is my lighting causing this?

[MarlinHooker]

I have a couple of sets of montis in my tank, one set somewhat near the bottom & the other fairly high. the first 2 pics are from last year after a couple of months in the tank. The 2nd set of pics is from yesterday. The only significant change I've made it that in Aug I removed my 2 48" T5 ATI blue+ bulbs and replaced them with a blue AI Sol module. The tank has had 2 white AI Sols on it since the beginning. I dropped the lights levels initially and slowly ramped them back up to previous levels.

None of the other corals in my tank seem affected. So is this just a case of too intense light and I need to back off some?

 

[Chris Lakies]

Do the sols have the original optics in them? I believe they have 40 degree on the insides which could really spotlight flat surfaces like montis.

 

[MarlinHooker]

yes, original optics, 40 inside and 70 outside ...

 

[mc-cro]

doubt its the lights. see how the tissue is gone even where its shaded by the top layer of the cap? kind of looks like monti eating nudis to me. just a guess

 

[MarlinHooker]

What do thoe look like and is there a way to get rid of them?

 

[Tek]

I recommend a search for pics on Google to help ID it is indeed Monti eating nudibranches. Then some threads on how people got rid of them. Seems like what it is but only you can confirm.

 

[animalkingdom]

yep looks like the nudis...bayer dips on all montis on a weekly basis will get rid of them quick. if left untreated they will decimate plating montis in no time. do a dip on an affected part and you should see them in the water to confirm it is them. they can kind of look like sand stuck in coral slime in the tank so id'ing them can be hard if you havne't seen them before

 

[RLM60]

+1 on nudis, been through that before.

 

[MarlinHooker]

ok but my montis are attached to large rocks and there is no way to remove the rocks to dip them ....?

 

[animalkingdom]

ok but my montis are attached to large rocks and there is no way to remove the rocks to dip them ....?

find a way...its better then loosing all your montis...sometimes in this hobby it takes some work to maintain the corals we love. the rocks went in...they can come out...

I thought the same thing when I had monti eating nudis years ago...it wasn't until I lost some of my original montipora colonies I broke down and did what it took. thankfully I have never dealt with them again, but now I would not hesitate to take the montis out and dip them right away.

your other option is to break them off the rocks and dip them and cover the part still on the rock with kalk paste. Dont worry montis are weeks and will grow back in short order.

 

[MarlinHooker]

Yeah, that what I was planning to do is break off the parts that are still ok and dip them and then reattach. Will the dead bleached parts that remain still have nudis on them?

 

[MarlinHooker]

I've been told to be careful about using Kalk paste and use too much. Right?

 

[barjam]

Long story short you will need to be without montis for a very long time in your tank. It sucks.

I went monti free for 6 months, had my montis in a QT tank where I dipped and inspected very regularly. I finally put my montis back in the tank and bam, a nudibranch.

Honestly if I wasn't stubborn I would just throw out all my montis, wait a year, then purchase new ones.

 

[mediumrar3]

Long story short you will need to be without montis for a very long time in your tank. It sucks.

I went monti free for 6 months, had my montis in a QT tank where I dipped and inspected very regularly. I finally put my montis back in the tank and bam, a nudibranch.

Honestly if I wasn't stubborn I would just throw out all my montis, wait a year, then purchase new ones.

I had a montipora eating nudi infestation. I discovered that the nudi's hatch in about 3-4 days, so i was dipping my montis every 3 days. I did about 5 cycles of dipping and I also got a 6-line wrass. Haven't had any problems since then. all my montis were originally affected, everything is thriving now.

 

[reefwiser]

info
http://www.coralrx.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=15

Getting them out of the tank an into a QT tank and Corals should be in a QT just like new fish especially in large aquria.

 

[MarlinHooker]

So how big are these things? I don't see anything even remotely like that pic ...

 

[MarlinHooker]

Do six-lines really eat them?

 

[MarlinHooker]

UPDATE: based on a recommendation from a LFS I treated my tank with Salifert flatworm treatment & it seemed to work. Had to treat twice, once to kill the nudis & then again after 3 days to kill any eggs which have hatched ... montis have started to regen ....

 

[animalkingdom]

thats news if flatworm exit kills monti eating nudis....glad it worked out for you though!

 

[kevin_e]

Long story short you will need to be without montis for a very long time in your tank. It sucks.

I went monti free for 6 months, had my montis in a QT tank where I dipped and inspected very regularly. I finally put my montis back in the tank and bam, a nudibranch.

Honestly if I wasn't stubborn I would just throw out all my montis, wait a year, then purchase new ones.

I treated once with an iodine dip and replaced the monti immediately. That was 1.5 years ago and haven't seen one since.