Plating Montipora being ate

[Philip Root]

I have a tank with several plating Montipora that have a little (to small to pick off) white nudibranch eating the skin off them. At first I thought they were being bleached. I have all kinds of acros and other stoneis in the tank and they are fine. Have you every seen something like this? Is there some thing I can do? One montipora I grew from a 2" frag in to a 12" 5 plate and is my pride and joy.

Please help.


Thanks,

Philip Root

[Highlander]

These pests seems to be becoming more prevalent these days. There have been a number of similar posts over the last couple of months. The general concensus seems to be that the best approach is repeated physical removal of nudis and egg clusters, freshwater, and / or Lugols solution dips. It's an uphill struggle, I lost several caps before beating these bu**ers. Maybe a good idea to take clean frags now and start on recovery stock regeneration in a fresh tank. Good luck.

[Anthony Calfo]

and prevent these problems in the future by properly quaranting all new livestock without exception (snails, corals, fishes, rocks, sand, algae... everything!) for 4 weeks. Its responsible husbandry, spares you most all pests, predators and disease... and is a small expense (less than $100 for a QT tank) to protect the large investment in your tank (money and living organisms).

be a conscientious aquarist :)

Anthony