High Tide Aquatics

Monti eating nudibranch

JAR

JAR

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I just found montipora eating nudibranchs on a sick montipora. Yesterday I chopped of the dead part of the monti and put it back in the tank. When I looked at it today there was a little more dead part so I decided to dip it in iodine. While doing that it looked like some fuzzy sand was on it. Upon futher inspection with reading glasses I saw the fuzzy little buggers.
Dipping in iodine now but I don't know if that will kill them. Any thoughts?
 
I'm having fun here. Red bugs and montipora eating nudibranchs!
What's next?
My tank looks great though. Clearly it supports a wide variety of life! :bigsmile:
 
A toothbrush super glue and dip are your friends.

The toothbrush for scraping off eggs and nudis, superglue for coating the eggs, and dip (I recommend Revive since Montis don't seem to like iodine based dips). You need to be persistent, it's not a good time.
 
I would remove and QT all of your affected monti colonies right now. Honestly... They are the worst thing ever. Lost all of my montis a year ago due to them.
 
be ready to check your Monti's almost daily for the next few weeks, these things suck but with some work you can take care of them. good luck!
 
To further add to what Jason said, I'd remove ALL my monti's period, I also lost most all of my montis, only ones that survived where on the far side of the tank. I was in the tank every night with a little syringe to suck them boogers out when I saw them, they tend to come out at night.
 
I have some encrusting monti that are on rock that can not be removed.
So far I have found them on two corals. Do they go after all monti?
 
Yeah, they hit every single monti in my tank. That included:

Idaho grape
Sunset
True Undata
Green cap
Green encrusting fuzzy monti
Rainbow monti

I sucked them out every night but couldn't keep up. I then resorted to extreme dipping with Potassium Permanganate and not even that killed them fully!

In the end I lost every monti I owned which was probably 1 square foot of montipora combined.
 
Get the two corals that you know they are on out of the tank right now. Set them up in a bucket if you don't have a QT tank. When you start the dipping it may be the case that the weakened nudis spread faster because they get knocked off the monti. Hope for the best with the encrusted montis. Panic, but don't panic. :D

Dips that are monti safe won't kill the nudis, but will 'stun' them so they can be removed. Eggs are a different story. It looks like nothing kills them.

Good luck!
 
Cerissa, luckily it wasn't my current tank, it was the 80 gallon before. Honestly, monti eating nudis were the worst thing that have happened to me in this hobby. Super frustrating.
 
OK. Infested montis are in QT.
This does not sound good. I hope I caught them in time.

C'mon guys. These things must have a natural predator.
Who knows what that is?
 
If you find a natural predator that isn't hit and miss, many will love you. Wrasses may or may not eat them. The big problem is they come out at night when the fish sleep.
 
So far, I've "read", that people on RC have tried introducing the following potential "nudi predators" to their systems:
1. Yellow Coris Wrasse
2. Radiant Wrasse
3. Red/Blue leg hermits
4. Six-line Wrasse
5. Small Tailed Pencil Wrasse

but which is best?
I'm thinking hermits for sure.
Seems as though this will be a protracted battle.
 
None are best. People are shooting from the hip trying to find an easy answer. Add a wrasse that you like (six lines are evil) and go from there. All biological controls are hit an miss, so get something you like. :D
 
Thales said:
None are best. People are shooting from the hip trying to find an easy answer. Add a wrasse that you like (six lines are evil) and go from there. All biological controls are hit an miss, so get something you like. :D
Click to expand...

Well said :)
 
Worse thing that ever happened to my tank, I thought I had gotten the problem sloved only to have the eggs hatch and attack the remaining montis 2 months after I thought I sloved it.


I ended up losing everything and started over.
 
I'm not liking what I hear but alas.
I think I'm gonna get as many montis as I can out of the tank asap.
Some stuff is encrusted on LR but If I can get a frag then it may be better than nothing.
I'm going to set up a 10-20 gallon reef with just the montis and some LR.
I did not expect to be setting up a tank right now but I think I have enough stuff to put one together.
 
Bah don't let them get you down.....I got rid of them manually, and I think the peppermints/sexy shrimp/wrasses helped a bit as well. Took a little while but it's entirely possible. I really didn't loose anything as I had multiples of everything :)
 
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