Found this on my only frag I didn't completely cover the bottom with frag glue. No sign of damage to coral.Should I be alarmed or can my wrasse keep under control?
They're a pain. Took me 6+ months to eradicate them. Devastated several of my expensive high end monti's. They come out more at night while their predators (wrasses) sleep.
I had a few sneak in on a frag, dipped the frag in bayer every 5-7 days 3 times. Soaked basically for 5 minutes, rinsed off and that took care of it. The big issue is getting them before they multiply. They're typically close or on the underside of the frag, so if you catch it on a single frag you're good, otherwise you're going to be tearing the entire tank apart. For the record I dipped and watched for a few days. The issue is the life cycle is about 5-7 days, and eggs aren't affected by the dips, so you have to keep hitting them over and over.
i had or have them in my tank,as soon as i found them BRS had a video that they had them too.per their advice i added a sixline wrasse and since all of my montis are doing fine and growing nicely,probobly just under control but i havent seen ANY since
I wish it were that easy. Like someone else mentioned they seem to be active at night while most fish sleep. At the time that I had them I had several wrasse, maybe 5, and still ended up loosing all my montipora. Maybe they were too populated for my wrasse to keep them in order. I dipped and plucked them off nightly for weeks before giving up and letting them run their course. I wish the OP the best of luck with these nasty things.
A MN that large has already laid eggs. Dips may kill the adults but won't touch the eggs. Instead of throwing the frags away I dipped them in potassium permanganate. It's deadly for your tank so you want to rinse three times after the treatment. It's tough on the coral too and I lost about 1/2 of all my monti's. I've been clean for two months now but these thing have a way of showing back up in 6 or 12 months. In any case get the frags out of the DT immediately.
The eggs are laid on the underside of the coral. I used my cell phone camera in full zoom to see them.