Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (zimajays)

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:02:15 GMT

Great! For some reason I thought they stuck to the glass and you would have to scrape them off.

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:40:06 GMT

Forceps. In my case the broodstock are in a bare-bottom glass aquarium, making it very easy to remove the egg strands with forceps. If the eggs are laid on rock, it is much more difficult.

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (zimajays)

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:58:09 GMT

Congrats on your success. You mention moving the egg strands to a bowl for hatch, how do you do this with out damaging your egg strand?

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (rgrking)

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:58:23 GMT

that's great! I can't wait to try them out.

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:57:15 GMT

60 DPS update:

Here they are. These are the same tiny ones from the photos above in posts #9, #10, and #13 in this thread (NOT the ones in post #16). There are 10 alive from this bowl today. They are already breeding, and laying eggs, and have been for some time.

I'm confident that if I care to I can easily raise bunches and bunches of these, as long as I can raise enough Aiptasia to feed them! Truth be told, I've really been largely ignoring these guys, aside from making sure they don't starve, topping off to make up for evaporation, and doing occasional water changes. If I actually made an effort to actively care for them, I think they would reproduce very quickly!

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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:28:21 GMT

Well, they did have plentiful Aiptasia available to them 24/7. I've never really let the broodstock go without any Aiptasia (except for a brief spell this morning), but there have usually only been 1 or 2 available at any given time. I've tried to keep 2 available, and if one gets eaten, then I suck out what remains with a pipette, and then replace it.

I found a third, smaller Berghia in the Aiptasia tank right after posting the pics above. It will be interesting to see how many more show up. Oh, and they've really made a dent in the population of Aiptasia in that culture tank. I need to find some more Aiptasia, and start a new culture of them now!

EDIT: Four more small Berghia found in the old broodstock tank tonight. And I really am in serious Aiptasia trouble now. They have devoured almost all of the stock in my Aiptasia stock tank, and I suspect I'll find still more Berghia in there soon. These four are about the size that the original broodstock were when I got them. Clearly, I need to feed both my broodstock and the juveniles I'm deliberately raising more! It seems like if a little food is available, they'll do OK, but if there is a LOT of food availalbe, they WILL eat it, and thrive and grow!

EDIT Again: The more I look, the more I keep finding. I'm up to about 15 or so now, of various sizes. That first really large one is still the largest I've found.

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (Fishtal)

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:15:39 GMT

That is cool. Were these getting more to eat?

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:49:48 GMT

So, I checked my broodstock today, and they had eaten all their Aiptasia, so I went to the Aiptasia tank (which was the original broodstock tank before I moved them to their current tank) to get some more Aiptasia for them. I found one really big Aiptasia that looked like it had just been attacked by a Berghia. Looking around, I found these:
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Now I only got 3 Berghia to start with. They arrived on 8/25/2011, and were all very small. All three of them are in the other tank now, and all three have been present and accounted for every day since I moved them. These MUST be the offspring from two (or more) of those three. The earliest the eggs might have been laid is 8/25, although I suspect it must have been later than that. The first time I saw eggs was on 9/4. Even if eggs were laid immediately upon arrival, and hatched 10 days later, and settled immediately, that makes this largest one's 60DPS date around 11/4 or so -- still two weeks away! This largest one is actually much larger than either of its parents now! Very cool.

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (Umm_fish?)

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:20:03 GMT

I seriously doubt it. Jim's shooting at probably 5-8 times life size. Maybe more, but that's about what I'm estimating. Their babies are _tiny_ like you wouldn't believe. The fact that he's getting any detail at all is amazing.

I assume that this is why amphipods find them such a great meal. They spend a lot of time at just the right size for an amphipod's mouth with no shell to protect them.

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (KathyL)

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:51:31 GMT

get yourself a cheapie point and shoot camera, and you could capture these using the macro feature.

But Congratulations! Your points are racking up!

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:21:49 GMT

Man, these things are really, really hard to photograph! I was checking my Berghia cultures today, and found this poor, poor little Aiptasia being attacked by a gang of young Berghia. I'm not really happy with the images. With the bellows extended far enough to see these little guys, I have virtually NO Depth of Field at all. Hard to get ANYTHING in focus. The whitish area at one end of the things with the darkish cerata starting to form are the heads of the young berghia.

EDIT: They are at about 18 DPS now.

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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:24:44 GMT

Thanks, Andy! Yes, they are very small. Those were taken with a 28mm lens on a bellows, extended all the way out. That HUGE Aiptasia in the larvae shots is really a very, very tiny little thing.

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (Umm_fish?)

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:17:53 GMT

Nice. Those are great photos, as I know how small your subjects are.

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:14:27 GMT

Meta!

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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:24:17 GMT

Hatch! I have transferred the adults into a 5.5 gallon tank with no decorations aside from four glass bowls to hold the egg strands. In one of the bowls, I could not locate the egg strand today. Upon closer examination, I found these:

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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:37:18 GMT

That's OK, Kathy -- it seems like most Berghia culture discussions turn into "How to I culture enough Aiptasia to feed them?" discussions instead!

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (KathyL)

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:40:34 GMT

Thanks guys, but I fear I am derailing the thread, so I'll start my own. Cheers, and good luck to the berghia!

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (Umm_fish?)

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:25:49 GMT

They like those Apocyclops, too. No BBS necessary. Hydroids, unfortunately, LOVE Apocyclops and get big on them.

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (JimWelsh)

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:05:09 GMT

Originally Posted by KathyL

Any tips you have on culturing aiptasia, I am more than interested.

LOL! For starters, raise seahorses! Seriously, I did find this article (which you probably already know about) where Calfo touches upon the subject: http://reefkeeping.com/is...ature/index.php. One of the biggest and fastest Aiptasia outbreaks I ever witnessed was a 29 gallon tank with a bunch of live rock and a small, screened-off powerhead I had long, long ago during my first H. erectus fry raising effort, where I was feeding the fry NHBBS. The Aiptasia population really exploded!

EDIT: I found an apparent wealth of info here: http://www.reefstewardshi.../showthread.php?t=1368

Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (KathyL)

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:50:42 GMT

Any tips you have on culturing aiptasia, I am more than interested.