Are all Berghias equal?

December 6, 2001
From: David Fisher

Just an update to let you all know about my experiences with Berghias in my tank. Recall that I was doing a better job at cultivating Aiptasia than coral, so finally plunked down my $$$ and ordered two breeder Berghias from SeaSlug.vs.aiptasia. They arrived, I acclimated them and placed them in a refugium inside my main tank (made it easier to keep track of them and view their progress). I then placed several smallish Aiptasia in the refugium and essentially left them alone, peeking in now and again.

After several days, I noticed that I could no longer find one of the Berghia, some of the Aiptasia were gone, and there were spirals of what looked like egg cases on the glass. I then placed a small frag of polyps that had several big Aiptasia growing amongst them in the refugium. The results have been poor to say the least. No more Aiptasia have been consumed and I can no longer find the Berghia or the "egg cases". What happened?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
David

fisherd@cfs.purdue.edu

Fisher, D., 2001 (Dec 6) Are all Berghias equal?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5781

Dear David,
I have no personal experience of growing these bought 'Berghia' but I guess they can die, or perhaps they have escaped into your main tank or been eaten by the Aiptasia? Concerning the egg spirals. If they have disappeared then it likely the veliger larvae have hatched out of them. I don't know if the refugium water connects to the water in the main tank but if it does then the larvae have probbaly ende up in the main tank where hopefully they will metamorphose inot slugs and begin eating your Aiptasia. It is also possible that the animals were not Berghia. I have yet to see a decent photo of these animals which are being sold as Berghia. I guess it doesn't matter if they are Berghia or not, as long as they do the job, but if no one knows what they have got there is always the possibility that another species, which doesn't eat anemones, will become part of the misinformation cycle which unfortunately seems to part of the aquarium trade.

Basically there are too many possibilites to say anything very sensible. Since many people have written to say that their Berghia ate all the Aiptasia and are now starving, it is possible that you have just been unlucky.
Good Luck,
Bill Rudman

Factsheet

'Berghia verrucicornis' in aquaria

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