M.E. Nudibranches... any advice please?

[jamesbaur13]

Hello,

I've got monti eating nudi's in my tank and I could use some advice/guidance if anyone can help.

I've been researching this on my own, but I wanted to see what you all recommend for this.

Luckily my tank is relatively new and the monti's are just large frags at the moment.

It started with my Leng Si around 3 weeks ago, it had a spot on it that grew to the size of a dime after 3 days. I pulled the frag because I remembered hearing about the nudibranches and there was 3 tiny little ones.

I dipped the frag in lugol's, mounted him to a plug and placed him on a rack in my DT.

I have been keeping a close eye on that piece and every 3-4 days I'd see the spot get a little bigger and notice some more of the nudi's must of hatched. I continued with the dipping for around 2 weeks until finally last week I decided to frag the frag and remove the dead tissue.

I was hesitant to do so, being the piece was so small, but it didn't seem like I was making any progress with it.

Today I noticed one of the fragged pieces was beginning to have the tissue recede and once again I found a nudibranch, so I threw that frag in the garbage.

Today I also noticed my purple cap had some tissue receding, I thought it might be the hydroid that is kinda close to it, but I decided to remove it from the rock just to check the underside.

Welp, it wasn't a hydroid...

I dipped, fragged off the dead tissue and mounted it to a plug.

I pulled my orange cap off the rocks, even though he looks fine and is at the opposite end of the tank.

Right now I have no monti's on my rockwork. All of them reside on 2 racks. One rack is for corals which has shown sings of infestation, the other is for ones which appear clean.

I have both Revive and Lugol's. I stopped using the Lugol's, seemed like revive made quicker work of them and it doesn't seem as harsh to the coral.

I planned on dipping every 3 days or if I see tissue receding.

I do not have a separate tank to QT the monti's... I should have one set-up to go in a month.

These are 3 large frags (like 2" in diameter), I don't know if it's worth the effort or risk to hold onto them.

I'm beginning to think maybe I should pitch them all and wait a few months and replace them.


Any advice on this?

 

[MammothReefer]

Superglue, and razor blades! Pull out your montis, inspect and kill/scrape off any nudis you find, then super glue the underside and rock around the montis, and repeat as needed. Focus on areas around where you have seen them, this will help you super glue over any eggs you may have missed.

 

[jamesbaur13]

So, rather than fragging the dead spots I should be able to super glue the skeleton?

I have been trying to find eggs, I haven't found any so far though... that's not to say I didn't overlook them.

How big of an area should I glue around the nudi's?

Thanks

 

[MammothReefer]

I basically super glue all the dead area, and all the area around the frag that isn't covered in coral since they won't lay eggs on the living coral tissue. I try to make sure to fill in any crack or crevice where I can't reach or see.

 

[jamesbaur13]

gotcha, thanks.. will try that.

 

[REEF SMAC]

I was able to beat them by simply toothbrushing the underside of each piece of monti that I had every other day for several weeks. Just to scrub off the eggs. Kill any adults you see with a toothpick.
Eventually the adults will just stop appearing.
You are actually lucky your plates are still removeable without too much damage.
I like to superglue them to a plug so they are easier to handle.
Just make sure you fill any and all gaps where the plate meets the plug. That's where they hide and lay eggs.

All that dipping is probably more stress/effort than its worth IME.
The adults survived the dip you gave them before you initially introduced them to your tank didn't they? The eggs definately do.

Just be diligent and you will beat them. You just have to break the hatch out cycle.

You'll apreciate your new QT a lot more in the future.

 

[jamesbaur13]

I'll try scrubbing them too... btw, that is one chubby looking PBT (no offense of course).