Advice fighting Montipora Eating Nudibranches

[underwood]

**Disclaimer: I've read through all the threads that I could find on this topic. To summarize what I've found:

1. They are persistent and hard to get rid of.
2. Dips seem to kill hatched nudis, but not the eggs.
3. General advice is to get montis off the rocks, closely monitor them, and dip / scrape eggs every few days (and pray that breaks the cycle).

Background:
I first noticed the problem about a month ago. They had infested the base of a spongodes colony. I took the rock that they were attached to out of the tank, completely broke the colony off the rock and threw most of the colony away. I did however cut a few frags from the tips that were far away from where the nudibranch activity was, and put those frags on a frag rack.

Since then, I found a few nudis on a pink polyp cap frag and one nudi on a Season's Greetings frag that were nearby. I dipped those frags in Tropic Marine Pro-Coral Cure, super glued any cracks between the coral and the frag plug, then moved the frags to a frag rack on the opposite end of the tank.

As a precautionary measure, I removed / dipped / glued the Undata and Stylo frags (opted to play it safe with the Stylo since their growth is similar to that of encrusting montis) that were on the same structure, but I found no evidence that the nudis had made it there yet. The only monti remaining on that rock structure is a Superman monti that the nudis seem to have been avoiding so far. I plan to break off what I can of that frag and epoxy putty over whatever I can't get off the rock.

Relevant Tank Info:
40 gal breeder, bare bottom (glass), w/ 2 MP40s for flow (so strong flow throughout the tank). The rock is landscaped into three separate structures. There are two "pillars" on opposite ends of the tank that are suspended above the tank bottom by 1-1 1/2" acrylic rods. In between the two pillars, there is a smaller "island".

There are ~12 different types of Montis in my tank. Most could still be considered frags or, at best, mini-colonies. I should also point out that I have a Six-Line Wrasse.

Currently, the only evidence I've found of nudibranch activity is on the left-side pillar. None of the rock structures touch the tank walls, so to get from one end of the tank to the other the nudis would need either 1) to crawl down the rods and scoot across the glass floor (I suspect the powerheads would blow them away) or 2) "surf" through the tank and hope they land somewhere on the other side.

On the other end of the tank, I have a few more montis, but the main one I am concerned about is a Leng Sy colony (~7 in across). I can see underneath the colony pretty well, and I haven't seen any evidence that the nudis have made it over there.

Questions:

• Is it a foregone conclusion that whatever nudis are left will make it to the other side of the tank?
• Are there any treatments that I maybe overlooked that are confirmed to work on the eggs?
• Any other advice?

I am leaning strongly toward breaking everything off the montis on the right side pillar and dipping them just to be safe. I guess I am just hoping that someone will chime in and say they were able to get rid of them without going to that extreme.

 

[RalphsReef]

I fought them a few years ago. You can win if you are persistent. They will definitely get onto every monti you have in the tank. I dipped every 3-4 days in CoralRX, and scrubbed the underside of the pieces thoroughly with a toothbrush. I would then rinse them off vigorously in another bucket before replacing them in the tank. I did this for a couple months. They eventually disappeared. This may be completely coincidental, however I did not notice the nudis until my purple basslet died. Within weeks of its death, the nudis appeared in force. And I had not added any new montis. In summary, I can tell you not to give up and throw your montis away. Fight the good fight and you will win.

 

[Triggerjay]

I had zoanthid nudis. Picked out what I could and added a yellow coris wrasse. Have not seen one since. It was starting to become an epidemic... But the wrasse saved the day

 

[twilliard]

I am starting to see more and more posts about this.
do you guys and gals think fenbenz would kill these as a dip?
I started a research using fenbenz for hydroids and flatworm with much success in QT
sorry for your outbreak!
please pm me if you are willing to ship me these nudis to further my studies. (I will pay for shipping)

 

[Shaun heimann]

I had gotten it and I dipped my monti in a 75 water 25 peroxide solution for 1-2 minutes. The coral will slime up so you need to slosh it around for a while. Then inset the monti into a temp tank with water I took right out of my display and then watched the coral. During this peroxide dip all my monti lost its color but after all the monti seemed clear of nudi and all eggs input back int the display and it colored rigjt back ip after a few weeks. Thr only peice I lost was my red and green grafted peice. My x factor reverse and all my digi did fine. It was a big lain. But that's why you dip everything before adding to your tank.

 

[renato120]

Im having issues as well with zoanthid nudi's
Does the yellow coris wrasse eat them?
Good thread!

 

[afamousjohnson]

I hear they lay eggs on rock also.??. Be wary of that. Almost worth removing monti for dipping and qt along with putty over where it was removed for good measure.

 

[Tench1]

Had fought these villains for months.
They are survivor! They will only appear after lights off. (That's when their predators are sleeping! Referring to wrasse)

CoralRx will only temporary help with killings the adults but not the eggs.

The only way is the remove all montis out into a QT. Introduce wrasses for a few months. Monitor situation. (If no more nudis after lights out for 3 months, I would then consider it safe to intro back into your main tank)

Personally, i added more predators like 6lines, mystery, yellow coris, melranus wrasse into my main tank. It helps to control the pest population but will never wipe them out.

My take is, learn to live with it. Pest is part of nature. The sea will never be without pest.

So live with it.

 

[zesty]

ugh...

I can reluctantly join this club. And also, I'm sorry to hear about your problem.

I have plenty of montis in my tank, plating, branching, encrusting, funny, whimsical, sweet, long walks on the beach... oh wait, wrong site.

