Montipora Eating Nudibranch

[Sun1914]

All of a sudden they appeared. Haven't added new coral to the tank in some time so not sure how they go in but now I'm left to deal with them. I only have 2 large monti colonies which I could probably remove and dip but it requires breaking up aquascape.
Any other suggestions or natural preds??

 

[Reefer-Madness]

Coral banded shrimp and/or a melanurus wrasse are both excellent at hunting them down. I have one of each and the wrasse spends all day hunting while the coral banded hunts for pests at night.

Check on your montis with a flashlight in the middle of the night. That’s when you’re most likely to see them. Between dipping the frags that were covered in them, sucking out individual ones with a turkey baster every night, and my wrasse/shrimp combo I was able to get rid of monti eating nudibranchs in about a month when I had them a couple years ago. If they’re still in there, I would never know thanks to the shrimp and wrasse.

 

[Adam]

No Natural preds that I know of that will fully eradicate them. Wrasses may help but never get them all. Reefer-Madness had better luck than me.

The last time I had them I was able to salvage some frags. Dealing with large colonies is going to be tough! You're going to need to dip every 72hrs to a week or so and keep them in quarantine for a long time, 2-3 months. It's the eggs that get you.
Remove the colonies and cut a couple nice undamaged sections to mount on a plug or plate and isolate them in a QT tank. With no monti's in the display for that amount of time they will die off on their own and you won't have to worry about them again.

 

[morganatlanta]

I had them. They got about half of my montis before I even knew what was going on, then they were everywhere all of the sudden. I didn't have any wrasses at the time, so I added several coris and a melanurus. I did major hunting for a couple weeks myself and sucked out every one I could find-- dozens a day for the first week, but now the coris and the melanarius I added seem to have them under control. I haven't seen one in months.

 

[Sun1914]

I have a fairy wrasse thats a bit of an a$$hole so im not sure if adding another wrasse right now is going to pan out.

Any suggestions on adding a 2nd wrasse to an established tank?

 

[chuck]

i added 4 at different times in my tank. Just not the same color. They will be fine

 

[chuck]

wrasses can get rid of pests but like adam said its the eggs. Because even dipping coral can remove pests but does nothing for the eggs

 

[skrappy]

Yellow coris wrasse and melanurus wrasse are both great for management of nudibranchs and flatworms, and several other pests.

 

[kevinathom]

Not sure what kind of monti you have, but I have some sunset monti I would be glad to frag for you.