Berghia nudibranches are not 100% nocturnal. But yes
they are mostly nocturnal.

Also on a side note, they really are not Berghia
nudibranches, as they were originally misidentified,
but I continue to refer to them as berghia since
that is what most people know them as.

You may claim that you have never had anyone report
that their clown fish killed the nudibraches, but I
used to raise the nudibranches, and have witnessed
them being killed by the clownfish. They are easy to
raise, and reproduce like rabbits. The hardest part
of raising them is keeping up the aiptasia
production to keep up with the berghia eating them.
In the reef tank, reproduction is minimal at best,
because the larva do not survive, as they get
filtered out by the filter feeders, and skimmer. If
anyone would like to see what the larva look like
under a microscope, I have a picture of one on my
web site. They look and act like rotifiers.

Wayne Sallee



Salty Underground wrote on 11/1/2007 7:52 AM:
There's no doubt that clownfish protect their anemones. I've have a
few bloody fingers to back that up.

The chances of a clownfish seeing a little berghia at night and having
any issue with it is minuscule to the point that there is no reason to
avoid getting berghia if you have clowns and anemones. We have many
customers who have reported that berghia in tanks with clowns and
their anemones have successfully cleaned their tank of aiptasia. Most
tanks that berghia go into have clowns and anemones in them. We have
no reports of anyone observing a clown attacking a berghia. From a
practical standpoint it would be hard to see since berghia are
nocturnal. But I assure you from our years of expereince with berghia,
it's highly unlikely a clown will attack them.

This kinda fits in the category of "Don't believe everything you
hear," especially in this hobby. You can read in online forums and
chat groups where people recommend Joes Juice, Aiptasia Control and
other chemical/injection methods for removing the aiptasia. Yet, some
of them have either never used it themselves or the fail to write 4-8
weeks after treatment that their aiptasia problem has become worse or
even exploded.

This lack of reporting may be because they do not make the connection
between the use of the chemical and the increase in aiptasia. But we
can assure you that the use of these chemicals can be tied to an
increase in the aiptasia population in many tanks. We estimate that
about 85% of the people who buy berghia from us report that their
problem became much worse after the use of chemicals. This is hundreds
people making this report.