Monti eating nudibranchs…

[thebookshark]

Found some monti eating nudis on a new frag of rainbow encrusting I added yesterday I ripped the frag out and scrubbed them off with a toothbrush and tap water. To the best of my knowledge and inspecting they have not moved to my other 3 montis. They’re small and it would’ve been quite a distance for them to travel overnight to the others. Stupidly I didn’t notice them when I took pics of the new frag last night but you can see them plain as day. I moved the infected frag to the sandbed as far away from the other montis as it can get. I don’t have a QT tank unfortunately. Any other suggestions besides continued monitoring? I’ve read about dip methods but apparently none of them work 100%. What are the chances I caught it in time and my manual removal/moving the frag approach will work? Blargh.

 

[spike]

monitor, and monitor. Nudibranch can live months without montipora to eat. Very hard to get rid of if established. They will lay eggs under the montipora. Typically there will be a whitesh area where the eggs are camoflaged. If you notice any white areas on montiora there is probably a nudi around. They love Montipora capricornis, Montipora spongodes, and jedi-montipora. They do most of their damage at night, when predator fish are asleep. So if you can check your monti at night with a flashlight after all lights are out.

 

[thebookshark]

I am watching the affected frag today and periodically removing it for more FW toothbrushing. Hopefully I caught it soon enough that they haven’t been able to spread. The closest other monti to the affected frag was 4” which seems far enough to be spared. Unless the nudis/eggs float around in the water column?

 

[dball711]

My experience, toss the frag and don't buy from whoever you got it from. You have no way of knowing if any came off the frag or if more have hatched from eggs on the frag. Hopefully you use a good dip prior to introducing new corals to the tank.

As Glen stated they are virtually impossible to get rid of short of letting your tank go fallow of any montipora for six months.

 

[Justin Ranke]

I had them in the first tank I set up. Be prepared to dip constantly if you want tonbeat them. The eggs are unaffected by the dip, so ypu have to wait for them to for the dip to be affective. They can infested monti quick. It is possible to beat them though, just keep monti seperate on a rack to dip them easily, and so they dont get onto the rockwork.

 

[thebookshark]

I’ve been toothbrushing with FW multiple times today and I added a possum wrasse. I’m hoping I caught it early enough to have aggressive manual removal be enough. From what I’ve read the only truly effective dips are harmful to the coral itself which defeats the purpose. I’m just going to be hyper vigilant and scrub daily until there are no more signs. They are SO small and difficult to grasp with forceps though. However I’ve noticed they also are easy to squish/shred which I’m assuming is fatal. FML if they can regrow?!

 

[90gDreams]

I’ve been toothbrushing with FW multiple times today and I added a possum wrasse. I’m hoping I caught it early enough to have aggressive manual removal be enough. From what I’ve read the only truly effective dips are harmful to the coral itself which defeats the purpose. I’m just going to be hyper vigilant and scrub daily until there are no more signs. They are SO small and difficult to grasp with forceps though. However I’ve noticed they also are easy to squish/shred which I’m assuming is fatal. FML if they can regrow?!

Id really consider trashing the frag and cutting your losses if you have other monti in the tank. It's not worth the risk and headache

 

[NOSMADA]

Thx all for the reminders and precautions