Reef nutrition

Monti eating nudi's.....

Kmooresf

Kmooresf

Supporting Member
BARcard
If it's not one thing..............

Hmmmmmmm. Just treated my entire tank for red bugs. Acro's look amazing and are opening up so much better.

Had a fun Monti ....... kind of green with pink polyps (strawberry fields monti?). Anyway, One edge of it bleached out a few weeks back, and there is a little dead spot in the center. I attributed it to a drop in Alk the day before. However it hasn't really recovered and everything else is looking really nice. So I have been watching it with a flashlight and trying to figure out what the heck is the issue. I overheard someone in a shop today asking about Monti eating Nudi's. WHAT???

So a little reasearch tonight and sure enough........what I thought were just pieces of the skeleton / grains of sand are actually these Nudibranchs. |( One step forward.........two steps back. I really wish my eyesight was as good as my macro lense. :glasses:

Underneath the monti
DSC00112_zps0e58d9ca.jpg

from above
DSC00115_zpsd83949fd.jpg


After a long lashing of myself in my head, I have removed said Monti and checked all my other corals / Monti's. I have a LOT of other monti's. No sign of them, however I put the monti in a cup and am SHOCKED at how many of these things are on it. So I assume I will be dealing with them for a long time.

Any advice on how to proceed from here is much appreciated. I did happen to pick up a Melanurus wrass last week that is doing very well and eating. However that was not the reason I got it, and I'm not sure if they eat those? So far I haven't noticed him looking at any of the monti's.

No Bueno! :~
 
Man...bummer to hear that Kris. Here's a article by Dana Riddle on the subject, he suggests the saddle wrasse and threadfin butterfly fish that will prey on monti eating nudibranchs.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/6/inverts
 
Thanks Jim. Such is life.

I would like to try a butterfly and have considered another wrass for sure. Question is.........what else do they eat? LOL!
 
I think we (as hobbyists) are resided to the fact we will encounter some type of pest (aptasia, AEFW, monti eating nudibranchs, etc.) one time or another during the hobby. I'm trying natural means (as much as possible) with a copperband butterfly fish and melanurus wrasse to take care of aiptasia and flatworms at the moment.

Good luck !
 
gimmito said:
I think we (as hobbyists) are resided to the fact we will encounter some type of pest (aptasia, AEFW, monti eating nudibranchs, etc.) one time or another during the hobby. I'm trying natural means (as much as possible) with a copperband butterfly fish and melanurus wrasse to take care of aiptasia and flatworms at the moment.

Good luck !
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I feel the same.

I am learning a ton about the proper care of SPS these days. LOL! Like it or not! Trying not to freak out about it. It's a bummer, but part of the hobby I suppose. At least I know I have them now, cause I am sure it could be a LOT worse. Thx again for the info......that was a good article.
 
I went through that infestation.
Watch your monties like a hawk.
There will be more unless you are incredibly lucky.
Try to see what the eggs look like.
They are usually laid in groups on recently eaten spots on the underside of the coral.
You must be diligent.
I would try to frag some super clean pieces and set them aside and get rid of as much dead/ eaten parts of coral that has inaccessible crevices.
Good eyes and good luck is you best friend. :)
 
JAR said:
I went through that infestation.
Watch your monties like a hawk.
There will be more unless you are incredibly lucky.
Try to see what the eggs look like.
They are usually laid in groups on recently eaten spots on the underside of the coral.
You must be diligent.
I would try to frag some super clean pieces and set them aside and get rid of as much dead/ eaten parts of coral that has inaccessible crevices.
Good eyes and good luck is you best friend. :)
Click to expand...

That is good advice, thanks. I will do that. Of coarse, I have been home on my butt for the last week and heading to work today. :(
One question.....some of the stuff I have read on the internet says to "blow off" the Monti's as often as you can to keep them off and help get rid of them? That seems like the opposite of what I would normally do? Kind of makes sense, but don't want to spread them even more? Anyway, I am sure I'll be an expert soon. Thanks for the info.

