Montipora eating nudibranch
 

So the other day I noticed my very large green monti suffering tissue loss. I kept an eye on it and started double checking all parameters in the tank. I could not find any reason for the tissue loss. After five days the coral was dead. I then noticed my red monti starting to do the same. I then stumbled upon montipora eating nudibranch on google and sure enough the underside of my monti was completely covered in them. So far the only treatments I have found are to be performed out of tank and that is not an option for me. Has anybody dealt with these pests in the past?

Yep. My situation is that same as yours, and after trying to siphon them out, buying fish that are supposed to eat them, etc. I have come to accept that I will have them in my tank. The damage has lessened but they are still in there. It's almost like the struck some sort of a balance with the montiporas still in the system.

The only legitimate way of getting rid of them is to rid your tank of montipora then wait a good 2+ months to break the life cycle. If you're going to all the trouble of removing them I'd just wait 6 months before coral reintroduction to be sure.

I had them on a beautiful purple rim green cap. I dipped a few times, but eventually got tired of that routine and just fragged a loonie size off it and started again.

Yellow corris wrasse munched all mine in no time , I also siphoned them out at night using a flashlight with some air line tubing . Then I fed them to my Duncan , but that was simply because im a vindictive bastard.

I bought a melanarus wrasse to eat mine and it did. Never saw any again.

I have both a Yellow Coris and a Melanurus. The melanurus is definately the harder working critter in my tank - we named it Hunter :wink:

Thanks for the feedback guys. Sounds like a melanarus is the way to go. Guess it's worth a shot to try and save what I can.

We've had these a couple times over the years. Manual removal, preferably at night when the little buggers are more active is best. Shut off all powerheads and pumps and get a siphon tube ready.

Its much easier taking the whole thing out of the tank but i've done this too. Use a flash light and scrape off any egg clusters, then use a toothbrush to scrub the underside/edges of the monti to remove any leftover nudi's / eggs as you siphon out water/debris as you go. You might have to do this a couple of nights in a row to get them all, but thats always worked for me. Most monti's recover pretty quick.