DESTROY Aiptasia with Berghia Nudibranchs! Everything You Need to Know!

hello teras pin here at the top shelf Aquatics farm and I am sitting here next to a system completely filled with the Enemy which enemy why aptasia yes aptasia the dreaded nuisance which has scored the reaping IND hisory since the days of his Inception yes aptasia aptasia that can start as a pin prick tiny little specimen and then soonly propagate into entire Forest of stinging devastating tentacles yes aptasia the constant persistent enemy of all those keeping a pristine coral reef so this tank of aptasia why do I have it next to me why these aasia are not my enemy I afraid I was deceptive earlier these aptasia are my feed stock since I started here at topshelf it has been my pleasure in fact to be working with aptasia of this caliber because aptasia of this caliber has allowed me to work with what has become one of my favorite Reef hobby organisms of all time now aptasia we talked about it just now being a universal threat to Coral Keepers having even a small amount of aptasia can soon propagate and become a rather prolific persistent annoying Menace annoying that is best devastating at its worst when it stings a multi thousand coral and causing the colony uh to uh have tissue recession uh so how do we thwart aptasia in the hobby well there's mechanical removal there's using me as the removal element uh this is very difficult because it is very energy intensive and often highly unsuccessful so we also have chemical means of removing the aptasia the trick of the thicket there is that there are few means that Target aptasia that these same chemicals would likely negatively impact the invertebrates and Corals in our tanks this leads us to embrace what the reef aquarium industry often Embraces when we seek something truly efficate long term we seek what the solution has been in nature this is biocontrol so what do we use to combat these pestilent aptasia enemies why we have some fish aptasia eating file fish for instance which are epicus they may graze on some corals and bother some inverts but they fail in some categories where they can't access the inner working of Plumbing they can't go into the Overflow that fish will never truly be able to access every nook and cranny where they have aptasia lie and so copper band butterfly fish and aptasia eating file fish have their limitations as far as access then we go to things such as peppermint shrimp where only a few select species are truly epicus aptasia consumers but again they have those limitations so what many Reapers have done when all those first options have failed physical removal using chemical applications and then maybe other forms of biocontrol have failed to fully control and man and stem and e their aptasia populations they turn to another biocontrol agent that which we work with here and I've had the pleasure of rearing over the last couple years here at topshelf Aquatics farm and that is the bergia stephanian Nutra so the bergia stephanian is a wonderful example of what I consider a sustainably aquacultured biocontrol agent for the reef aquarium industry the glory of the bergia nuda break is that it has evolved with the aptasia an enemy since the moment that the both were in that both were incepted and they have evolved together over time in a very intimate Predator prey oscillation and the end result is that this nuda Brank only can only consume hunt and only seeks out aptasia uh an enemies in the aptasia genus so for this episode of topshelf Aquatics we are going to be discussing the bergia nuda Brank it's biology and then some general recommendations about how to best utilize it as an Ficus biocontrol agent in the requer industry for combating the scourge that is aptasia infestations very excited to share this with you let's get started with some basic facts about the bergia nuta Brank where it comes from and how it taks before the reef aquarium industry embraced it so sincerely the burgut Brank is mostly understood because it was a model organism back in the day in many facilities such as the key US Marine laboratory conducted experiments on bergia nud branks in order to understand how early nbran larval history occurred in the first place so the bergia stephanian nbran is native to the Florida Keys down towards the Caribbean and intertwines and range with all of the enemies in the aptasia genus now many people in the reef aquarium industry do not fully realize this but aptasia is comprised of many dozens of different species very likely that two aptasia and two different tanks are very very different species um but it seems that the bergia nud Brank uh does not care as long as it's an aptasia it will consume them regardless bergia are absolutely fascinating because they exhibit a hatching strategy called Pagani Pagani implies that a hatched egg an embryo from an egg could have two paths unlike let's say a butterfly where the egg will always come out a caterpillar the bergia has mechanisms which it could hatch as a caterpillar or it could hatch as a very small butterfly the advantage of both strategies is apparent if you're a bgia laying eggs in the middle of an absolute aptasia slaughterfest you can lay eggs right next to a bunch of wounded aptasia and your eggs will hatch as little baby sluglett and they can directly start feeding and become adults in shorter time now if there's not many aasia around you the bergia is capable of producing these vager planktonic larvea that are able to wander and they are able to wander miles and miles and miles in the hopes that when they do metamorphose into that sluglett after a few days they will find a site where there's other aptasia and thus be capable of starting a whole other bergia colony now the bergia all start off whether or not they turn from hat into a plankton or whether not they hatch as a sluglett they all start off Life as a little egg wrapped up in a highly invested spiral egg sack which the maternal bergia will produce now depending on the size of the mother bergia this egg spiral can have a 100 or it can have thousands of individual eggs and a single egg spiral can produce both bagers and sluglett but it is very important to consider that the efficacy of bergia eggs is always dependent on how well mom is doing so let's talk about the eggs once they hatch the villagers after a few days will metamorphose into a tiny sluglett if they don't hatch as a sluglett already this sluglett over a period of 2 to 4 days will slowly develop two key physical characteristics of the bergia which make it such a powerful and epicus aptasia Hunter the first are the Rhino for s two prominent structures that rise above where let's say the b base of the bergia head will be these structures are giant chemo receptors allowing the bergia to detect Trace Amounts of aptasia scent even Upstream this will allow the bergia even when it's young to be able to migrate and use