Montipora Eating Nudibranches

lastlight · #1 11-07-2011, 09:43 PM

It's been a few months since I got my melanarus to deal with these nudibranches. all my montis recovered nicely with both the leopard and now the melanarus hunting all day. Certain edges of my confusa recently looked receded and I assumed the corals this coral was encroaching upon were fighting back.

I haven't done any night viewing in ages but last night I shone my phone in there and voila they are still there but not in plague proportions. the fish clearly keep the issue in-check but the nudibranches are considerably more active at night when the wrasses are sleeping.

BlueTang<3 · #2 11-07-2011, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastlight

It's been a few months since I got my melanarus to deal with these nudibranches. all my montis recovered nicely with both the leopard and now the melanarus hunting all day. Certain edges of my confusa recently looked receded and I assumed the corals this coral was encroaching upon were fighting back.

I haven't done any night viewing in ages but last night I shone my phone in there and voila they are still there but not in plague proportions. the fish clearly keep the issue in-check but the nudibranches are considerably more active at night when the wrasses are sleeping.

Keep blowing them off with a turkey baster when you see them it worked for me between the wrasses and the blowing. Mine also only seemed to attack the green monti and green confusa when i had them.

lastlight · #3 11-07-2011, 09:48 PM

Every last monti I have is growing like a weed (including the confusa) but because the confusa plates out they have ideal shelter from the fish.

I see no bites or problem areas on any other monti. I will do some night-basting though. They're definitely not visible during the day.

shrimpchips · #4 11-07-2011, 10:08 PM

I had these twice - what worked for me was to dip the affected corals very day for 2 weeks in tropic marin pro coral cure. It's a bitch, but after 2 weeks of dipping and scraping away all adults/eggs, you can reduce it to every 3 days for another 2 weeks. Took care of the problem for me.

You'll definitely want to get rid of them before you migrate to your big tank.

Also, I only had a problem with my plating montis - not with digis, but not sure of other montis as I only had 3 digis and 2 plating montis.

lastlight · #5 11-07-2011, 10:14 PM

I have 3 branching, the confusa and 2 caps.

My caps never showed signs but the branching ones did. They're looking pristine right now.

the confusa is on a rock with corals i was considering removing and re-mounting. I was thinking of not bringing the confusa over as it really grows too fast into the other sps.

thanks for the info tho. not sure i could dig an entire rock that size for weeks but we'll see.

Oceanic · #6 11-08-2011, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastlight

I have 3 branching, the confusa and 2 caps.

My caps never showed signs but the branching ones did. They're looking pristine right now.

the confusa is on a rock with corals i was considering removing and re-mounting. I was thinking of not bringing the confusa over as it really grows too fast into the other sps.

thanks for the info tho. not sure i could dig an entire rock that size for weeks but we'll see.

A couple of years ago I waged a war on these bastards; however, I won the battle by laying epoxy around the bases of the montis as they only lay their eggs on the dead tissue... The next and most effective thing I did was obtain two Melanurus wrasse. Never saw them again... ever!