Montipora nudibranchs! No!!!

[kartrsu]

Was looking at my corals in QT today and found a monti nudibranch! My first encounter with these guys. I dip everything, but pretty sure I missed the eggs. I only found one so far and will dip my montis periodically. My questions are:

1) What frequency of dipping will eliminate the adults and eggs. Is there a lifecycle similar to flukes?

2) I have other corals in the tanks, what are the odds the nudibranchs would have laid eggs on those?

3) in your experience, how long did it take to eliminate them

Fish predators are not an option. This is a coral only QT for eliminating ich and velvet.

Thanks!

 

[sunken3]

good luck.. other than a wrasse i am not sure.. (and still not sure).. i have seen the Bayer method for parasites like nudi's... but i have never been tempted to try it myself.

 

[Abhishek]

You are not going to like my post but am going to be honest and share my experience . Monti eating nudis are perhaps the worst kind of pests even worse than AEFW . Bayers and others won’t even budge them .
Numerous dips of Coral RX may kill the adults but not eggs . I have kept montis infected with nudis in Bayers at 10 times concentration for dip for over 48 hrs . The monti died but the nudi wasnt dead .

You can try potassium based dips like polyp lab reef primer but it’s costly and needs multiple dips .

Best case scenario and it’s harsh - dip everything in potassium based dips for several months and go fallow without montis for atleast 6-8 months. With several dips you can probably live with them along with wrasses like halichoeres and pink streaked but without getting rid of the montis from the system , it would be extremely hard to get rid of them completely

 

[kartrsu]

No no no! This sucks!!! Will my other corals be carriers as well?!

 

[Abhishek]

No no no! This sucks!!! Will my other corals be carriers as well?!

If it’s monti eating nudis , only montipora will be affected . Nothing else

 

[kartrsu]

Okay just did a dip and found a handful of them on 3 of my monti frags. Frags are small, like 2x2 inch. I used a magnifying glass and found 10 clusters of eggs on my grafted frag. Sigh, it wasn’t expensive and rather than miss scraping them off, I tossed it. Now for the other two frags, they appear clean, but will keep up the dipping.

Perhaps the most important question I have and would love help on is:

Do MENs lay eggs on other corals?!?!?!?

 

[Jeffcb]

Don't worry about it. Really over thinking this.

 

[Flux Capacitor]

No no no! This sucks!!! Will my other corals be carriers as well?!

You will need to worry about taking corals from QT to your display even if they aren’t monti. There could be eggs on the frag plugs.

 

[kartrsu]

Thank you all! I have a stylo in the same tank and I’m getting some STN at the base. It’s most likely a shading issue, but are there nudibranchs that chew up stylos?

 

[Backreefing]

What’s with you guys and dip dip dip ? Ok it’s a tool calm down dr chemo . Manual removal is the best . 1 Get the affected monti in a dish and pop it off the plug .
2 inspection with a lens. Then baist the MEN off .
3 once the monti is clean of men use a toothbrush and scrub the underside.
4 use superglue to coat the entire underside ( to smother any eggs )
5 glue a new plug on it.
done .
Honestly a wrasse like a 6line is wise in a quarantine.
goodluck

 

[kartrsu]

What’s with you guys and dip dip dip ? Ok it’s a tool calm down dr chemo . Manual removal is the best . 1 Get the affected monti in a dish and pop it off the plug .
2 inspection with a lens. Then baist the MEN off .
3 once the monti is clean of men use a toothbrush and scrub the underside.
4 use superglue to coat the entire underside ( to smother any eggs )
5 glue a new plug on it.
done .
Honestly a wrasse like a 6line is wise in a quarantine.
goodluck

Actually this is 100% sound. I love it. You read all these endless battles from folks when you do research, so I was mentally frenzied to fight these suckers.

Superglue is super awesome. 100% eliminated aiptasia on frags. Will try this! Wish you posted before I jumped ship with one of my frags...

 

[Backreefing]

Don’t put nothing, even rock into the display. Men are known to crawl around searching for a new montipora. A lens is a must they are tiny. Comparing it to my finger in the picture . Btw I kicked there butts

 

[Abhishek]

What’s with you guys and dip dip dip ? Ok it’s a tool calm down dr chemo . Manual removal is the best . 1 Get the affected monti in a dish and pop it off the plug .
2 inspection with a lens. Then baist the MEN off .
3 once the monti is clean of men use a toothbrush and scrub the underside.
4 use superglue to coat the entire underside ( to smother any eggs )
5 glue a new plug on it.
done .
Honestly a wrasse like a 6line is wise in a quarantine.
goodluck

Actually this is 100% sound. I love it. You read all these endless battles from folks when you do research, so I was mentally frenzied to fight these suckers.

Superglue is super awesome. 100% eliminated aiptasia on frags. Will try this! Wish you posted before I jumped ship with one of my frags...

I would refrain from commenting any more and am sorry if I have caused you trouble . This is exactly why I tend to stay away from commenting in pest threads but felt you needed some help .
That is why you post in a forum where you get multiple views and opinions and opens up different possibilities .

 

[Backreefing]

Don’t worry about it Abhishek . Your advise and experiences are appreciated. We all have or own ways . It’s all good . And your advice is based in experience and facts. I’m aware of MEN being immune to almost every dip that exists. That is why I don’t waist my time with it . ( in regards to MEN )
That is a interesting experiment you did . Cheers.

 

[Backreefing]

In regards to the MEN problems we all get . IMO manual removal worked like a charm for me . There’s other pests such as AEFW and flat worms period . I read a article recently the experimented with aefw . In short they found that a 6line wrasse eat 100% of the adults. But left the eggs alone . And a pepper mint shrimp eat about 60% of the adults and 100% of the eggs. It would be interesting to pair them up in a small quarantine tank , to exclusively treat affected acropora colonies. One or two at a time. . Have other posters tried this ?

 

[kartrsu]

I would refrain from commenting any more and am sorry if I have caused you trouble . This is exactly why I tend to stay away from commenting in pest threads but felt you needed some help .
That is why you post in a forum where you get multiple views and opinions and opens up different possibilities .

It’s all good man. I appreciate the comment regardless and was confirmed by my research. Everyone has their tolerance for pests and mine is very low, so my actions fit the bill.

 

[kartrsu]

In regards to the MEN problems we all get . IMO manual removal worked like a charm for me . There’s other pests such as AEFW and flat worms period . I read a article recently the experimented with aefw . In short they found that a 6line wrasse eat 100% of the adults. But left the eggs alone . And a pepper mint shrimp eat about 60% of the adults and 100% of the eggs. It would be interesting to pair them up in a small quarantine tank , to exclusively treat affected acropora colonies. One or two at a time. . Have other posters tried this ?

Just bought a 30x magnifying glass. My frags are small, if I can get to 100% eggs and dip for larvae / adults, what are the odds of eliminating? Fwiw, I dipped in coral revive like 2x dosage and nudis died fast