Monti Nudis -- I Was Prepared, or So I Thought

ostrow

ostrow

It's Dr. Goodluck Himself
In my last setup, I had an outbreak of montipora-eating nudibranchs. I got a radiant wrasse that immediately went to work, gorging itself on the pests until the plague was eradicated. My montiporas thrived after that until the fire.

New setup, see my gallery, loads of encrusting and plating montiporas on the right side of the tanks. I have a pair of radiant wrasses, one about 3.5", the other about 5".

A few of the corals were dying -- one went RTN, but a couple others going white. As these are encrusted on extremely large rock removal is not possible. But last night I saw the little bastages. Definitely the MENs.

What I can't figure is why these 2 radiants don't seem to go near them. I've never seen either in that tell-tale hunting mode around the montiporas.

I'm toying with the idea of not feeding the tank for a few days. I don't think my bartletts anthias will be amused by that approach.

Can anyone think of any other options at my disposal?

Thanks!
 
reefWW96 said:
banana wrasse/sixline is my guess for you
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Thanks. I've never, ever seen nor heard of a sixline touching montipora-eating nudibranchs. I'm pretty sure the banana wrasse doesn't either and isn't reef safe, unless you mean the Halichoeres chrysus, which is reef safe but hit-or-miss on the MENs.

Any experts on the MEN?
 
If you're asking for advice on natural predators of Aeolids, it's all hit or (mostly) miss. Any of the Halichoeres sp. wrasses are recommended, and are probably your best bet. It's just my opinion (and not popular on here), but I don't recommend natural predation as a good option for MEN treatment. They aren't going to eat egg masses, nudis can hide/proliferate in areas fish can't get to, and it only takes 1 to keep the population going. Unfortunately, they are a really nasty pest, especially if you have a large collection and a large system.
 
Yeah, the radiant is the best bet on natural predation, and these are the first ones I've ever seen to ignore the pests.

But with the corals so heavily encrusted on such large pieces of rock, I don't see any other choice -- fragging, scrubbing and setting up a separate tank with halide lighting for 6-8 months just isn't practical.

I wonder if anyone has tried an arrow crab?

I hear you on the eggs, but if a predator is consistently eating the hatched nudibranchs, I don't mind them being in there at all -- natural food source. Maybe my radiants will come around, though seems doubtful.
 
Trust me, I know how you feel. I had to deal with them in a 500 gal./5 tank system, that had about 100 montipora colonies/frags. I don't consider myself an expert on them, but I have tried every method from natural predation, to potassium permanganate, to repeated dips/scrubbing, and none of it was 100% effective in the long run (on this number of colonies, anyway). Ended up putting small frags of each colony in a clean system, throwing the rest in the garbage, and going monti-less for 1 year.
 
This so sad.... booberry almost all gone, blueberry on the way out, superman, sunset, danae, purple-rim cap all on the way out. Waiting for the flower petal, green, and purple caps to go.

What a plague.

I swear I could kill these 2 radiant wrasses....
 
I feel your pain, my yellow corris and lubbocks have been doing a good job on the m.e.n. in my tank. I havent seen any damage or nudis in weeks and all my montis are doing fine.
 
What about giving someone near you small frags of your Monti's and then have them give you a frag back once your system is free of the MEN's? Wouldn't that benefit both of you? provided you can ensure no MEN's are on the frags. I've never had MEN's in my tank and dont really know anything about them, but seems like a possible solution.
 
Anyone who got frags would get the nudis. Almost guaranteed.

Tpenn -- no idea for sure and not sure anyone knows. The eggs can remain viable and unhatched for a while -- somehow they detect when food is available then they hatch. So, once all montis dead, probably wait more than 6 months.

But, with 2 radiants that do not touch the pests, I probably would not do montis again, and this would be terribly sad. If I find a way to remove the radiants and try a different pair I'd probably do that, but who would take these? 99% of the reason to have them is to control these pests. They are a beautiful fish, but you want ones that will also do their job.
 
I had a lot of trouble with my larger systems as well. A few times I went montiless, tried yellow coris wrasse which helped, fw dips, separate tanks ect. In the end the only thing I got to work was pulling each piece, dipping it, killing all visible nudis, and then coating every inch of non-coral growth (plugs, rock, w/e) around it with super glue. Making sure to fill any caves/crevices. Just to get rid of any eggs I can or can't see. Luckily, from what I've seen the nudis are rather sloth like and tend to lay near where they are eating. Inspecting in a 2-3" radius around the damaged area tends to reveal any eggs.

I'm going threw it right now again on my nano. So far I've found one egg clutch that I destroyed maybe 3-4 weeks ago, since then I've seen 2 nudis each time progressively younger as I caught it, and I repeated the step. I may add a coris wrasse down the road just because I like them, but.. with a rimless it may not last long. Granted I'm not out of the weeds yet. I may wake up tomorrow and find 50 of them in my tank, but I'm very vigilant in looking for signs of new nudis, and showed my gf how to spot them as well. I'm hoping I can get rid of them this go around, I've got 2 more planned montis for my tank, and then I'm done so if I can get threw this round I hopefully should be in the clear for a long time.
 
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ostrow said:
Anyone who got frags would get the nudis. Almost guaranteed.
Click to expand...

With careful observation, and small frags, you can successfully manage this. We are back to having nice sized, healthy, nudi-free colonies 1 year from removal. This method allowed me not to "lose" a single coral. Montipora grow quickly, anyway.
 
Mammoth: I'd do that but the rock all of these montis on are enormous -- over 40lbs each and long, or else C shaped supports of my entire rock structure. So, that isn't gonna be possible unfortunately. Good idea though.

I'd be wary of asking anyone to house such frags. Identifying the nudibranchs is one thing. Identifying their eggs is a whole different proposition. It can probably be done, but it would be extremely difficult.

jd474 -- how sure are you that your system is nudi-free? Do you have any wrasses in the tank that could be controlling a small population? Curious is all...
 
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