Nudibranch eating Montipora

[dragonboy]

Anyone have these things in their tank? Recently I notice most of my montipora's started to bleach and then I found one of these things on my montipora and I was wondering what is best way to get rid of them? I lost at least one of my montipora frags from these things and they leave behind tenacle like starfish things on some spots on the montipora. Are those new born or eggs they leave behind usually its a bleached area.

 

[myzislow]

I unfortunately have these right now as well. Really a bummer as it seems I am about to lose every monti in my tank(basically my entire frag pack from max). There is no known "cure", but the radiant wrasse and yellow coris wrasse are supposed to help eradicate and keep them in check by feeding on them.
The symptoms u described are definitely those of the monti eating nudi. I would try and remove any eggs u can by gently scrubbing them with a toothbrush in a separate container of water. Good luck.

 

[yosemite sam]

Can you get the frags out, or are they too big? If you can get them out, you could try a freshwater dip, and scrub off the eggs. Otherwise, you may just have to make pick them out by hand.

 

[mscarpena]

Get a radiant wrasse and try to manually remove as many of them as you can. I don't think a fresh water dip will work or be good for a stressed coral. Plus radiant wrasses are beautiful and eat all sorts of bad things.

 

[teen]

TMPCC dip and scrub lightly with a toothbruch. the nudis themsleves are easy to get rid of, its the eggs that are the hard part. they usually lay the eggs on the under side of the coral.

 

[dragonboy]

Radiant wrasse will work? How about sixline would they help? Seems like a radiant is pretty expensive just to get. I'll see if I can remove most of them, I also heard if the nutrients are low they will eventually disappear.

 

[teen]

low nutrients wont help, and a wrasse will only keep them under control. i doubt he would get them all.

 

[viper_930]

I had them in the past. I did a 2-3 minute light iodine dip on each monti while shaking the coral periodically to get the weakened nudis off. I don't use a toothbrush because I've found brushing the live tissue does a whole lot of damage. After 2-3 days I do a second dip on the montis to get the newly-hatched nudis. After that just inspect the corals for the next few days and redip any individual corals that you still find nudis on.
IMO I would never do freshwater dips on any kind of SPS coral as it'll probably do more harm than good.

 

[peglet]

I had these guys in my tank a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't figure out why my zoas wouldn't open up. Then I noticed these things crawling all over one of them. They were on my glass also. I squished the ones on my glass and then I grabbed my four colonies of zoos out and placed them into some salt water. I mixed up one gallon of saltwater and put coral cleaner in it. It smelled like pine sol. I wiggled them and swished them and all kinds of things came off, including the nudis. Then I put them in fresh water and did the same things. When I placed them back into my tank I placed all colonies in a direct path of my power sweep. Then next day two of my colonies opened up fully, one colony is still not doing great and the last colony that was new and came in like crap from Drs Foster and Smith has not really ever opened. I have seen only one nudi since and I have squished it. Hope they are all dead. Hope this helps.

 

[dragonboy]

I'll probably just do a iodine dip on all of my hard coral hopefully it will at least get ride some of these that might hidden the rocks or coral somewhere.

 

[myzislow]

Originally Posted by peglet
I had these guys in my tank a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't figure out why my zoas wouldn't open up. Then I noticed these things crawling all over one of them. They were on my glass also. I squished the ones on my glass and then I grabbed my four colonies of zoos out and placed them into some salt water. I mixed up one gallon of saltwater and put coral cleaner in it. It smelled like pine sol. I wiggled them and swished them and all kinds of things came off, including the nudis. Then I put them in fresh water and did the same things. When I placed them back into my tank I placed all colonies in a direct path of my power sweep. Then next day two of my colonies opened up fully, one colony is still not doing great and the last colony that was new and came in like crap from Drs Foster and Smith has not really ever opened. I have seen only one nudi since and I have squished it. Hope they are all dead. Hope this helps.
I would never buy any zoos from drs foster and smith. Not only did they send my friend different zoos from the pics(nowhere near as nice as pic), every colony he got was infested with ZOO eating nudis. Never again..,

 

[myzislow]

Originally Posted by dragonboy
I'll probably just do a iodine dip on all of my hard coral hopefully it will at least get ride some of these that might hidden the rocks or coral somewhere.
I have been doing light iodine dips as Viper suggested and I have noticed some improvement in my affected montis. My sunset seems to have made a full recovery(thank god), now I just hope I don't lose my lime/green polyped undata. I'm constantly on the look out for nudis every night with a hi powered LED flashlight, and checking for eggs couple times a day. You'd be surprised how many eggs you find in the crevices and cracks. Good luck.

 

[peglet]

I also bought some corals from the Diver's Den on Drs Foster and Smith. They were not like the picture at all. My Ricordia mushrooms didn't even have the same amount of mushrooms on the rock as in the pics. My pink birdsnest came with a big clump of filamentous algae in the middle of it and my zoos didn't even come close to the pic. I was very disgusted and it was very costly. I will never never buy anything from them again. Anyways back to the nudi problem. I hope the iodine helps your stuff. I tell ya I know my way seems a little harsh, but it sure worked. So far no more nudis and my zoos are doing beautifully, with the exception of the one from Foster and Smith. Think it might be toast. Good Luck

 

[peckhead]

Originally Posted by myzislow
I unfortunately have these right now as well. Really a bummer as it seems I am about to lose every monti in my tank(basically my entire frag pack from max). There is no known "cure", but the radiant wrasse and yellow coris wrasse are supposed to help eradicate and keep them in check by feeding on them.
The symptoms u described are definitely those of the monti eating nudi. I would try and remove any eggs u can by gently scrubbing them with a toothbrush in a separate container of water. Good luck.

Do will yellow coris or radiants eat shrimp?

 

[candycane]

They might be Phyllodesmium. They eat the tissue and try to use Zooxanthalae as a form of food for themselves. When I had them, I just used a turkey baster to suck them out whenever I spotted one.

 

[myzislow]

Originally Posted by peckhead
Do will yellow coris or radiants eat shrimp?
No, I wouldnt think either would get large enough to snack on your shrimp, unless of course your shrimp were super tiny. They love to eat fireworms, bristle worms, small dusters, pyramid snails, and different types of flatworms among other aquarium pests, like the monti nudi.