Montipora Eating Nudibranchs

[Keith Le]

A friend of mine (not me, thank god) has these little nudibranchs that resemble tiny piles of rice. They seem to favor Montipora Digitata and Cap, as the majority of them are on these montis. We've been dipping in a lugols solution followed by a brief freshwater dip. My questions are....

1) Aside from Bentadine or a Lugols dip (lugols doesn't kill eggs?) is their any other treatment?

2) Are these in fact Nudibranchs or are these Flatworms (they aren't flat)?

3) If they can't be killed will they start eating other SPS or LPS when the Monti is gone?

Thanks
-K

 

[funman1]

Are they Rice Snails?
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1139196&highlight=rice

 

[Keith Le]

Rice snails? Are those Pyrams? Pyrams eat Tridacnid clams, right? What my buddy has does not have shells, they look very similar to Berghia(sp?) nudibranchs but they are all white. Thanks
-K

 

[nasotang]

If they're mainly on the underside of montis and you can see tissue death on the corlas, then most likely they're monti eating nudis. A picture would help to identify them.

I got these a few years back and I think the only way to really get rid of them was to manually syphon them off the caps. Scrub the backs with a soft tooth brush to get rid of eggs. Iodine dips kills the adults but does nothing to the eggs. This will help cut them back, but the best way is to qt the corals and do the manual removal for a few weeks. That's what worked for me, and I always look for those on new corals.

I've heard that some wrasses will eat them but never saw mine picking at them. They're a pain to get rid of.

good luck.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Is the tissue of the montiporas gone? It should be very visible as white. If so I would definitely suspect nudibranchs, if not, I wouldn't immediately, probably would pull one out with a syringe (suck it up by pulling cylinder out) and look at it with a magnifying glass.

1) Lugols and the like will only stun the adults, if you make it concentrated enough to kill them out right you'll probably do harm to your monti, nothing kills the eggs.

2) Can't tell without a picture Here's a couple of ones I managed to suck up, if you look under a magnifying glass they are very visible, however if you look at them with a naked eye.. assuming your eyesight isn't too bad you should be able to see a tad more detail than "grains of rice"

3) If they are monti nudibranchs, they'll only eat montipora species

 

[acrodesi]

Get a six line wrasse,
Those parasite wil be gone.
I had them in my tank, try all kingd of stuff but never completely got rid of them.
Unil I bough 2 six line wrasse

 

[Sparkss]

aside from any wrasses being hit and miss with motni nudis, you couldn't pay me to put a 6-line into our tank If you really want to go the natural predator route I would look into one of the Halichoeres species (chrysus and ornatissimus are our preferred for pest control and temprament).

 

[neyugn0w01]

Frag what you can before it is to late.

 

[Keith Le]

Yeah, "piles of rice" did kind of suck as a description but the pics you guys posted are an exact match. Brush, siphon, lugols and try a wrasse. Sounds like as good of a battle plan as any. I hope I don't end up with any of those things. Thanks!
-K

 

[nashorn]

Super glue them and there eggs to the rock. That worked for me, 2 months nudi free Ming at Atlantis told me that and it works.Just keep check for them under the moti if you can get it out. I have a 6line and it doesn't seem to go for them.

 

[stubbsz]

I have a badly bleached monti. I think it's Temp problems and/or Mag levels (got my mg kit today so I'll cross that off the list soon)

However, I'm nervous now. I've had red-bug in the past and it took me forever to be able to find a red-bug , they're so darn small.

Are the monti-eating-nudis a size that I will be able to see them on the monti underside... I tried looking with a glass but couldn't see anything..... I'd like to cross m-e-nudis off the list please.

-Adrian

 

[nasotang]

They range in size but you can normally see them just by eye. If you check out the pictures Mike posted, these nudis have cerata that stick out. If you have problems seeing them, try waving the coral in your tank water, the cerata will wave around.

-hopefully you don't have them.