or at least sustaining a group. This way when one pops up in a customer tank I can drop off a few and if/when the aptasia are gone I can bring them back home and keep em alive untill needed someplace else.

 

WE ALL KNOW THEY ARE HARD TO KILL but any thoughts on how to grow them?

No problem... just drop them by my place for a vacation... But I won't be responsible for nudibranches eaten by my predatory aiptasia. :)

 

High nitrates - plenty of food.

 

bob

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I've got one 5-6 # rock covered with em in a 5g tank, no filter and just a screw in HD compact light and the wash from a nearby 250mh

 

Want to feed em, but gotta keep the water cleanish fot the Berghia. Water changes I guess.

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I think you'll have better luck keeping the aptasia alive than you will the aptasia eating nudibranchs.

Love to see them when they come into you though.

 

I got some Aptasia-X from TACo and it works better than anything I've tried before. Even kalkvinegar paste I've made before.

I did keep the current off a little longer than recommended but that's the only difference than the directions said.

Worked wonders on a couple majano anemones I had as well.

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I think you would do best having a separate tank for aiptasia, and a separate tank for the nudis. Put a bunch of 'fuge rubble down in a 10g, put a handful of aiptasia in there, and then hack a bunch and just throw them in. Thaw a cube of mysis in a cup of tank water, feed the "big" pieces to your fish, then dump the cup of water and smaller pieces into your aiptasia tank.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Copper Band Butterfly will take care of them faster than the nudis, just don't feed anything and you will see how that pretty fishy tear them up.

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Anybody ever use the Joe's Juice and have the aptasia retreat or die from treatment and only later find that there are more in other places? I did this and thought I had won the battle but then more appeared in new areas on the same rock.

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I think you'll have better luck keeping the aptasia alive than you will the aptasia eating nudibranchs.

Love to see them when they come into you though.

 

I got some Aptasia-X from TACo and it works better than anything I've tried before. Even kalkvinegar paste I've made before.

I did keep the current off a little longer than recommended but that's the only difference than the directions said.

Worked wonders on a couple majano anemones I had as well.

 

Couldn't agree more. That stuff is awesome!!!!!

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I think you would do best having a separate tank for aiptasia, and a separate tank for the nudis. Put a bunch of 'fuge rubble down in a 10g, put a handful of aiptasia in there, and then hack a bunch and just throw them in. Thaw a cube of mysis in a cup of tank water, feed the "big" pieces to your fish, then dump the cup of water and smaller pieces into your aiptasia tank.

 

 

^^^Best plan out there if you really want to do it.

 

 

 

My experience with aiptasia (having kept a pico tank for them and majanos), is no food, no spreading. If you want aiptasia everywhere, you'll have to feed a lot. And the less waterchanges you do, the better to keep nitrate levels high.

 

The other aspect is that you dont want the nudis to have free reign over the aiptasia, similar to how you'd make a fuge as a place of safety for pods with fish like mandarins. By separating the two, you can keep the aiptasia healthy and farm out enough for the nudis.

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OK, I have studied this before as I had berghias. If you are going to keep them alive, it's best to establish a separate tank for them that you cycle rock in to. Let the clean the rock, then move it out after they are done, making sure not to move them. If you leave it in there long enough, they will lay lots of eggs and then you can leave the eggs and let these hatch in the regular tank. This will essentially call for 3 stages - an aiptasia tank, a berghia tank, and then a clean tank.

 

Berghias are by far the most impressive aiptasia eaters out there. I have done almost every method there is to getting rid of aiptasia, and if not for an unfortunate leather coral going south on me during the cleansing stage, the berghias would have decimated my population of aiptasi in no time at all. They eat not only the large but the small as well, and they will hunt them until there are no more.

 

Now, as far as raising aiptasia, the easiest way to do this is to allow them to bud. Aiptasia are very opportunistic, and although they are photsynthetic, resulting in their red coloration, they respond to their environment and can subsist on feeding alone. They reproduce in three ways - manual pedal laceration or simple laceration, sexually, and budding. The first two are exactly what they sound like, cut it up and it'll grow again. Sexual reproduction occurs the same way as corals like pocillopora, they utilize planulae which crawl around until they find a suitable place to live, which for aiptasia, is anywhere in salt water! The last one, budding, is just another form of pedal laceration, only they do it themselves. Now, aiptasia are like freshwater live bearers such as guppies - they reproduce when they are stressed out. In my opinion, however, the best way of getting them to reproduce is to overfeed in the dark. Not at night, but in the dark. Keep the tank dark and aiptasia will begin to bud more and more. If you stick them in a dark tank with circulation and multiple feedings, you will start to get lots of aiptasia floating through the tank as they bud and go off in search of new homes. They are prone to budding MUCH more in the dark than in optimal reef conditions. Your aiptasia will be clear or whitish, and hence your berghias may lose the red tips to their extremities, but they will still eat and survive without a problem.

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OK, I have studied this before as I had berghias. If you are going to keep them alive, it's best to establish a separate tank for them that you cycle rock in to. Let the clean the rock, then move it out after they are done, making sure not to move them. If you leave it in there long enough, they will lay lots of eggs and then you can leave the eggs and let these hatch in the regular tank. This will essentially call for 3 stages - an aiptasia tank, a berghia tank, and then a clean tank.

 

Berghias are by far the most impressive aiptasia eaters out there. I have done almost every method there is to getting rid of aiptasia, and if not for an unfortunate leather coral going south on me during the cleansing stage, the berghias would have decimated my population of aiptasi in no time at all. They eat not only the large but the small as well, and they will hunt them until there are no more.

 

Now, as far as raising aiptasia, the easiest way to do this is to allow them to bud. Aiptasia are very opportunistic, and although they are photsynthetic, resulting in their red coloration, they respond to their environment and can subsist on feeding alone. They reproduce in three ways - manual pedal laceration or simple laceration, sexually, and budding. The first two are exactly what they sound like, cut it up and it'll grow again. Sexual reproduction occurs the same way as corals like pocillopora, they utilize planulae which crawl around until they find a suitable place to live, which for aiptasia, is anywhere in salt water! The last one, budding, is just another form of pedal laceration, only they do it themselves. Now, aiptasia are like freshwater live bearers such as guppies - they reproduce when they are stressed out. In my opinion, however, the best way of getting them to reproduce is to overfeed in the dark. Not at night, but in the dark. Keep the tank dark and aiptasia will begin to bud more and more. If you stick them in a dark tank with circulation and multiple feedings, you will start to get lots of aiptasia floating through the tank as they bud and go off in search of new homes. They are prone to budding MUCH more in the dark than in optimal reef conditions. Your aiptasia will be clear or whitish, and hence your berghias may lose the red tips to their extremities, but they will still eat and survive without a problem.

 

Wow Dave that's some awesome information. You are the aiptasia master! :ph34r:

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