Nudibranch? What type?

gr8pretender · Apr 4, 2021

Hello! Happy Easter! Found this dude on the glass and put him under a microscope. Seems like some kind of a nudibranch (please not the zoa eating ones....) what do you guys think?

dedragon · Apr 4, 2021

no not zoa eating, but i think montipora eating nudibranch, kill immediately just in case

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Apr 4, 2021

Yes i believe.montipora eating. The aptasia eaters are.similia but more bushy.on top imo.
D

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Apr 4, 2021

Similar*

vetteguy53081 · Apr 4, 2021

These nudibranchs eat montipora species. Agree on evicting them. Hopefully you have only one as Montipora Eating Nudibranchs are a type of aeolid nudibranchs which are known to feed on coral. It is important to keep these parasites out of our aquaria. Montipora Eating Nudibranchs feed on the tissue of corals from the Montipora and Anacropora genus. These nudibranchs can destroy large amounts of coral in a very short time.
They can inflict damage quickly because they multiply at an astounding rate, and they store the nematocysts (stingers) of its ingested prey. Montipora Eating Nudibranchs are hard to get under control because of the rate of which the multiply. Also for the next 14 days, look daily for signs of eggs which are really tiny. They must be scraped off outside of tank if you find any .

gr8pretender · Apr 4, 2021

Omg, geeze thanks for your guys quick help in identifying. I was hoping maybe it was an aiptasia eating nudi and would put it back if that was the case... but I do have a branching monti that was starting to break apart with no reason at all even though it was looking healthy, so this TOTALLY makes sense now. I’m going to start researching how to deal with this immediately. Thanks so much again!

AriMiko43 · Apr 4, 2021

gr8pretender said:
Omg, geeze thanks for your guys quick help in identifying. I was hoping maybe it was an aiptasia eating nudi and would put it back if that was the case... but I do have a branching monti that was starting to break apart with no reason at all even though it was looking healthy, so this TOTALLY makes sense now. I’m going to start researching how to deal with this immediately. Thanks so much again!

Check the underside of the montipora, that’s where they feed and lay their eggs. I have read about a high dose of flatworm exit to kill them off but you have to remove invertebrates and repeat treatment every few days to get the newly hatched eggs. No dips or treatment kill the eggs. Good luck

dedragon · Apr 4, 2021

grr i hate these things, i think bayers dip works for the adults, if possible i would move the whole rock its on with it to qt, or maybe just frag it and chuck the whole base. then dip the fragged off piece

gr8pretender · Apr 4, 2021

AriMiko43 said:
Check the underside of the montipora, that’s where they feed and lay their eggs. I have read about a high dose of flatworm exit to kill them off but you have to remove invertebrates and repeat treatment every few days to get the newly hatched eggs. No dips or treatment kill the eggs. Good luck

Wow, so I checked the underside of an encrusting monti plug and SURE enough, another one... twice as big. Also I did dip with CoralRX everything before putting new corals into the tank, so makes CoralRX definitely didn’t work.

gr8pretender · Apr 4, 2021

In case anyone wants to see the other one I caught under a microscope. For science!

dedragon · Apr 4, 2021

whenever u get monti in the future imo, always remove from frag plug, then 2 dips, 1 in revive or coral rx and then 1 in bayers

gr8pretender · Apr 4, 2021

dedragon said:
whenever u get monti in the future imo, always remove from frag plug, then 2 dips, 1 in revive or coral rx and then 1 in bayers

Well here’s my new question actually then, do they eat Alves? Because they weren’t on the monti’s originally. I actually asked about what might have been them on another thread... but it didn’t look like nudibranchs at the time. They weren’t crawling around or anything. I had seen a white fuzz on some alveoporas I got recently but decided based on replies that it was maybe just the roots of the alveopora? Though one person thought it was nudi’s. Anywho, here is the original photo from my post asking about the white fuzz. Could have it been the nudi’s all along?

dedragon · Apr 4, 2021

those almost look like zoa spiders, im not sure if nudibranch effect gonis, they never did anything to mine. I cant help with treatment because i went full scorched earth but i also had bubble algae and vermetids, i fragged, dipped and scrubbed all my corals, muriatic acid cooked my rock, etc. but thats a last ditch effort

Lopezag1994 · Apr 22, 2021

gr8pretender said:
Well here’s my new question actually then, do they eat Alves? Because they weren’t on the monti’s originally. I actually asked about what might have been them on another thread... but it didn’t look like nudibranchs at the time. They weren’t crawling around or anything. I had seen a white fuzz on some alveoporas I got recently but decided based on replies that it was maybe just the roots of the alveopora? Though one person thought it was nudi’s. Anywho, here is the original photo from my post asking about the white fuzz. Could have it been the nudi’s all along?

Yes they will. Have lost two to them. Having a super hard time dealing with them. So upset about it.

ScottB · May 11, 2021

So what is everyone's favorite dip for the monti-eating nudis?

I don't keep nor trade very many, so I know where mine came in from. They came off in a potassium chloride dip I typically use for acropora, but they did not die which surprised me.

EuphylliaAddict · May 11, 2021

Six line wrasse helped me with these

Bleigh · May 11, 2021

Ugh. I got monti eating nudis around Halloween. Treating all my corals ended up killing them. Actually, I suspect it was the tank I put them in that just wasn’t ready for montis. The alk was all over the place. Bayers dip for sure. And get a tooth brush and mark it so you know it’s the Bayers tooth brush and use it to Scrub around the frag plug to get off any eggs.

aiptasia eating nudis starve quickly. They look really pretty and fluffy. Like a fluffy dog. Imo, monti eating nudis look more like broken snow flakes are all over it.

It’s still pretty, but more jagged and not soft.

ScottB · May 11, 2021

EuphylliaAddict said:
Six line wrasse helped me with these

I have some springeri damsels in there but they aren't cutting it apparently. I need to reload on six lines anyway. For some reason they keep jumping from those two frag tanks.

Thanks for the reminder.

ScottB · May 11, 2021

Bleigh said:
Ugh. I got monti eating nudis around Halloween. Treating all my corals ended up killing them. Actually, I suspect it was the tank I put them in that just wasn’t ready for montis. The alk was all over the place. Bayers dip for sure. And get a tooth brush and mark it so you know it’s the Bayers tooth brush and use it to Scrub around the frag plug to get off any eggs.

aiptasia eating nudis starve quickly. They look really pretty and fluffy. Like a fluffy dog. Imo, monti eating nudis look more like broken snow flakes are all over it. It’s still pretty, but more jagged and not soft.

I have a solid ID on these critters. They are cute but really doing a number on a rack full of bubblegum digi. No great loss as I can barely give the stuff away fast enough. But now I can't even do that!

Have fun at reefapalooza this weekend. While I am all vaxxed up and ready to travel, it just didn't line up for me this year against some family travel plans. I will just go to the NY one in June.

RuuToo · May 11, 2021

I’ve done 10 minute coralrx dips and they have survived. It knocks some back but bayer almost certainly works better. Doesn’t kill the eggs though, so watch for new ones