trying nudi's for aiptasia control

monkeyreefer · 03-27-2008, 10:36 AM

well, after a long battle and still losing badly, i am trying something new, the Bergia nudibranches. kalk paste, joes juice and stop aptasia always seems to leave a little of the cursed things left to regrow, and to make matters worse my mystery wrasse and long nose hawk love shrimp

so i ordered 12 of these little aiptasia munchers and ill keep you guys posted on how they work. ill try to keep a breeding population here in town as well since i have all those extra 20l tanks

so when the time comes to pull them out of the tank ill need some rocks covered with the little ****ers

grallster · 03-27-2008, 01:15 PM

I completely eradicated my tank of aiptasia using these nudibranchs! I bought 3 and bred them until I could release about 50 of them into my tank at the same time in my 75 gal. I hardly ever saw them, but the aiptasia went down one after another. Problem was--they worked too good and I ran out of aiptasia to feed them, so I couldn't maintain a breeding population. Thing is, after the nudis starved, the anemones slowly came back--but nothing like last time. I try to keep up with kalking the one or two that pop up now & then.
Now, if they only had a nudi for mushrooms...

Ragsy · 03-27-2008, 03:56 PM

Where did you order them from?

monkeyreefer · 03-27-2008, 06:22 PM

instar is the name of the company, and grallster, they do have something that eats shrooms, they're flatworms though and eat almost everything else too!

grallster · 03-28-2008, 09:30 AM

I didn't know there were mushroom eating flatworms! Any other info you have on them? Might work well on rocks outside the tank...

grallster · 03-28-2008, 10:33 AM

FWIW I would breed them until you get at least a hundred of them before you release them in your monster tank. I did it in a plastic coffee can with no heater or filtration--just changed some water every couple of days--worked like a charm.

monkeyreefer · 03-28-2008, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grallster

I didn't know there were mushroom eating flatworms! Any other info you have on them? Might work well on rocks outside the tank...

i had them and they suck, ended up using flatworm exit. got them from some lr about a year ago. nearly impossible to see until they are on coral

monkeyreefer · 03-28-2008, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grallster

FWIW I would breed them until you get at least a hundred of them before you release them in your monster tank. I did it in a plastic coffee can with no heater or filtration--just changed some water every couple of days--worked like a charm.

thats the plan anyway. and sell some to recoup some of the cost

monkeyreefer · 03-28-2008, 10:50 AM

joes juice nukes shrooms to if your desperate

grallster · 03-28-2008, 11:38 AM

I haven't had really good luck injecting shrooms (although I've only tried kalk--not joe's juice).
If I were you I'd start up a separate container to start raising aiptasia. I didn't do this and that's why I ran out of food. It's amazing how fast these guys munch anemones.

monkeyreefer · 03-28-2008, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grallster

I haven't had really good luck injecting shrooms (although I've only tried kalk--not joe's juice).
If I were you I'd start up a separate container to start raising aiptasia. I didn't do this and that's why I ran out of food. It's amazing how fast these guys munch anemones.

ive got a couple of monsters so i think ill be good for a while. plus thats why i only did 12 so the population can grow only to what i can feed them.

monkeyreefer · 03-31-2008, 08:13 PM

grallster you wernt kidding on how fast they reproduce, 2 egg strands already! i have decided to move them from a container to the wifes old nancube so i can have a heater plus circulation, as the water in the container is always way cold. now i just need to feed them

grallster · 04-01-2008, 09:26 AM

You won't want too much circulation--they only reproduce in calm environments (probably why releasing only a couple into a reef tank won't do squat). The egg strands will look like they kinda degrade and you won't see any baby nudis, but don't worry you'll start seeing tiny nudis in about a week (they're pretty much microscopic until then).

monkeyreefer · 04-01-2008, 05:00 PM

yeah, the nanos pump as most know already sucks when it comes to flow. i am surprised it even gets the water up the 6" it needs to get to the outlet.