Montipora Eating Nudibranches

lastlight · #1 07-24-2011, 03:42 PM

I've done quite a bit of reading and these sound nearly impossible to get rid of. And certainly impossible without removing corals from your tank. If nothing really successfully kills them (definitely not reg coral dips) why doesn't everyone have these?

Anyways I have them and they are really growing in numbers and doing more and more damage. Not sure what to do about it.

Anyone here have any luck with them?

BlueTang<3 · #2 07-24-2011, 03:45 PM

I had them recently also have no clue where they came from as i dip everything i ever get. I manually blew them off the corals multiple times a day with a turkey baster. I took the corals out i could and dipped them multiple times, we then picked up a mystery wrasse and yellow/purple cories wrasse. I have not seen a trace of them since.

fishytime · #3 07-24-2011, 03:51 PM

Yup..... Any of halichoeres wrasse..... The smaller the better.... The smaller stature allows better access to the coral

lastlight · #4 07-24-2011, 03:55 PM

Doug can you recommend a specific wrasse or two? Please let me know if you have any of them as well. If so a hold for me thx =)

New setup is going to have an isolated frag tank I'm certain of that now.

Triggz · #5 07-24-2011, 04:26 PM

I'm a big fan of the checkerboard wrasse however he does get to 11".... Might be better off with a yellow coris or one of the halichoeres that stays under 6". Either way these guys are nudi eating machines!

fishytime · #6 07-24-2011, 06:04 PM

No we don't have any of the halichoeres wrasse in ATM.... Come to think of I dont remember seeing any at any of the other LFSs yesterday either(Laurie and I made the rounds .... Didn't hit WAIS or golds tho)..... Mind you I wasn't really looking for one..... I have a melenarus and love it.... They also have been known to eat flatworms and pyramid snails FYI

Dez · #7 07-24-2011, 07:32 PM

Bummer Brett. Maybe the time to deal with it is between the upgrade of your tank. I am so paranoid about adding anything in my tank due to the pest reason. I haven't added anything in my tank for over a year (in terms of coral). I on the other hand am removing coral

. Hopefully that you can at least gain control of them. Are your caps receding back at all?

KevinK · #8 07-24-2011, 07:47 PM

nocking on wood, never had anything major so far, however I remember a year ore so ago that I read op on all kinds of pest in a tank, and wrote some symptoms down, gust so I have some reference in case of something, same thing with symptoms of certain additives and low and high KH and so.

anyhow,

I have it all in my map in my fish room, and as far as I can read back, the buggers you mention are hard to get rid off because there eggs hatch each 3 to 4 days.

Salifert flatworm exit seems to help (adding it each 4 days for 2 weeks)

other thing I read, is Potassium permanganate.

the potassium permanganate is not a proven remedy, however by many dun with success.

I read the drugstore and ore pool outfits have it, where the drugstore might be your best bet, as you only need a few m. grams

it is mentioned that it will nuke all and everything so be careful with this one.

do some google to read up on it, I don't have time to lock into it all again now, but this is what I wrote down.

lastlight · #9 07-25-2011, 05:00 AM

Growth hasn't slowed as far as I can tell. In fact my tank has without a doubt ever looked better. There are just some dead areas around the rim of my confusa (which has been encrusting a bit too much for my liking actually lol) and a few newer areas of concern on some others. I continue to scrape and maim them with a skewer whenever I spot one.

Doug if you remember, please shoot me a pm if you guys land any suitable wrasses thanks.

I do have a leopard wrasse but I'm not sure he hunts anything besides pods.

lastlight · #10 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.