Montipora eating nudibranchs

[scubadude]

If you have/had them please post your experiences/pictures/methods of eradication and any other things you would like to throw in....I have been running into a few others that have been experiencing them, and they appear to be quite prolific from what im hearing and do not discriminate against ANY montiporas and will totally devastate your monti gardens and lay many eggs?

[MtnDewMan]

I am curious as to what these look like. Since they are slow moving nudibranchs, wouldn't it be easy to pick them out of the tank?

[scubadude]

Originally posted by MtnDewMan
I am curious as to what these look like. Since they are slow moving nudibranchs, wouldn't it be easy to pick them out of the tank?

From what im gathering they are VERY VERY small and hard to see with the naked eye

[mgk65]

Hey guys:

The definitive article on these pests was written by Tracy Gray and is available at http://www.reeffarmers.com/

Here is the direct link. http://www.reeffarmers.com/tracygraynudi01.htm

The best thread I read at rc was this one:
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...5&pagenumber=1

In a nutshell, using oomed, soak the corals for a few minutes, pray.

Good luck, Rocky,

mgk

[geofloors]

Here's on I pulled off a monti I brought home from a LFS. This photo is magnified 15X and the nudi was about 1/4" long and 1/8" wide.


George

[geofloors]

I have no idea why this pic is so large. I have reduced it 2 times.


George

[Marco]

I had a small bought with these. My brother is the one who actually found them on my Montipora. I could not figure out why my frags were losing the tissue. It was like it was rotting off. After they were located I used a pipette to suck them off the corals, they are extremely tiny. I had to do this a couple of times before I got rid of them. I guess I was lucky that they did not lay any eggs to my knowledge. It has been about six months since they were found and no sign of any more. Hope it stays that way. Just my .02

[scubadude]

Using Potassium Permanganate

http://www.pondrx.com/potassium.html

I have heard that dipping the infected corals in a solution of this and tankwater will kill the nudis and not the montis, and is supposedly better than FW dips?

[mgk65]

rocky:

I think in the RC thread above, Bytor and Aquaman used the potassium permananate without positive results in the end.

For low level infestations, the pp may work ok.

mgk

[scubadude]

Originally posted by mgk65
rocky:

I think in the RC thread above, Bytor and Aquaman used the potassium permananate without positive results in the end.

mgk

Yeah MGK thanx buddy :-) Luckily John aka Aquaman has been working with me on this one he is well versed in this, here is some pics he took



and If you guys dont think the can tear up a Monti just look at this monster colony that got tore up by the little SOB's.



Ill see if I can get John in here to throw his 2 cents

Here are a couple of pix i took with my Qx3 microscope
This pic is 10x


and one zoomed up w/a blue background, this pic is 60x I believe the white lines you see are his tentacles on his back


These guys from what I have gathered are nocturnal so if you think you have them wait until an hour+ after lights out, then go on a flashlight hunt on the most suspecting pieces....so fare they have attacked one of my Orange digitatas, A very large brown/pink rim Cap, an Orange Cap, and just last nite they really pissed me off and hit my new large purple confusa colony My heart is bleeding right now because I had to do a FW dip last nite on the coral and scrub it w/ a toothbrush in the affected areas and Im not sure if the coral will make it....I hope so!

[Aquaman]

These nudies do seem to be nocternal, but once in number and when they reach a large enough size and population, light wont stop them, I found them on my front glass in mid day, On top of my large purple rim which sat 2" under water right under a MH light.

basicly what you need to do is setup several Q tanks. In the first tank goes all the montiporia, Both Digitita and plating. Twice a day you will need to do a freshwater dip in a 5 gallon bucket (2 to 3 minutes), inspect the corals under a bright light so you can see both egg masses and baby nudies which can be less than 1mm If you see any nudies on the coral after the dip, use a very soft tooth brush or soft bristle paint brush and brush off what you can see, rinse the coral in a fresh bucket of saltwater.

You can also use Iodine as a dip, but its more effective if you use it straight, using the tooth brush or paint brush, Swab the coral liberally with the iodine or Potassium Permanagate. Rinse the coral again under a fresh bucket of saltwater.

After a week of doing this you should see the number of nudies reduce, IF so then you can begin to setup a second Q tank and move monties that your %500 sure has no eggs or nudies into a second Q tank and watch.

If at any point you see nudies on any coral in the second tank, Move all the corals back into the first Q tank, empty the second Q tank, Clean it thoroughly and set it up again and repeat the step of cleaning, inspecting, and if again %500 sure move the corals one at a time into the second tank.


Be very carefull about dosing Oomed or Potassium Permangate in the Q tanks, you can very easly burn your corals and I mean burn the tissue clean off! both of those chemicals are very dangerous if over used. Both are a oxidizer(sp).

[scubadude]

Thanx John!

[scubadude]

I sure hope so...I went to Ichty in Oldsmar a couple weeks ago and he had alot of yellow wrasses I always called them bannana wrasses they are actually listed as Golden Wrasse or their scientific name is Halichoeres Chrysus. Anyone who has been to Ichtys store knows he runs a tight ship and you can pretty much take his advice to the bank. He told me that these cute little wrasses eat flatworms and Monti nudibranchs....My first thought is "yeah right, he is full of you know what!" But they do appear to be cleaning my known monti that is infested with the dreaded nudibranchs. The downfall of these little guys are they eat small bugs so fanworms, copepods, mysid shrimp etc etc will dissapear with the flatworms and nudibranchs.....But I say who cares! hehe....I hate them nudibranchs! Here is a picture of the Wrasse....Thank you Mr. Fenner @ Wetwebmedia.com



Oh yeah I forgot that I read in Scott Michaels book that they also eat Pyramidillae snails (sp?) ya know the ones that prey on clams....Wooohooo another bill payed by the cute little wrasse