wierd slugs in my zoos. HELP

[calkrog]

Hello All,

one of my zoo colonies would not open up any longer, and upon inspection, there are all these little wierd slugs with brown spikes crawling all over them. i dipped in iodine, but it did nothing. what do i do?

apologies for the sorta blurry pics, but these guys are small !!

http://picasaweb.google.com/tgkrog/SlugsInZoos/photo?authkey=pbYpDqXKpA8#5059450613229890258

http://picasaweb.google.com/tgkrog/SlugsInZoos/photo?authkey=pbYpDqXKpA8#5059450583165119170

sorry about the links. i could not get both attached, or viewing right away. i dunno what im doing wrong. one should be attached



Thomas

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Get rid of them. I have yellow ones like that which are zoo eaters. I now catch them all up to feed to my fw fish. They love em. Eat em up, yum:biggrin:

I used to leave them alone, thinking they added to the biodiversity, but they've proven to be zoo killers.

Anthony

[marcingo]

Those are nudibranch snails. They eat your zoos.

Zoos are pretty hardy so here is what I would do. It is risky but it will kill the snails most likely. Put the zoo frag (or colony whatever it is) into freshwater. Make sure the water is the same temperature as your tank water. Also dechlorinate the water as well. Then keep the zoos with the snails in the water for like 3 or 4 mins. It should kill all the nudis. I know every time I used to get zoos from someone I would dip them in fresh water and they always survived.

You might have to do this a few times over the next few weeks since the nudis might keep coming back.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Some people have been using Flatworm Exit with success.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1109378

[Rippin]

I second the fresh water dip...+ iodine. Zoas are tough and will survive the dip but do not keep them in there for more than 5 minutes. After the dip give the zoa rock a good shake in the same dip water and you'll see all of the nudibranches (and any other invert) that you killed.

Oh, and also check for Nudibranch eggs. The dip may not kill them and they may not come off with the shake, so you'll have to take them off manually.

[calkrog]

I will try the freshwater dip tonight. i dont know if iodine helps though, i had it in a saltwater/iodine dip for 15 minutes last night. no effect.

what do the eggs look like?

[christyf5]

Someone on ReefSanctuary suggested this:

I'll just add, if you find more than a few, you may want to treat the tank with Sailfert's Flatworm Exit. This seems to nuke 'em real good. http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/images/ragsmilies/2gunsfiring.gif

My problem was so bad I had to remove all the zo's, do a freshwater dip, then a dip in a mix of Lugol's Iodine and Flatworm exit (2 drops/gal of flatworm exit). This did the trick, a couple more popped up after that, I treated the tank with flatworm exit and bye bye nudis.




http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/general-reef-aquarium-discussion/524-zoo-eating-nudibranches.html#post6742

[Rippin]

I will try the freshwater dip tonight. i dont know if iodine helps though, i had it in a saltwater/iodine dip for 15 minutes last night. no effect.

what do the eggs look like?

http://thereef.info/nudi%20eggs.jpg

[calkrog]

hmm. perhaps i should try the flatworm exit as i have at least 30-40 of these buggers. will the flatworm exit nuke the eggs as well? man this sucks. i saw one little nudi a couple of months ago, removed him, brought him to oceans and they said he was ok for my tank. so i put him back. he multiplied bigtime.

[Phanman]

flatworm exit is now discontinued in canada so good luck finding it. I got a box this weekend to stock up. :)

[Der_Iron_Chef]

I'm pretty certain that Elite Aquatics has some Flatworm Exit.

[4ptbuck]

How small are these 'slugs'. My zoos have nosedived, and I've lost or am losing the majority of my zoos. I've searched, but do not see anything...

[andsoitgoes]

I bought a zoo rock from hidden reef a month ago, and within a few days from going in the tank, the zoos snapped shut. Couldn't figure out why until, about 3 days later, I saw what looked like a nudibranch climbing across the front glass.

Took the little sob out, lo and behold the next day my zoos were out saying hi.

I got lucky, dip that sob asap before you're sol!

Ok??? ;)

[Rippin]

How small are these 'slugs'. My zoos have nosedived, and I've lost or am losing the majority of my zoos. I've searched, but do not see anything...


Well, it might not be a Nudibranch problem, but if it is, they are around 1-2mm in length.

[andsoitgoes]

How small are these 'slugs'. My zoos have nosedived, and I've lost or am losing the majority of my zoos. I've searched, but do not see anything...

Remember these guys eat zoos, and when they eat them they take the colour, causing them to deftly blend into the surrounding area.

So they may be there, but also may have consumed the coloration from your zoos they've killed, etc.

Viscious circle, those lil buggers!!

[CLINT]

best way to get rid of these guys is to suck them off when you see them.or FW dip the rocks if you can.they are aeolid nudis and if you google them theres a lot of info.Clint

[Dale]

I've dealt with those nudibranchs several times also and have had success with repeated FW dips. In my case I am much more aggressive than previously suggested. I take the rock/colony and hold it under the tap for about a minute, letting the water jets shoot in between the polyps to blow everything out. Strong medicine to be sure but several repeats of this does eliminate the nudi's.