Meet Berghia Nudibranch, the Aiptasia killer

[nivek]

A few months ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to go take a peek at my 80 gallon tank. I found 2 small nudibranchs crawling on my glass wall. Well half asleep I identified them as zoanthid eating nudibranch and without any hesitation removed them promptly. Time went by and I started to notice 1 or 2 Aiptasia popping up where previously my tank was Aiptasia free (or so I thought). Well I did some research and here is what I came up with.

Berghia Nudibranch - they are the GOOD guys and reef SAFE. DO NOT remove them if you find them in your tank. Only downside is once they've eliminated all the Aiptasia, they will die off from lack of food.

First photo shows the Zoanthid eating nudibranch.

Second photo shows the good guys, a Berghia nudibranch - Aiptasia eater (and ONLY Aiptasia)

Moral of the story, don't ID half asleep lol. Hope this bit of info will serve as a guide to all (I still continue to bang my head on the wall till today over this issue)

 

[kyle4201]

Wow,, I bet these guys are hard to find. Im worried if I tell my lfs I want 1 they will get the wrong 1 and by by corals.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Let it go, Kevin. Move on. You'll sleep better.

Last year we came home from fishing and the electric was out. Well, there's this thing crawling on the glass and I started taking pictures of it. The electric came back on and it moved very quickly under the sand. Never to be seen again. That creature is responsible for probably hundreds of dead snails and clams.

This is why I stress so often that if you see something that is unidentified get it immediately, put it in a specimen container, then take pictures of it. And, then you can return it to the aquarium or get rid of it.

Wish I could take my own advice and get over it. A few weeks ago my wife yells from the living room, "That thing is on the glass." I go running in there and execute a full assault on my Olive that I've had for over eight years. Hadn't seen it since we moved the tank three years ago and thought it had died.



It's a Polyclad Flatworm.

 

[Mrsalt]

I run by the same rules mike, but I still don't sleep. Every little thing that goes on the tank has me on tender hooks...


Alan