Monti-eating nudibranchs?

[melev]

Thanks Mike. I just ordered two bottles from that link on Ebay while it was handy. I've never heard anyone ever refer to that type of wrasse. Since they are jumpers, it isn't exactly good for my frag tank but thanks for that additional option. I can get a Yellow Coris almost any day of the week, so that is another option. Right now that tank is fishless for a reason.

ctxmonitor - I had a few, then a few more, and then each group of them laid eggs and it is just out of hand. And yes, there are lots of monti frags in that tank. If I can't save them, I'll just cut my losses and restart with a fresh (better) setup, utilizing a sump and skimmer.

[just dave]

The problem I see with using fish is the Nudis stay hidden in the day and emerge at night so the fish are not out and about when the Nudis are. The bigger the colonies the more convoluted they will be with more nooks and crannies. The fish would help but I can't see them totally eliminating them. I don't imagine the Nudis evolved to be fish food.

[cooper9177]

h

[melev]

While at the LFS tonight, the owner was showing me how one of his M. digitatas were bleaching from the core upward. He didn't know why it was dying, and I looked at it and saw the pests immediately.

We used some TMPCC and dipped the coral for about 10 minutes or so. I used a turkey baster to blast off the nudis, looked for eggs and found none, so the coral went back in the tank.

[Serioussnaps]

Originally posted by otolith
That sucks about the nudis. They do look like really interesting creatures. Too bad that wreak such havoc.

They are not interesting, at all. You are with them, or you are with me!

[Serioussnaps]

For me TMPCC hasnt seemed to work very well on the nudis. I only have 1 cap(new tank and the first monti i received had them so i am not putting any more in there, call it a monti nudi killing tank) I have gone in and pulled out the monti COUNTLESS times brushing them off with a tooth brush. I try to remove the eggs(they are hard to get off) by scraping them with something sharp.

I did 125% the recommended dose of TMPCC on the nudis i pulled ofF the monti in a measuring cup. The smaller ones died within 10 minutes, however an hour later the big boys were still moving. After 2 hours they were dead. Problem is they get in the crevices and lay those eggs where we cant see them.

Right now i am trying a weekly TMPCC dip on the affected frag. I will post my results in the next month.( i am doing it slowly as the monti is doing very well surpisingly, probably because i keep removing the nudis)

I WONDER IF THERE ARE MONTIPORA EATING NUDIBRANCH EATING NUDIBRANCHES?

[menard]

Marc
The only fish really attack this barstards is Radiant Wrasse.
I had bad infestation a while back, this fish really helps w/ o ripping every montis in the tank., As long as u dont have any agresive fish in the tank that can attack this fish, so he can feel at home and comfortable and start working, you will be amaze, and watch this natural nudi preditor strike each one in the tank until U have no more.
The tank is nudi free until now..........thank god for this fish.

[johnnybravo234]

Little F(*(&*&ers! Im going to go check my montis now

[melev]

Thanks for the tip, Menard. I just sent a link of that fish to the LFS owner so he can consider it.

[castorpollux]

I used a toothbrush to brush off the eggs (in a bucket outside the tank!), superglue to "encase" the leftover monti's and the nudis and then a longer and stronger than normal lugols dip... I know that lugols doesn't kill them but it definitely helped a little being that I don't have them anymore and I battled them for nearly a year losing most of my best pieces before I went overkill as described above... I also added a small yellow coris wrasse, it seems that everything I did was enough because I've been "clean" now for nearly 6 monthes . GOOD LUCK These things suck.. I have had every aquarium pest mentioned on this site it seems and the hardest to get rid of were the monti nudi's...

[npirate]

Great pics Marc.

I pulled one out of my tank yesterday.




I also have this stuff on one of my other corals.



But I'm not sure it is the same.

I lost my sixline wrasse last month, I'm wondering if he was keeping the nudi population in check.

They have a few nice lemon meringue wrasse at the LFS, think I'll stop by tonight and pick one up.

Any chance anyone have photos of the eggs?

[melev]

The "stuff" you pictured are two more. And if you took your picture and imagined it was a clock, look at the two white specks just below the coral's tissue at 5 o'clock. Those are two more tiny ones.

Siphon out all you can.

The eggs are what appears to be a "herd" of them in the very first post of this thread, as well as the only picture on page 2. They are tiny dots shaped similar to grains of rice.

[MiddletonMark]

Originally posted by ol'reefer
One interesting thing I have noted with the ones that I have, they seem to be only going after my brown caps. They have not affected my orange, green, purple or any of the encrusting ones (Superman etc..) as of yet. Maybe they are saving them for a midnight snack. Bad humor, I know

IME, they seemed to really gravitate towards a couple.
When those were done, they became much less finicky eaters

I only had two varieties that seemed to taste bad to them - and still had some areas affected. Was able to `fight them off' of these with inspection, removal, heavy fragging - but that's a couple of over a dozen Monti varieties.

They're a PITA. I lost over a dozen varieties of Montipora in my most of a year-long battle with them.

