Monti eating nudibranch

[sumant19]

Some of my monti caps are not doing good and then I found couple of monti eating nudibranch on them..
I took them out but I am pretty sure there are more.

My first question is do they eat acros as well? As far as SPS corals - I have green slimer and garf bonsai in addition to montipora corals.

Second question is more obvious -- what to do to get rid of them? I have a 4" fairy wrasse. Not sure he is eating them or not. The caps are pretty much fused with a big 20lbs rock so not easy to take them out and dip them every 3-4 days. Does flatwork exit work? Any other treatments? TIA

 

[jdeb101]

I literally just this morning tossed 3 Monti cap frags I had due to MEN. I've tried FWE (albeit only one dose) and they were still there and multiplying. Strangely, they haven't seemed to touch one of my other Monti's so will be interesting to see if they find their way to it now that the other caps have been removed.

I would recommend a yellow Coris wrasse if you can, as all my research shows them as the best natural way of removing and staying on top of them. Unfortunately the one I bought was murdered by my a-hole clown.

 

[GobyWanKenobie]

You can get rid of them if you can diligently dip your corals once a week. All montis have to be dipped, not just the caps. Sometimes the eggs are hard to find.

 

[reefstarter]

Get a wrasse too

 

[jah-hoeva]

I’ve had good success using coral rx on nudi’s and scrubbing or glueing over the eggs.

 

[Ptreef]

Looks like I caught this plague. Anybody have approaches for the eggs? I can see them. Should I scrape them off or spray directly with peroxide? They're on a large piece attached to my rock so I can remove and dip.

 

[luu78]

They usually hang out on the underside of the monti where they feed. I recommend snipping off the section with new tissue loss and dip that in coral dip. You should see them floating around in the container. This will give you a sense of what you’re dealing with in terms of numbers. It might have to be trying to control them for now instead of eradication. They seem to have a taste for certain montis, so I would keep an eye out on the same monti that they’ve been feeding on and keep removing them as you see more. Good luck

 

[ChrisV]

I've not had monti eating nudibranchs, but my understanding is that they are capable of eating other genera as well-- which is a real problem. I did have aefw in a previous system. I pulled out all the stops trying to rid my system of the pests, but in the end, they won. My acros never colored up and looked horrible for the months long fight. Eventually I gave up and just didn't keep acros for a very long time.

My problem with trying to control rather than eradicate them is that colors of the corals may never be the same. At that point, why bother.

 

[Ptreef]

They usually hang out on the underside of the monti where they feed. I recommend snipping off the section with new tissue loss and dip that in coral dip. You should see them floating around in the container. This will give you a sense of what you’re dealing with in terms of numbers. It might have to be trying to control them for now instead of eradication. They seem to have a taste for certain montis, so I would keep an eye out on the same monti that they’ve been feeding on and keep removing them as you see more. Good luck

Thanks, I can see the nudis hanging out under the shelf of montipora spongodes. No others affected yet. I'll try to save some frags of it and I'll start picking the adults. I've got a 6 line so maybe he'll do some damage but I'm curious what to do about eggs or if scraping them loose will just encourage spread. From my reading all you can do is manage once in the display tank.

 

[Ptreef]

I've not had monti eating nudibranchs, but my understanding is that they are capable of eating other genera as well-- which is a real problem. I did have aefw in a previous system. I pulled out all the stops trying to rid my system of the pests, but in the end, they won. My acros never colored up and looked horrible for the months long fight. Eventually I gave up and just didn't keep acros for a very long time.

My problem with trying to control rather than eradicate them is that colors of the corals may never be the same. At that point, why bother.

F

 

[ChrisV]

F

Indeed.

 

[ChrisV]

Hopefully other people had more positive long term outcomes. Like I said, I only had the acro flatworms, not the monti nudibranchs. Reef builders has a nice monti nudibranch article.

 

[dz6t]

Monti eating nudibranch is easy to deal with:
1. Use Salifert Flatworm Exit to do a full tank treatment. Follow the instructions and,
Prepare to do large water change!

2. Hit the tank again after 5 days, then very important, repeat again after another 5 days. That will kill the babies hatched from eggs that the first treatment can’t kill.

basically three treatments 5 days apart. If you want to, do the 4th treatment.

 

[luu78]

Thanks, I can see the nudis hanging out under the shelf of montipora spongodes. No others affected yet. I'll try to save some frags of it and I'll start picking the adults. I've got a 6 line so maybe he'll do some damage but I'm curious what to do about eggs or if scraping them loose will just encourage spread. From my reading all you can do is manage once in the display tank.

Only scrape the eggs when out of water with a razor blade and dispose them. Very easy to do out of water. I would not do it while in tank.

 

[thrillreefer]

they are capable of eating other genera as well

Anacropora for sure, but don’t know how much more broadly.

I was fortunate to have the MEN show up very early when I just had a couple monti frags. Scrubbed their backs and covered in superglue and they didn’t come back

 

[Ptreef]

Monti eating nudibranch is easy to deal with:
1. Use Salifert Flatworm Exit to do a full tank treatment. Follow the instructions and,
Prepare to do large water change!

2. Hit the tank again after 5 days, then very important, repeat again after another 5 days. That will kill the babies hatched from eggs that the first treatment can’t kill.

basically three treatments 5 days apart. If you want to, do the 4th treatment.

Monti eating nudibranch is easy to deal with:
1. Use Salifert Flatworm Exit to do a full tank treatment. Follow the instructions and,
Prepare to do large water change!

2. Hit the tank again after 5 days, then very important, repeat again after another 5 days. That will kill the babies hatched from eggs that the first treatment can’t kill.

basically three treatments 5 days apart. If you want to, do the 4th treatment.

25 percent? How large of a water change. Thanks

 

[dz6t]

If you use activated carbon, remove activated carbon.
Remove GFO
Turn off UV
add 1 drop per gallon of Flat Worm Exit.
After 30 minutes, it should kill off most nudibranch
Watch the skimmer in case it overflow
Do 25% water change,
Use 1 cup of activated carbon per 25 gallon of tank volume
Change the carbon after 24 hrs
Keep the activated carbon running till the next dose after 5 days.
Repeat.

 

[Ptreef]

Anyone have a sense of how toxic these guys are? Flatworms are clearly full of nasty juice but I've not read much about MEN tox. I'll assume they're bad and be ready to change and carbon but kinda curious if it's needed for them. Killing like 20 a day. They're on at least 3 colonies. Time to try flatworm exit

 

[Ptreef]

5x treatment with flatworm exit seemed to kill the babies but still got 5 adults today on day 2. Normal? brittle stars seemed temporarily paralyzed and derasa clam seems unhappy but everything else ok. I'll try to stay the course and do the 3 treatments but I'm not confident this going to work.

 

[ChrisV]

5x treatment with flatworm exit seemed to kill the babies but still got 5 adults today on day 2. Normal? brittle stars seemed temporarily paralyzed and derasa clam seems unhappy but everything else ok. I'll try to stay the course and do the 3 treatments but I'm not confident this going to work.

If you can capture some adults, it's totally worth it to test a few different concentrations and see where you end up. If it kills them in a cup of tank water, I would assume it will ultimately work in your tank.