Nudi's eating my Montipora

[GoReef165]

Hey SCR's,
Anybody had issues with these little pests? Last night I noticed a big white area on some of my purple monti again! I've had this piece on a disk in my DT...I took it out and found these little nudi's chomping away. I treated that piece along with another red piece that was on a plug 2 weeks ago... all seemed to be fine, but last night I noticed that my prized piece of red cap, that's been growing off one of my LR's for the last 6 months, has new white areas that looks like it's been attacked. I had to take the entire rock out of my tank to view closely. YUP...they're stinking all over! I had to brake it off the rock and toss it ALL in the trash

So: if I take all my monti out of my DT... how long will it be before I can put it back in? Do these little nudi's NEED monti to eat and survive? Can I starve them? Can I treat them in my DS? I don't think so. HELP!!!!!!!

Thanks all!

 

[GoReef165]

Come on all you PRO's.... bump

 

[danagui]

I had a problem with these guys too. I decided to make it into an experiment and put them into a small container that was plumbed into the main tank but didn't allow any start food enter of let them exit. I found that once they completely eat up a monti they die after about a week from starvation. I also had another batch and found that even with pieces of stray food they were all gone within a week. So it may depend entirely upon the species of nudibranch u have but the ones I had were able to be starved and I haven't had a problem since. Good luck

 

[GoReef165]

Thanks for letting know what your experience was "danagui".

 

[JCRomero]

I had some on my montis, whenever i saw one i removed it. remove the whole coral if possible give it some pressured water from a baster and they will come right off. i havent seen one in months, but its a constant process of inspection....

 

[lurking]

Its not the nudis that are the problem as those can be killed. It is the eggs that they leave behind. While you may be able to manually remove frags or colonies and dip them etc. you can not kill the egg sacs. As a result they will constantly come back. I had an entire 90g covered in orange cap, purple and flower petal. The nudis decimated them all.

I tried my best to eradicate them with constant dips and a yellow wrasse but they will always return. After 8 months of a losing battle I gave it all away for free. It was my understanding that if they had no food source for a few months that they would all die if any egg sace had been left in my tank. I recently reintroduced some monti caps back into that tank 2 weeks ago and have not noticed a resurgence.

Good luck to you as those little buggers drove me crazy

 

[GoReef165]

Its not the nudis that are the problem as those can be killed. It is the eggs that they leave behind. While you may be able to manually remove frags or colonies and dip them etc. you can not kill the egg sacs. As a result they will constantly come back. I had an entire 90g covered in orange cap, purple and flower petal. The nudis decimated them all.

I tried my best to eradicate them with constant dips and a yellow wrasse but they will always return. After 8 months of a losing battle I gave it all away for free. It was my understanding that if they had no food source for a few months that they would all die if any egg sace had been left in my tank. I recently reintroduced some monti caps back into that tank 2 weeks ago and have not noticed a resurgence.

Good luck to you as those little buggers drove me crazy

LURKING...thanks. I do remember you posting FREE Monti because of this problem. WOW...what a stinkin bummer. So, when it happened to me I wasn't surprised after I read your post and looked into it. Ya...the eggs are the issue. I agree and have read a few good articles about it. I think my new plan will be to do a good water change in my QT this weekend and put my 2 existing Monti cap pieces in there by themselves and keep an eye on them. That way if I don't see any other damage on them...I might place them back into my DT after about 1 month. Maybe these little suckers will have starved by then in my DT.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[SPEARGUNHUNTER]

POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE CRYSTALS will kill nudies and eggs...
here is the link
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/eb/index.php

i have some PPC if u need it.

Jorge

 

[lurking]

POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE CRYSTALS will kill nudies and eggs...
here is the link
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/eb/index.php

i have some PPC if u need it.

Jorge

I heard this as well. But I spoke with Mikr T and he said that while it killed some of his montis it not not fully rid them of the egg sacs. He said he tried for a month using this. Did you try this method?

 

[GoReef165]

POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE CRYSTALS will kill nudies and eggs...
here is the link
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/eb/index.php

i have some PPC if u need it.

Jorge

Cool. Thanks Speargunhunter. I'll read up tonight. I really appreciate it.

 

[SPEARGUNHUNTER]

I heard this as well. But I spoke with Mikr T and he said that while it killed some of his montis it not not fully rid them of the egg sacs. He said he tried for a month using this. Did you try this method?

if u do it right u will get better chance to kill them.. do not over dose... remember the dose is Milligrams not grams.

Cool. Thanks Speargunhunter. I'll read up tonight. I really appreciate it.

No problem!

 

[elgordoinavw]

Lately I've found brown, and fluorescent yellow/green nudis in my tank. It's been frustrating... But if you look at zoos you'll find the egg sacks attached I remove them with a Q-tip. Any nudi I see is immediately smashed.