Infestation of tiny nutibranches ....

sdascher

sdascher

Member
In all of the years that I have been reef keeping - I have been so lucky and have never had nutibranches, or if I did, some one ate it before I could see it!!
I know how I got these little tiny brown with black, coral eating buggers.... About 3-4 months ago, I purchased 5 pounds of frag rock at a LFS because I needed a few small rocks for the refugiums and I wanted to frag some of my zoo's that were spreading. *
So ... I noticed this past week that some of my polups were not opening .... I finally saw one and started to check out everything closer .... they are in all of my tanks!! ALL 4 of my reef tanks has these buggers on something and I think that I may have infested my son's 2 reefs tanks as I gave him frags!! *
I have been picking them off with tweezers, but gosh - it never ends!! We are talking 75 to 125g reef tanks!! Plus I can't hardly see them..... *
I read that you can remove the corals and freshwater dip them for 30 to 45 seconds to rid them ..... is this so???? * Should I remove all rock - one reef at a time, & fresh dip everything??
I think also that I have flatworms now too!! - I have had those before and I can rid them by sucking them off of the glass at night with small tubing ( the mandarin that I had before wasn't interested in them at all ) I do have a scooter, but I don't think that he eats them either.......
Lesson learned .... ALWAYS TREAT FRAG ROCK FOR PEST!!!!
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Don't FW dip your corals... no... don't do that. Or your rock. You'll likely kill them.
I'd do an iodine dip. Seachem makes a coral dip... hmmm can't remember the name... Reef RX or Reef Dip maybe. All you do is sample out a couple gallons of tank water (or however much you need to submerge your biggest coral... and prepare two buckets with that amount of water.
Add the product to one bucket in accordance with the instructions (make sure to use a full dose). Dip each coral for 5 minutes or so, then place it into the second bucket (without the product) for another two to rinse the coral off. This step isn't necessary for one or two corals, but if you are dipping all of them, you don't want them carrying all this iodine back into the main tank.
This may all be moot however. Almost all predacious nudibranches are very specific in what they eat. I suffered an outbreak of them that eat colt corals. I have a bunch of leathers (and a whole bunch of other stuff) in the tank, but Colts were all they were eating. I removed the colt, let the tank go without a colt coral for a month, and replaced it. All the nudibranches in the tank starved to death. Wham bam.
Just figure out what they are eating and remove that for a while. You can also remove the coral every couple days and pick them off with a tweezers.
Also... a wrasse might help.. I think they eat nudibranches... don't remember for sure though.
 
sdascher

sdascher

Member
Thanks for your post. I have already dipped the rocks that I know I'm having problems with - mostly polyps .. with the iodine dip. These tiny brownish buggers are on mostly polyps as I said but also on a finger leather, the trumpet and some stick polyps. Mostly softies which is most of that reef.
I was considering rearranging this piticular reef tank to make more room, so maybe I should do that & dip everything ...... maybe it wouldn't really help but it would make me feel like I'm doing something about it. I figure an all day project!!
I do have other tanks to place these polyps in but I'm wondering if those tanks may also have these buggers as I have been making frags and moving them around .....
I am starting with the nano as I think that it was the first tank infested, and I didn't realize it in time before I spread it to my other tanks!! I do feel stupid,
but I am hoping I can fix it!!
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreicated!
Reef tanks! 75g - two 55g - 10g and a 125 just waiting for me ........
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
I can tell you that picking them out will work with varied success depending on how many you have. It's a horrible, time consuming job but as long as you pick them out at a faster rate than they reproduce, it's easy.
When I had this happen to me, I found the parents. They were big SOBs. Once I had them out (get this... was able to sell them to the LFS for 20 bucks), it was just a matter of picking the kids out before they got big enough to breed themselves.
The good thing in your situation is that since Nudibranchs move very slowly, they will congregate around food sources and stay there, so by picking off all the ones that you see, you'll get most of them in the first go. Then, just every couple days, pull a few corals out and pick 'em clean. It will work with enough time, and the more you pick out, the less vigilant you have to be because as you reduce their numbers, the danger to your corals will drop significantly.
It's also terribly satisfying to squash them with the tweezers (pull them out of the tank first... they can be toxic).
 
sdascher

sdascher

Member
OK - Thanks Bunches!!!!! I think that is how I will go as I HATE rearranging the tanks since they have been so happy where they are!!
Thanks for your help :happyfish
 
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