Breeding Journal, Species: Berghia verrucicornis

General
Species:  Berghia verrucicornis
Social Structure:  Group of 3
Size of Individuals:  Perhaps 3/8" to 1/2" long
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  8/25/2011

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  5.5 Gallons
Substrate Details:  None, except one small piece of live rock, and one small coral skeleton.
Filtration Details:  Basically none, aside from the biofilm in the tank, and the small amount of live rock / coral skeleton.
Water Changes:  About 25% weekly.
Water Temperature:  Ambient room temp, low 70s F
Lighting:  Natural daylight from the windows nearby.  The windows are south facing, and have translucent white blinds, so the light is very bright, but indirect.
Lighting Cycle:  Natural day cycle.
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Various Aiptasia.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Aiptaisa
Feeding Schedule:  Always present.

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  9/4/2011
Spawn Time of Day:  Unknown
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  9/8/2011
Courtship Details:  Two berghia approach each other, and form a "Yin-Yang" kind of formation, side by side, and stay that way for anywhere from a few hours to a day or more.
Egg Size:  Very, very small
Egg Color:  White
Egg Count:  Roughly 100-150 per thread.

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  9/26/2011
Hatch Time of Day:  Unknown
# Days after Spawn:  18
Larvae Description:  Tiny, tiny white dots.  Clear ovoid blobs with a whitish center.


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  Ambient room temp -- low 70s F
Size of Larval Tank:  A small glass bowl resting in the broodstock tank.
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  None
Filtration Details:  Tiny water changes daily
Lighting:  Ambient room light
Lighting Cycle:  Roughly 16 on / 8 off
Water Changes:  Small and frequent, at least daily

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Aiptasia.  Very tiny aiptasia.
Feeding Schedule:  Make sure they are always present

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  9/28/2011
Days after Hatch:  Less than 1
Date of Settlement End:  9/30/2011
Description of Fry:  Tiny slugs, less than 200 microns long, like long isosceles triangles, with the apex of the triangle at the posterior end.  Translucent whitish, with a more opaque white center.

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  Ambient room temp -- low 70s F
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  A small glass bowl resting in the broodstock tank.
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  None
Filtration Details:  None, aside from water changes
Lighting:  Ambient room lights
Lighting Cycle:  Roughly 16 on / 8 off
Water Changes:  Small and frequent, but I did slack off at times, but at least did top off with RO/DI to make up for evaporation.
Size at Transfer:  N/A - they stayed in the same bowl from hatch to 60DPS
Age at Transfer:  N/A

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  Aiptasia only
Feeding Schedule:  Add one or 2 small Aiptasia whenver they have consumed the previous feeding.

Additional Information
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



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.

Here's two images, one of an adult Berghia, and two egg coils, and another better image of just the two egg coils.
 

 

 
I found another egg coil on the same rock, near these two, on Monday.  I don't know if it is a new one, or was just overlooked on Sunday.
 

Attached Image(s)

Checking on them this morning, they're busy little hermaphrodites!  I found two more egg spirals, and saw two of them mating.  I'd better get a bunch of Aiptasia ready!

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

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

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

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

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

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:
 


 

Attached Image(s)

Meta! 
 


 
 

Attached Image(s)

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

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

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.

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.
 

Attached Image(s)

get yourself a cheapie point and shoot camera, and you could capture these using the macro feature.
 
But Congratulations! Your points are racking up!

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.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

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:



 
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.
 

Attached Image(s)

That is cool. Were these getting more to eat?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

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.

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!
 



 
 

Attached Image(s)

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

RLTW

180 Gallon Mixed Reef

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8

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?

Proud member of the first dedicated breeders site in the UK
Marine Fish Breeders Club - UK
H.Zosterae - 60 DPS

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.

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

Proud member of the first dedicated breeders site in the UK
Marine Fish Breeders Club - UK
H.Zosterae - 60 DPS