FiRsT-aNd-LaSt Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Okay I need some help, I ordered some Berghia Nudibranchs 3 weeks ago for my 20H, I didn't noticed any change and could not find one, I figured they where either well hidden or died, but everywhere online said to be patient so I stayed hopeful, and finally tonight I spot 4 of them, but here's the catch and where I need advice, two of them look like berghia, whitish/brown/blue, but the other two don't, one was on a colony of my whammin' watermelons which as you know are (Orange/Green) and the nudi was brownish with green spots, do berghia camouflage or is my fears correct telling me its zoa eating nudi, the other one was on a colony of my brown zoas with orange centers, and the nudi's color is brown with a orange tint, I also can clearly see a swirl of nudi eggs on a zoa, do Berghia lay there eggs on zoathids. Link to comment
Saltyunderground Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Berghia do not take on any color other than the color of aiptasia. Zoa eating nudis take on the color of the zoa they are eating and lay eggs by zoas. Zoa nudis are smaller then berghia and so are their egg strands. They also look a little different. The berghia should be about 3/4"+ at this time so they should look very obviously different that the zoa nudis. If you have zoa nudis be careful you do not kill the berghia in your treatments. Many people recommend a fresh water dip or iodine dip for the zoas. Look around the rock especially on the underside for any berghia that might be there and remove it before you do a dip. Link to comment
AdrianBryce Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Where did you get your nudis? Link to comment
FiRsT-aNd-LaSt Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 Berghia do not take on any color other than the color of aiptasia. Zoa eating nudis take on the color of the zoa they are eating and lay eggs by zoas. Zoa nudis are smaller then berghia and so are their egg strands. They also look a little different. The berghia should be about 3/4"+ at this time so they should look very obviously different that the zoa nudis. If you have zoa nudis be careful you do not kill the berghia in your treatments. Many people recommend a fresh water dip or iodine dip for the zoas. Look around the rock especially on the underside for any berghia that might be there and remove it before you do a dip. I have two questions that I hope you can help me out on, do aiptasia know berghia are around because I've been noticing baby aiptasia floating around a lot more lately like there know there in danger so there spawning or what not. Second question is, what is the best way to identify berghia eggs, I'd hate to be killing good eggs just because I think there bad ones , I just saw a egg strand floating around my tank so I sucked it out, it's about a half inch in length. I managed to snap a pic of it while it got stuck to some zoas for a short while, but was not attached to them. Where did you get your nudis? I won't disclose the name because I don't believe I received the zoa eating nudis from the seller and don't want to hurt there sells in any way, I recently acquired a zoa colony that I did iodine dip, but what I'm thinking is some eggs slip past my inspection. I should have a QT tank which I probably go buy today lol. Link to comment
Saltyunderground Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Aiptasia can sense when they are being attacked. One of their defense strategies is to let go of the rock. I have seen a large aiptasia which was being eaten at the base by a berghia do this in my own tank. This might be the reason for what you are seeing, but there is no way to know for sure unless you see it happen. Berghia eggs look like zoa eating nudi eggs only larger. They lay white egg strands usually in a spiral pattern and usually under rocks. Zoa nudis lay their eggs next to the zoas. I would be more concerned about dipping a berghia by accident than their eggs. They can always lay more eggs. I am not sure how effective iodine dips are on nudi eggs. You might do some reading to make sure a dip kills the eggs or just the nudis. It is hard to say which nudi layed the eggs in your picture. They look on the big side. I would remove any eggs you see floating or by your zoas for sure. You can say where you got the berghia if you want. The berghia are never exposed in any way to water that includes zoanthids or other corals. They are completely quarrantined. So there is no possible way a zoa nudi could ship by accident with a berghia even if they were at the same facility. Link to comment
AdrianBryce Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 yeah, to clarify, I just want to know the quality of the berghias that you got. Because I want some too, just haven't decided where to order from yet. I don't think you got shipped any baddies. Link to comment
FiRsT-aNd-LaSt Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 Well if you don't mind I did receive them from saltyunderground and as I said I know I didn't receive the evil ones lol from you It just happen that the night I spot the berghia there was a bad one near by im so lucky to have even seen him, he looked just like a zoa, colors and all, I just wasn't sure if beghia could do that, but after researching online I'm almost certain there the zoa eaters that must of slip past one of my dips, the two berghia that I seen are about 3/4'' to a 1'' big already, there big and seem to be doing great, I've noticed a few aiptasia missing already so I know I'm on the right track, I did order 5 total and have not seen the other 3, but I'm sure there somewhere around there. I've manage to find two small nudi's and captured a picture of one, these are much smaller than the two berghia I seen last night, so I don't think there berghia, there solid brown and where under some frag plugs on my frag rack and where surrounded by egg swirls there about 1/4'', that was the size I bought the berghia at weeks ago so I really don't think is berghia, what do you think? AdrianBryce if your looking to get some berghia I'd go with saltyunderground, there customer service was excellent as well as there shipping. I received them fast and they where actively crawling around and looked very healthy when I received them. Link to comment
Saltyunderground Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Yikes! Definitely not a berghia. Link to comment
FiRsT-aNd-LaSt Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 Yikes! Definitely not a berghia. great, as in I'm doomed, well so far I've pulled out two and I think there may be a third one but I can't say for sure, hopefully there isn't any more, I already took out 4 frag plugs that had eggs on them I put them in a QT tank, wish I would of did that from the start when I first acquired the frags, I hope I don't live to regret it, my tank is zoa dominated so there's alot of food for them other that that my tank has been doing great this whole year up till this point and of course the annoying aiptasia, but I'm sure the berghia will handle that, to bad berghia didn't eat other nudi's cause as big as they are I think they could take em lol. Link to comment
basser1 Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 I also want to say that saltyundergrounds' service is excellent! I have ordered from them a couple of times and never received any DOA. Their packaging is excellent. I received a shipment from them yesterday! All of the berghia was very active and even saw one eat an aiptasia shortly after it was put in the tank. Link to comment
AdrianBryce Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Sounds good. Did you get the medium size or the XL nudis? Link to comment
basser1 Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 I got the medium size per SaltyUndergrounds' recommendation. Link to comment
FiRsT-aNd-LaSt Posted January 2, 2010 Author Share Posted January 2, 2010 I went with the 5 small 1/4 inch ones and turned down my vortech for the first week, so far I've only spotted 2 of the 5 but hopefully the others made it, to those who just recently ordered, stay hopeful even if you don't see them, I didn't see any for over 3 weeks. Last night I saw the 2 together crawling around each other, maybe mating I'm not sure but this morning there's a bunch of eggs and I see them near by, hopefully some will hatch. As far as the bad ones I had I only found two and removed them along with a bunch of egg sacks, seeing the berghia egg sacks now lets me know what I removed where bad eggs, berghia eggs strands are definitely bigger. Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Sorry for the bad luck. +1 to using saltyunderground for "real" aiptasia-eating nudibranchs. Link to comment
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