@ Erin..........that is what I was thinking. I love wrasse anyway, just don't have a top on the tank yet. Seems I may have to change that.
 
I fought the monti nudis about two years ago and it was an important reefing learning experience for me.

Dipping in iodine and revive kills adults but does not kill eggs.
Eggs gestate for about 20 days.
Once hatched juvis will start laying eggs in about 14-18 days.
Breaking the cycle by killing all adults and juvis before they lay eggs is the key.

Monti nudis will finish off a monti completely before searching for alternate food. They are attracted to the "smell" of other monti nudis eating. If something is under attack, take a couple of frags away from the uneaten area and give up hope of keeping the mother piece alive. You are better off focusing your treatment on the dying piece while assuming that it will die anyway. Once a piece is under attack best would be to let montis really get into it for 24 hours and then remove it completely for quarantine. This gives you the best chance of removing all nearby nudis.

I did iodine and revive dipping every 7 days for close to two months. This, by itself, was unsuccessful as I always missed some eggs or juvis/adults.
To break the cycle I had to get help from a canary wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus) but a green wrasse (Halichoeres chloropterus) also works. Gresham suggested a Melanurus wrasse at the time and I have no reason to doubt that it wouldn't work as well.

Good luck with eradicating these bastards!
 
*Chills*...
If you need replacements down the line, I have a decent monti collection so odds are I have you covered. Good luck!
 
Loaded some pics from the camera and came accross some good ones of the Nudi's. These were on my favorite monti. The large fuzzy green monti. I have since moved it to the frag tank and am doing daily inspections and have done several dips..........brushed the eggs off with a toothbrush and will monitor it for the next several weeks. So far, so good. I am hoping I can save it. I threw the other one out, but this one I can't let go that easily.

Anyway, thought you might like to see what they look like, and just how many eggs they can put out.
DSC00117_zpsa9d1b261.jpg


This is the Monti I am speaking of.
DSC00052.jpg
 
Frag off a clean section of new growth. Get it in a frag tank or something.
With that many eggs they are hunkered down.
You may have a long battle ahead of you.
Good luck!
 
Kmooresf said:
Anyway, thought you might like to see what they look like, and just how many eggs they can put out.
DSC00117_zpsa9d1b261.jpg
Click to expand...

Not that it is any consolation, but cool photo! They look very similar to Berghia nudibranchs that have not fed for a few days (not having taken on the pigments from the Aiptasia they consume).

Best of luck with the treatment!
 
iCon said:
Creepy. Have any pictures from further away that would show relative size?
Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't get any pics from further away. They are very small........these were the largest I saw and were less than 1/4". Most of them were much smaller.

@ Jar, you are right, I know. I have been on Nudi watch every night. So far I haven't seen any further sign of them on this monti, or the others in the tank. I assume they are there, so I will be patient and keep looking.

Despite the critters, the tank is really thriving right now. ;)
 
Here's my experience with them.

I had them on two of my monti's. per my local LFS's advice (Aquaexotic) i was told to dip ALL my Monti's in Coral-RX with agitation to get the nudi's off, and repeat this every 4-5 days untill gone. I can confirm that the gestatino cycle is ~3-4 days and the idea is to kill the bugs before the mature to lay eggs. my last dip i found a buch of TINY nudi's and no mature ones, and its been more than a week since then and no nudis as apposed to before when they'd show up on day 4. And they can easily spread form coral to coral.

I had to break my monti cap plates to dip the. It's a pain in the ass, but those F##@rs can cover a lot of grownd. Another guy at my LFS said that some wrass's will eat the nudis, but this is not confirmed. the dipping works 100%, but ya gotta dip every few days to kill newly hatched bugs.


Appologies for the poor grammar and punctuation!
 
The pest has been around in the hobby for quite a long time, wrasses work, and have been confirmed 1000's of times over :)

Best method IMO/IME is a combo of dipping and continually having wrasses in your system in case there is an issue (they'll help keep them down so dipping is easier).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top