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Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (most likely Aeolidiella stephanieae)
Wednesday, January 06, 2021 1:58 PM
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Breeding Journal DataSheet
This first post should be updated regularly to include new information as events take place or changes are made to your system General Species: Berghia verrucicornis (most likely Aeolidiella stephanieae) Social Structure: Hermaphrodites Size of Individuals: .75-1" Age of Individuals: Approximately 6 months Date added to Tank: 01/05/21 Broodstock Tank Details Size of Tank: Solo cup with 50 micron mesh panels to allow flow. Cup is in the sump of my main tank which is approximately 140 total gallons Substrate Details: Bare bottom Filtration Details: Protein skimmer, live rock, refugium Water Changes: 20% monthly through daily changes Water Temperature: 77 degrees Lighting: LEDs Lighting Cycle: 12-12 Other Tank Inhabitants: Nothing in the solo cup. Main tank houses Potters Angelfish pair, Ruby Red Dragonette pair, Ocellaris pair, Yasha goby pair, Aiptasia eating filefish Broodstock Feeding Details Food Types: Flake, Fertility Frenzy Feeding Schedule: Flake, 3x a day through automated feeder, Fertility frenzy 1x per day Spawning Details Date of First Spawn: 01/06/21 Spawn Time of Day: Morning Dates of Consecutive Spawns: Courtship Details: Nudis form a kind of Yin-Yang pattern for hours Egg Size: Very Small, will measure with a microscope shortly Egg Color: White Egg Count: Over 100, less than 300 Hatch Details Hatch Date: Hatch Time of Day: # Days after Spawn: Larvae Description: Larval Tank Details Temperature: Size of Larval Tank: Substrate Details: Other Tank Decor: Filtration Details: Lighting: Lighting Cycle: Water Changes: Larval Feeding Details Food Types: Feeding Schedule: Metamorphosis/Settlement Date of Settlement Start: Days after Hatch: Date of Settlement End: Description of Fry:
Grow-Out Tank Details Temperature: Size of Grow-Out Tank: Substrate Details: Other Tank Decor: Filtration Details: Lighting: Lighting Cycle: Water Changes: Size at Transfer: Age at Transfer: Grow-Out Feeding Details Food Types: Feeding Schedule: Additional Information (No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please) Miscellaneous Information: I acquired 4 adult Berghia 01/05/21 from Salty Underground. They were placed in a solo cup that I had removed 2 2"x2" sections of the sides of the cup and replaced them with pieces of 50 micron mesh. The cup is then placed in a float in the sump. This allows me to keep the nudis in my main tank conditions while hopefully keeping amphipods away from the nudis and eggs. You will be required to provide photographic evidence in this thread of each event submitted for the MBI Program.
If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (most likely Aeolidiella stephanieae)
Wednesday, January 06, 2021 1:59 PM
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Saving this post for pictures.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (most likely Aeolidiella stephanieae)
Wednesday, January 06, 2021 2:30 PM
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I've been wanting to try my hand at breeding these guys/gals for a while. Both of my main tanks, and my fathers tank are Aiptasia farms. With my dads 75g being the worst offender and my smaller 36 gallon cube-ish being a close second. None of my LFS ever sell these, so I could hopefully offer some to the local community as well as clean up our tanks. I know Aiptasia farming is the hardest part of this endeavor and I'm going to go about it in 3 ways. First, I've just been cutting the heads off the Aiptasia in my tanks letting them spread to give me a decent base to pull from. I've also set up 1- 20 gallon plastic tub filled with pieces of egg crate to give a substrate for the Aiptasia to cling to. I'm going to follow the protocol written about in this paper: https://miguelcleal.weebl..._et_al_aquaculture.pdf This boils down to following 3 basic conditions to optimize propagation by pedal laceration... 84 degrees F, total darkness, feeding .5-1 Artemia/ml 2x weekly. The results of the paper show an approximate 20x increase in Aiptasia at 60 days. The results also show crowding the tank results in more, small Aiptasia while more space results in fewer, larger Aiptasia. *** Edit Below-I also plan to set up an additional tub to see if I can induce sexual reproduction as described in another paper which I can't find at the moment. In that paper, a team was able to produce a steady supply of Aiptasia through sexual reproduction by using a light schedule of 12/12 with white light during the daytime and complete darkness at night and then 1 week out of every month they used a blue moon light during the entire dark time to simulate a full moon. This induced a repeatable spawn that produced tiny Aiptasia that I believe would be ideal for Berghia breeding. The team in this study used 4 tanks and rotated the blue light through them to create a steady supply. At the moment I'm going to use just 1 tank to see how many Aiptasia I can get to settle. If it works well, I'll set up another tank and at least have a harvest every other week. EDIT: Upon further research it looks like the protocols to initiate sexual reproduction is quite well known, however, there isn't a published protocol for inducing settlement that I can find. Looks like there may be a chemical precursor that is currently unknown that induces meta a settlement.
<message edited by b1llvance on Wednesday, January 06, 2021 4:57 PM>
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis (most likely Aeolidiella stephanieae)
Friday, February 12, 2021 9:49 AM
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Just a quick update on my Nudis. I had an unfortunate accident which led to the solo cup with the 4 adult nudis being dumped into my sump when I wasn't around. I was able to collect 1 adult from the sump but the others are nowhere to be found, although I suspect at least one of them lived to make it to my display because a forest of aiptasia is quickly disappearing out of nowhere.
I had the eggs I had collected in another solo cup that was undisturbed so I've been really careful to try and keep the babies fed so I can continue to try and get those guys up to breeding size since I am down to only one adult.
BUT....
In contrast to everything I have been able to find online. My single nudi, who is now in a solo cup, in a tank all by himself/herself is self fertilizing eggs. At least I believe that is what is happening. The eggs haven't hatched yet but are definitely showing cell division and the nudi has been laying them regularly. I know in the animal kingdom it is possible for certain species to reserve the gamete of another individual for fertilization at a time in the future, and maybe that is what is going on here. I have no idea if the biology for a nudi allows for that and I'll continue to keep this one separated from the others as they grow out just to see if it continues or if maybe the "reserves" run out.
As an aside, the aiptasia farm is going well. Its been a little over a month and my aiptasia numbers have tripled. It was slow going for the first week or 2 but now I find new ones every day. I decided to feed them rotifers since I had to harvest some from my culture every day anyway and I don't have anything to feed at the moment. The population really took off after I started feeding them but it could just be due to them settling into their new home around the time I started feeding. Anyway, I have to do something with the rotifers so I just throw them in there.
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