A plague just in time for the holidays

[Mr Neutron]

Yes for xmas old St Nick gave me a wonderful crop of montipora munching nudibranchs. What a lovely present. :rolleyes:
All the caps are not happy campers, but only one was seriously infested. These monsters seem to congregate in groups so it was fairly easy to iodine bomb them to hell. :hammer:

Wish me luck in the war.

[scubadude]

Hey dude!
First off im very sorry you had to encounter this! Second off can you tell me the day you got them? which species they are effecting? how big the affected species are, and the rate of devastation?

When I had them they wiped out my brown w/purple edge cap within 5-7 days and that colony was a 7 inch diameter but multi-tiered, it seemed that either thats where they orginally landed OR they may have liked the taste of that montipora the best :rolleyes: They also started in on my orange caps but that was MUCH slower and they didnt appear to like it NEAR as much and I was able to save the majority of it. The next best piece they like was Orange digitata but I was able to save that colony. They also appeared to eat what I believe to be M. Confusa, and M. Veitnemesis or it might have been a M. Porites (sp?) the average rate of devastation from what I saw was about 1 square inch per 24hr time frame. Please if you have more information on this lets get it out.

[Mr Neutron]

Rocky,
I have no idea when it actually started...the last piece of cap I got was the big orange from Chuck months ago and I found nothing on it at the time. The first sign of infection was about a a week and a half ago when I saw a tiny white spot on a smaller orange cap gradually grow larger and larger. It was in a fold of the coral tho so I thought it was detritus that settled too long and caused the bleach. Nope. It has grown to about a square inch only, so it's not moving too fast.

The big orange had a couple adults on the outer edge but no eggs and is pretty much undamaged. If they start moving inside tho it is doomed as there is no way I can reach between all those whorls.
The smaller orange I mentioned had quite a few adults and eggs once I inspected the white spot.
Next I have military green which I got from Russell this summer and they are infested the worst. The bottom of one piece was literally covered in them (but the coral was not turning white as it is thick, so I had no idea.)

Lastly I have a green with purple rim, about 3-1/2" across. It had a couple but they had not done much damage.

I spot killed all the adults I could see with iodine and any eggs, as well as brushed them off with a toothbrush and flushed the coral with saltwater. 1 day later I checked all of the caps and only one army green cap had more adults and eggs. I retreated and got all I could see. The corals stressed out and where I didn't flush off the iodine quickly caused some minor bleaching, but on the whole no further damage so far.

I have not seen any on my orange and green dig; I had thought they don't touch dig? I will keep an eye on mine just in case but no sign right now.

The only other thing I can add is ever since I got the army green caps they had alot of nodule-like buildup on the back. I thought it was part of the coral, calcifications perhaps. None of the other caps had this 'growth' tho. Not sure if it is related but the army green caps got infested by far the worst.

[Timothy McCandless]

Hey guys,
I got that same military green cap. from Russell at the RODI place. It was the only cap in my tank and became infested with the nudis. It is now dead. poor thing.
Saddest part about it was that it had turned a beautiful baby blue color under my lighting before it was taked over by the darn nudis.....
Good luck getting rid of them
Tim

[Mr Neutron]

Not counting my eggs before they hatch but I believe I have rid all of my caps of the dreaded beasts. All corals are doing fine. After the initial treatment only one green cap had any more nudibranchs. I did find some eggs attached to a rock that was touching the cap, so if you have them don't forget to check nearby rocks not just the coral.

So far so good!

:dance:

[Lutefisk]

Mr. Neutron and Tim,

I'll be glad to give you some frags of various cap's if you ever feel like your tank is free of these nasty things and want to start again.

Paul

[Mr Neutron]

Thanks Paul. :) Hopefully that won't be necessary, knock on wood.

[stevemc]

Do you think a natural remover such as a copperband butterfly may work? I have one and he ate all my aiptasia in 2 1/2 weeks. And he didnt start until 2 weeks ago, as he was fed. He sometimes eats small worms on the rock and sand bed. He works constantly. Anybody know if they will eat this plague nudi? Maybe we could see if he will eat them, if he does, maybe you could do a trade for frags, and if not, no harm done. Let me know via PM, Steve in Sarasota.

[Mr Neutron]

I think many different fish have been tried but I have not heard of any that will even try to eat them. I have found spot killing the best method IME.

[Mako]

Chad - Oh man, I hope you have good luck down the road with this. I just hate the thought of you loosing that nice big orange cap. :( I know you didn't get the little buggers from me. All my caps are bug free and growing well.

The little piece that was left after the big O left is doing well and will be large before long. Hopefully the new tank will provide enough room for him to stay around. :)

Good luck!

[Mr Neutron]

Don't worry Chuck, the big guy only had 1 nudi and after I wiped it out last week I have found zero nudis and the coral looks great. I'm keeping a close eye on it just in case. ;)

[Mako]

Chad - Well, I hope you beat the odds. I havent heard anything good from anybody yet who had those pesky buggers. Please be the first for me. :D

[Mr Neutron]

Well, I think because people were slamming the coral with medications and freshwater dipping and all that nonsense it made the infestations much much worse. I just nuke the individual critters and eggs and the corals don't even stress out. I certainly hope I'm the first.