FWIW, I've marked one LFS off due to these, as they were using a `natural cure' [wrasses] ... which left their tanks fine, without problems/symptoms - and my tank infected. If involved in fragging/trading, IMO a natural cure is questionable as you very well might pass them along further + be another vector for the pest.

[Neptune777]

I have been battling these guys for almost a year now....

Originally I pulled the montipora colonies from the display and dipped in 60PPM Levasole......it just stunned them and allowed me to blow off the ones I could see. I scrapped off all eggs I could find and then returned to the main tank. I did this for about 2 months on a weekly basis. After the first month I didn't see any more nudi's during the dips....So I felt safe ending the dips after month 2. All corals looked great for about 2 months and then.....I made the mistake one night by saying to my wife "I am so glad I decimated the little stinkers (not the word I used originally)" And wouldn't you know it the second the words left my mouth we noticed a monti nudibranch crawling on one of the rocks.......!@#$%^!@!@

At this point I started dips again using TMPCC and had poor results unless dosed extremely high (Expensive!)

So my new treatment scheme goes as follows (and I think I am actually killing them during the dips). I have reached the point of despiration and decided to perform a Hail Mary move and yanked all Monti's from the reef and put into QT and started dipping with 120PPM Levamisole for about 45min....

I have done this many times now and the monti's show little to no stress.....their polyps are out within 15min after the dip, and all have held most of their colors (they are paler but not bleached)and none have died from the dips. I have indeed found dead nudibranchs in the bath when I was done.....I am doing the dips every three days because they seem to breed quickly and I am sure I didn't find any eggs....so they need to hatch and meet their maker.....

I will do this for a month or so and leave the main tank empty of Montis for several months. I will then introduce a canary into the coalmine (monti Frag) for a while to see if any nudi's somehow survived starvation before I put everything back.

[npirate]

UGGGHHH!!!

Thanks for pointing out the egg pics.

If you break them in half are they like star fish in that they will grow into two?

I've been picking them off with tweezers, I got about 30 of them last night. The Monti they are on has grown onto the surrounding rock so taking it out is not an option.

The eggs were a little tougher. I hit them witha tooth brush but I'm worried that I may be making the problem worse cause it is not easy to siphon them out.

I added a Lemon Meringue Wrasse last night, hopefully he will survive and start eating those little buggers.

I hope this does not turn into a year long event.

Keeping my fingers crossed.........GO LEMON WRASSE!, GO!

[Coralmex]

npirate.....

I gues it has been a couple of weeks with the lemon wrasse.... Any advance in ridding the nudis???????? At some of them???

[npirate]

Lemon wrasse didn't make it. My Clowns beat him up and he died from his wounds. i could not tell if he was eating them becasue he never really got acclimated to the tank.

However I have been making progress.

I've been picking them off with a tweezer. Their population is way down and they only re-appear after 4 or 5 days. Also i've noticed that when i am picking them off if I fan some water towards the coral with my hand they tend to come out a little more and they are easier to get. I sometimes use a turkey baster to blast it with some water also.

One of the two corals that was infested with them has made a 100% recovery and they have not re-appeared on it.

Also the one they have reappeared on has been recovering nicely. Many of the areas that were bare have grown back compeltely and there are only a few bare spots on it.

I'll be picking up another wrasse tomorrow. I also added about 25 very small blue leg hermit crabs and there are always one or two walking around on it. it's possible they are just picking off food.

Good luck, if the second lemon wrase works out I'll post to let you know.

[npirate]

Does anyone know if monti/acro crabs eat them? I was wondering if anyone has a monti that is hosting a crab and also has this problom? Just curious.


A few more pics. they seem to be making a come back.

[jaefei]

what is TMPCC ?

[melev]

Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure.

[poknsnok]

they will never go away unless you remove all your montis.. TMPCC doesnt totally kill them in my experience either.. I got rid of mine by removing all mine to QT, dipping, (with tmpcc that seems to stun them and makes them easier to remove) scrubbing, observing, and blasting with a powerhead. after about 4 weeks I noticed none on the corals in the qt... and havent seen any since. one thing to note is that they wont attack all monti varieties, they prefer caps but wont mess with all caps. from my experience

[wastwage]

So they only attack Montis? What about Acros?

[MiddletonMark]

Only Montipora.

[RUBBAGAGOW]

Originally posted by menard
Marc
The only fish really attack this barstards is Radiant Wrasse.
I had bad infestation a while back, this fish really helps w/ o ripping every montis in the tank., As long as u dont have any agresive fish in the tank that can attack this fish, so he can feel at home and comfortable and start working, you will be amaze, and watch this natural nudi preditor strike each one in the tank until U have no more.
The tank is nudi free until now..........thank god for this fish.

Radiant wrasse? Latin name? Link? Please help!

[npirate]

The second Wrasse is not doing well.

Once again the welcoming committee has not been kind to him.

You can see him in this photo getting sized up. I had to remove him to my refugium this morning. Poor little guy.

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