I currently have 5 varieties of Plating Montis, 4 varieties of digitatas, and a fairly large orange whirling monti. Some of these are fairly large, but I also have quite a few frags of some of them. Pulling them all out would be a nightmare, and I'm sure I'd end up reducing them to ruble since most are glued to or already encrusted onto large rocks.
As of right now, a digitata and my larger whirling monti are the only two that I've actually observed the on. I first noticed them on the digitata as it is closer to the top and the front of the tank. It was a frag where the "branches" had become fused and formed a somewhat large irregular shaped chunk. Because of this, I attached it to the rocks laying sort of flat, so that hopefully some of the branches would start to grow out on their own and resemble a normal digitata, again.
It lies, in such a way, that the frag is lying almost flat against the rock with only a narrow crevice between it and the rock. Doing so, has apparently allowed them to "hide" and proliferate under the leading edge. Apparently, this is very attractive to the nudis. :blown:
None of the other digitata frags were attached in such a way that presented such an ideal location for them to set up "camp". This is why, I believe, that I haven't yet noticed them on my other digitatas. There just isn't as easy a place to hide, since the "branch" on the others is attached at a more perpendicular angle to the rock and not creating such an attractive hideout.
I have been pulling the occasional nudi from this digitata for a month or two, not really knowing what I'm dealing with. A few years ago, I found a much larger predatory nudi on some starpolyps and assumed that any hairy-looking nudi was probably not desireable.
So far, they've been attaking the same small area of this frag, so locating them hasn't been a problem. By the way, does dismembering them create assexual reproduction or do they die if they've been "scraped" to death? Anybody know?
Unfortunately, it seems that complete irradication may not be possible if you can't remove all your montis from your system, however, could the introduction of enough predators keep them in check enough for your corals to survive? I know this isn't ideal, but under the circumstances it is seeming like a better and better option.
I added my six-line wrasse from another tank last night. He is a real scavenger in the other tank and is always looking through every nook and cranny for something "alive" to munch on. Poor guy, he wiped out every bristleworm and copepod from that 42g Hex months ago but still continues his endless seek and destroy mission, hoping beyond hope that he somehow "missed" one. :uzi: I just hope that he notices the nudis instead of all the copepods and bristleworms in the much larger system. Somehow, I doubt it though, but I'm gonna try it anyhow.
So far, I've "read", that people have tried introducing the following potential "nudi predators" to their systems:
1. Yellow Cori Wrasse
2. Radiant Wrasse
3. Red/Blue leg hermits
4. Six-line Wrasse
5. ?
Did I miss any potential predators?
Also, does anyone know whether or not a yellow cori wrasse will co-exist with a six-line in a 150g?
Is anyone worried about introducing
ICH with any additions of predators to their tank? I hope you aren't just dumping these fish into your tanks without qt'ing them for this dreaded beast, because IMO it just as much a pain for your fish as nudis are for montis. I enjoy my fish just as much as the corals. I don't want to lose either one. Unfortuantely, that may not be the case.
In addition, I decide to FW dip(15 sec as recommended in a previous article) the larger whirling monti last night, because I just couldn't seem to be able to remove or access them in all of its little crevices. This morning it was still a pale orange but showing significant slophing of mucous. Only time will tell if it'll pull through. Has anyone else tried this drastic measure? Any success?
Keep up the good fight-Mike
