Berghia snail

How to order adult snails (0.5 cm or larger)

The snails are delivered to you in a cup. Note that the snails can be in the edge of the lid. Therefore, open the cup over a bowl filled with sea water or something similar. Transfer the snails carefully (e.g. using a pipette) into your aquarium with the circulation pump turned off. The best place is near Aiptasia and a place where the snails can hide. Berghia snails are nocturnal and live hidden during the day. We recommend up to one Berghia snail per 10 liters of aquarium volume.

How to order semi-adult snails (0.2-0.4 cm)

The snails are delivered to you in a tube, which in turn is in a bag of sea water (for temperature buffering). Please do NOT put the snails directly in your aquarium. Instead, let the snails grow a little in a separate container (a small jar, e.g. from pickles, is already sufficient). A daily 30% water change (make sure the salinity and temperature are the same) and regular addition of small aiptasia is sufficient. After about 2-3 weeks, the snails are big enough to move into the aquarium. In the meantime, you will most likely already have Berghia clutches in the separate container, which you can then hatch.

How to order a Berghia clutch

The ideal approach would be to let the clutch hatch outside of the tank. For example, in a pickle jar filled with salt water. Ventilation is not necessary and the lid can remain on the jar until hatching (around day 9) to prevent evaporation. When the snails hatch, or at the latest from day 7, put the first small, tiny aiptahion or tentacle tips in the jar so that they have something to eat straight away. From then on, you should change the water daily by around 30% (make sure the salinity and temperature are the same). As mentioned, the snails should hatch after 7-14 days, then it will take another 3-4 weeks until the snails are big enough for you to put them in the aquarium (we always have around 50-100 from one hatch). Always make sure that there are enough small aiptahion.

You can also place the clutch in the clay pot upside down in the tank near Aiptasia - the success rate for our customers has been 50%. There is always a risk that the clutch will be eaten by gammarids or similar in the tank.

Berghia snails against Aiptasia

Berghia snails are food specialists. This is a blessing and a curse in one. The advantage is that Berghia snails will leave other corals in your aquarium alone. A disadvantage, however: as soon as all the aiptasia in the aquarium have disappeared, the Berghia snails will also disappear because they can no longer find anything to eat. A good solution is to pass the animals on to a fellow aquarist in good time. There will definitely be someone who has aiptasia and would be happy to have the snails.

Lysmata wurdemanni or Berghia stephanieae ?

In contrast to other aiptasia eaters, Lysmata shrimps and Berghia snails can be used in aquariums under 300 liters. Both are very good at fighting aiptasia, but Lysmata shrimps are not 100% "reef-safe", which means that it is not impossible that they will also nibble on other corals (particularly Acanthastrea and Zoanthus ). This cannot happen with snails, however. If there are only a few and/or larger aiptasia in the tank, we recommend using Lysmata shrimps to fight them. As soon as there are already a lot of small aiptasia spreading, Berghia snails may be the more suitable solution.