I'm under the impression that if I want to get rid of these hungry fellers, my tank will need to be without monti for quite some time. I have heard of a local who went 6+ months monti-less and brought in a monti just to be eaten. It's frustrating to hear that...
Also, there is such little info out there on MENS. It's almost defeating... I've heard of people tearing their tank down or considering it... I love montis, but there is so much out there... I can't just give up on one coral, but that's me.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/6/inverts

I really like this quote from this article:

If you do not know the names of things, the knowledge of them is lost too.
-- Carl Linnaeus, 1751

 

[that Reef Guy]

I had gotten it and I dipped my monti in a 75 water 25 peroxide solution for 1-2 minutes. The coral will slime up so you need to slosh it around for a while. Then inset the monti into a temp tank with water I took right out of my display and then watched the coral. During this peroxide dip all my monti lost its color but after all the monti seemed clear of nudi and all eggs input back int the display and it colored rigjt back ip after a few weeks. Thr only peice I lost was my red and green grafted peice. My x factor reverse and all my digi did fine. It was a big lain. But that's why you dip everything before adding to your tank.

DO NOT DO THIS!

THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA.

YOU DO NOT DIP SPS IN PEROXIDE!

Use Bayer.

It does not stress Coral out at all.

Nothing goes into my Tank without an Aggressive Bayer Dip.

I then Check for Eggs under a High Powered Magnifying Glass with Built in Light that is used for coin Collecting.

Wrasses are helpful too.

 

[zesty]

Just remember, Bayer does not kill eggs. I dip everything in bayer, but I did not inspect for eggs. Shame on me

 

[maroun.c]

Ive aquired 3 infected frags to experiment with and my observations were:
They are very resilient and hard to kill, had to use double the dose for double the time and there would still be a few moving.
Magnifying glass helps a lot.
Treating succesfully and erradicating them in tank is not possible as some would be on the move on rocks...
I would definitly take out many frags, sacrifice any remaining monties in the tank and treat in q tank and hope to save some.
Dip on weekly basis and be very aggressive with time and dose.
I havent tried bayer yet but coral RX worked at higher dose and time.

 

[PeterErc]

Ive aquired 3 infected frags to experiment with and my observations were:
They are very resilient and hard to kill, had to use double the dose for double the time and there would still be a few moving.
Magnifying glass helps a lot.
Treating succesfully and erradicating them in tank is not possible as some would be on the move on rocks...
I would definitly take out many frags, sacrifice any remaining monties in the tank and treat in q tank and hope to save some.
Dip on weekly basis and be very aggressive with time and dose.
I havent tried bayer yet but coral RX worked at higher dose and time.

good info here, a toothbrush works well to remove nudi's and eggs. I tried saving colonies, even with regular inspection and removal the pests kept showing up. It's been over six months now, and found an adult with eggs last night. Problem I have found is dips are ineffective at killing them, especially the ones that are hiding in a crevice. You can try to rid the corals of them but be cautious when you think they are gone. An adult can show up a few weeks later with masses of eggs. That has been my experience.
If I had to do it again, which I hope not, I would just cut a few frags of each monti I would like to keep and go from there. Good thing is most monti's are easy to come by and relatively inexpensive.
FWIW I have dropped adults in Bayer even at high doses and it does not kill them.

 

[Amphibious]

Being involved with corals from the earliest days of coral keeping I’ve run across these pests and other such as the sp called Zoanthid eating Nudibranchs, which is a misnomer as they do not eat the Zoanthids. However the Monti nudibranchs do eat the tissue of Montipora species of coral. Since no one has posted a picture yet I thought maybe there are some who don’t have a clue what they look like nor how to spot the buggers and the damage they do.

The Nudibranchs are white as is the damaged coral. There is a group of eggs visible, too.

The nudibranchs are clearly visible in the petri dish.

My method of ridding the corals of these little nastys is to suck the adults off the coral using a pipette. They are easy to get off. The eggs, also white are harder to find and stick tenaciously to the coral. So, once I find the buggers, I just go back and look for newly hatched nudies and suck them up. I am not a big believer in dipping corals. this is what works for me and very effectively.

Dick

 

[zesty]

That first picture is a great one that shows the eggs!

Here are the pictures from after a dip after I found em. as Amphibious stated, they are as white as the skeleton. If you take the coral out of the water, they become flat to the coral and harder to see.

 

[Amphibious]

Great pics too, zesty. If you have more than one Montipora, you can expect to find them on the others. Check repeatedly until you go a couple of weeks without seeing any. Then in about a month check again.

 

[zesty]

Yeah, I know my tank is going to be monti-less at some point. Right now, there are too many attached to rocks to really fight them other than manual removal of as much as possible.

 

[sureal00]

I got fed up with my infestation and threw away all my monti's.Some of the more high priced stuff was moved to a other tank and they ended up being lost as well.On my 3rd month now and I have 2 wrasses for about 2 months now so I will have to start my monti collection again.

 

[zesty]

I would start with some low end montis. I have heard a local guy who went over 6 months without a monti and they came back... I can't say that every tank infestation is the same, but that is his experience. I just want to share that there are others that I have read (thru google search) that the 6 month mark is usually a safe amount of time.

So.... I am putting montis on my ignore list for the next year or so.... ugh....

I wish you all the best!!

 

[Beradd]

covering the base and effected area where nudis will lay there eggs and eat with super glue works well .... eggs get layed under frag plugs on the edges of the coral .... the death is them eating ... so cleaning adults off while dipping and covering area near the edges of the coral including crevices and some live tissue will cover the babies and eggs. constant supervision is a must ...once you find one adult, dip and find the dead edge. cover edge and any eggs with super glue... rinse and repeat till they are all gone... be vigilant and learn the lesson of dip new corals, change frag plugs when possible. its not going to be pretty. but you should be able to save some.
hope that helps some,