Montipora Nudibranch lots of questions

[castorpollux]

I have read something that levansole(?) can kill them, can i dose my whole tank with it like with interceptor?

Does it kill starfish?

How long should i treat the tank if i do treat the whole tank (because of eggs)?

Should i run carbon/polyfilter/skimmer/etc or will it deplete the medication?

How much is a decent dose for a whole tank?

Should i do multiple treatments?

Is levansole the actual medication and where can i get it (feed stores, vets)?

Will it harm any corals?

I am moving this upcoming week and want to sort it all out asap. I thought i had them undercontrol with meticulous use of superglue, but im want to nuke them. Wrasses are not an option as this is a 23g tank with a lot of rock/coral.

 

[GTR]

The only thing I found to work for me was removing all montipora from the tanks and frag every last one of them into small pieces where an inspection could be sure to see any left on the fragments. They hide in the folds of plating montipora or on the rock base of all types. After fighting them for nearly two years I'm finally rid of them. I tried less aggressive tratments only to have missed some and they would again reproduce and attack again. If I ever see signs of them in the system my first action would be to remove the infected piece and throw it away.

The treatment should take place in a QT system. Also there is no treatment to kill the eggs so repeated treatment is needed.

SteveU

 

[MiddletonMark]

Levamisole is NOT a tank-wide treatment.

It's pretty harsh on everything, coral included ... so I would read every post you can about folks experiences.

I had luck with inspection, vigilance, and tossing some frags. Heavy iodine dips, removal of eggs [after inspection] every week for a few months. They decimated my collection - I would go after them early and aggressively. I did keep a lucky 4 varieties ... but watched many more slowly get eaten, or succumb to repeated dips.

Good luck.

 

[castorpollux]

i have been battling them for nearly a year and im tired of it.

here's my plan. i am moving next week and am actually going to have the opportunity to break the whole tank down and put it back up. my thought is to put all the monti's in a bucket together for the move with a large dose of levamisole, which would provide a more than adequate dip i hope, and then toothbrush any spot where they could be hiding at while they are in the bucket, prior to returning them to the tank.

I just had a really massive breakout that i have no idea where it came from, super glue isn't going to do it this time around.

how much should i use for 5-7 gallons of water?

 

[MiddletonMark]

Check the dosage - but realize that with using this for Acro eating flatworms [levamisole] a number of people lost a fair % of dipped corals when done at the right dosage.

Given that, IMO do the research yourself. I doubt I'm alone in not wanting to suggest any `safe' dosage - as it seems folks have different experiences with this.

IMO, I would use heavy iodine dips + heavy flow. Seemed to work for me [as well as cutting/tossing the receded/bases/etc].

Just my 2 cents - but IMO there is no `non-harmful for corals, fully effective' dosage for this medication figured out ... at least not yet.

 

[castorpollux]

right, but do you have a moderate dose range? If i lose the colonies, i lose them, i will lose them either way at this point. i read it was something like 40ppm per gallon but i don't know how to test that measurement. i have had very bad luck with iodine dips in regards to montipora nudibranchs. i read that some people are doing Mg dips but i don't know how to do that either based on dosage or specifics.

 

[MiddletonMark]

This is where I got most of the info ... and while I have levamisole on the shelf [concerns over Acropora flatworms too - though inspecting for eggs has yielded none there ].
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4329451&highlight=levamisole#post4329451
It's on the shelf around here at Farm and Fleet - if you've got livestock around your county, just gotta find it.

Thought about using it, but with tossing a couple pieces that were slowly going + aggressively fragging the last few ... I saved some of my most precious Monti's.

With the tank move - it does seem like a potentially good time to do something. While a stressful time for the corals - with the tank move/disruption it gives a good opportunity too.

I dunno if you can set up a holding system in the future place for just the montipora for a while? Figure that might work in concert with anything too. Just tossing out ideas ... I love Montipora, and know where you're at It sucks.

Here's a couple more threads I know of on this topic:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=448231
[here is levamisole in particular on above thread http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4329451&highlight=levamisole#post4329451]

Folks discuss Levamisole with Acropora here:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=688833&highlight=levamisole

Keep us updated. If just to point people in the right direction, share your experience and help the next guy be more successful

 

[MiddletonMark]

Let me stop to make the point that I have exactly one anecdotal experience with this topic. [6 months of battling, mostly losing, before going to extreme measures]

Don't consider me to be highly knowledgeable on the subject - just heavily affected by these nasties, lost much of my collection of my favorite coral. I'd love to see you keep most of yours.

Get more opinions ... the more the merrier. A good number of folks have had these, some found a way to deal with them.

 

[UFreefer]

I've never tried levamisole, but from what i've seen it really stresses the corals out to their max

i've helped a friend successfully battle and rid nudis from his tank and this is what we did:

first if its a big colony like a cap, break off all of the leafs of the cap so theres nowhere for those suckers to hide
Then take a small powerhead or turkey baster and knock off all of the nudis that you can see. Finally take a tooth brush and brush all of the eggs off and if possible just brush the entire underside of the coral with the toothbrush(yeah it ****es them off but you wont lose any)

Do this every 3-4 days and you'll beat em in a month or two.

We make a big rack that fit into the tank so that it made this process less of a hassel and less time consuming

Finally get a 6line wrasse, he'll be happy as hell in your 23g tank with all of that live rock

 

[castorpollux]

i have been supergluing any eaten areas on caps/encrustings/digis and i have also been gluing the nudies/eggs, i think im going to buy a wrasse, but i dont know if i should buy a 6 line or a banana wrasse? I even read something about a dragon wrasse eating them. I intend on setting up a new tank and hopefully using the 23 as a quarantine from now on...

what about the magnesium dip? any know how to do that? i know it paralyzes inverts and does less damage to the coral but i wonder if you could combine it with lugols?