what energy resources it has to get towards a site of feeding the second very very important feature that all bergia will develop are the sarata these are the tentacle-like structures that protrude from the backside of the bergia now they have a lot of nuanced features in the beria's biology that are more or less well understood but two key features that we do know that are fascinating are one that the sarata can break off when a predator let's say a Ras or even me when I'm trying to scoop one up for Harvest these serata will break off and provide a distraction and irritant to that Predator bergia feed much like a wolf pack they are collective pack Hunters now when an aptasia is consumed in the wild or in the reef aquarium it can go one of two routes and these are important to understand when trying to understand and observe the progress of the reduction of your aptasia Colony by your bergia firstly is a single feed this is when a larger half in plus siiz bergia is able to Simply Sumo tackle an aptasia now paradoxically much like a giant squid and a sperm whale even though bergia are the predators of aptasia aptasia can and will sometimes kill and consume smaller bergia and it's a very important role of those sarata on the larger adult bergia to be able to break off and distract some of the stinging Tentacles from an aptasia so the aptasia will crawl and recede exposing that sweet sweet vulnerable foot and it's that foot that the adult bergia will attack first allowing it to eat the aptasia essentially from the inside out while avoiding the more dangerous tentacles which can be consumed after they've been separated from the main aptasia body for this reason when trying to promote a bergia population it is some times very helpful to pre-wound some of the aptasia so that you are providing entry sites for some of the bergia to start feeding the second most commonly observed method that bergia feed is as a pack and this is where things get incredibly fascinating where we have three General types of behavior being exhibited much like in a wolf pack bergia in a feeding pack will adopt different roles now when an intact aptasia is being presented as a Target and a group of let's say 30 Bergie or so are heading towards it they're being attracted by their Rhino fores the first to attack are often the biggest bergia we'll call them the Vanguard it is the job of the Vanguard to distract the tentacles distract them with their sarata and most importantly find access to the foot the foot of the aptasia is devoid of defenses and once it is attacked and successfully breached by Vanguard adult bergia smaller and then let's say the slower or even further behind bergia will then act as the exploiters this is when The Feeding Frenzy absolutely begins when the first wound of the aptasia is being repeatedly feeded on by the Vanguard bergia and then more and more secondary exploitive bergia uh both around the outside of the wound and then in the case of some of the smaller bergia they're actually capable of crawling almost inside of the Wounded aptasia actually eating it from the inside out and thirdly the last group of bergia acting in this Collective feeding structure are let's say the pups they're the ones that will be consuming the broken off tentacles the broken off pieces of viscera and anything that remains after the main feeding group is more or less satiated themselves so between the three groups by having all three components of a bergia feeding population they will aggressively be able to reduce aptasia at a much more accelerated rate collectively now when the bergia consumes the aptasia it's not only breaking down the tissue from that aptasia for food it's stealing both those pneumatosis and even the dulus the symbiodinium the zanelli they store those stinging neatus and the zanelli inside the sarata so that when they break off when a predator let's say a Ras or something gets a mouthful of a big XL bergia those Sara Sting the mouth of that Predator this is not a stable partnership where the Beria actually receives energy from The Zo Andi and it only lasts a matter of hours to days but it can clearly be seen that when an adult bergia gets a good meal of a zand deli Rich aptasia its colors will go from a pale white towards a darker brown towards even having strong charismatic hints of red oranges and blues and it's believed that when an adult bergia is nice and dark it's eggs are the most competent and it will produce the most and the most competent uh slug Letts from that and as a bergia ages in time it can approach an an a length exceeding an inch in length it can have hundred of these sarata and it can produce Giant Egg clusters capable of having over 10,000 individual eggs in them but as they are a Boomin bust organism uh the adult bergia only has an adult lifespan of about 8 to 12 months because of the variable nature of both aptasia infestation population Dynamics and the variable experiences nbrs can have in the various different aquariums stocked with different organisms it can be a little difficult to have one magic proportion of how many neuter branks to recommend per gallonage of aquarium but here at TSA we have the rough recommendation of one uh regular neuter Brank per 10 Gall or one Excel neuter Brank for every 30 Gall with the caveat with of this recommendation being that we strongly recommend that at least three NE branks be purchased for each attempted uh removal of aptasia uh this is twofold uh one because uh to have three guarantees that at least two of the individuals will have likelihood of being able to successfully meet and being able to start reproducing viable eggs and getting the process going of starting the bergia population and two bergia are pack hunters and most efficiently especially when being introduced to a new environment they become much more comfortable and are much more Adept to being able to take on larger more obnoxious aptasia when hunting as a group so if you couldn't tell already I am a big fan of the bergia nuta bran not only because it is this wonderful slug soldier that we can send across the country and help people with their prolonged aptasia issues but because this Hobby and the need of people to keep a coral reef tank and the need of them to combat the seasia and the need for me to grow slugs to combat the aptasia for them this this act of the Hobby in ins spiring that necessity and the knowledge from that necessity to solve that problem this has granted so many fruits and passion and inspiration to me and to everyone else trying to grow this nbran and control and stem the growth of aptasia into the more nuanced aspects of the biology of an enemies and nud branks alike and by inspiring this quest for knowledge and this quest for Applied purposeful understanding the reap aquarium Hobby in my humble opinion can do no better than to inspire such things thank you and we will see you next time [Music]