So, I did a potassium permanganate dip

[Lotus99]

Yesterday morning as the lights came on, I was looking at a newish zoa rock. I had picked off a couple of nudis before, but apparently eggs had hatched, and I saw at least four baby nudis on the colony.

I came on here, read a little about a potassium permanganate dip, and decided to do one.

Having done potassium permanganate dips on freshwater plants to kill snail eggs, I figured I'd be OK if I did a similar concentration. I had no idea how to measure what I use (liquid form) versus the grams mentioned in the article. Sooooo... I made up a dark pink dip with tankwater and potassium permanganate. I left the rock in the dip for 30 minutes. Then, I put the rock in plain tankwater for a few minutes, and did the "shake twist" to get off any dead (or dying) nudis. I saw at least 5 dead ones in the bucket.

A few of the zoas opened after about an hour. 36 hours later, most of the zoas are opening halfway. I'm hoping tomorrow the colony will be nudi-free and they'll all be open.

I'll update, I hope with good news.

 

[capture]

Good luck Lotus and thanks for sharing the info. I've been trying to comment all day and have been busy.

Let us know how this goes for you. Do you think this will preemptively take care of nudi eggs? Did you physically look and/or remove any eggs?

 

[Lotus99]

Well, most of the colony is now partially open. So, I guess that's a good sign, so far. Some of them are fully open.

I think I did see some eggs when I first got the colony. Of course, I should have done something then.

It's a small rock with many small zoas on it, so it's almost impossible to see eggs or to check everywhere on the colony. I guess I'll keep looking for nudis or eggs over the next few weeks.

I saw the nudis out on Saturday morning. I'm normally at work when the tank lights come on, and I think that's the moment to catch the nudis at play. I never seem to really see them at night.

As long as I didn't kill the colony, I'll be happy.

 

[flyyyguy]

Nice. keep us posted.

Could you maybe be more specific on how much exactly you used of the kind you used??

 

[Lotus99]

I used a 3.84% solution of potassium permanganate. I got it under the brand name Kordon Permoxyn. There's a good writeup on Marine Depot about its properties/uses: http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idproduct~NV32411.html

Of course, it says only for freshwater aquaria.

I used approximately 5 drops in about half a gallon of tank water (salt, obviously). I left the rock in there for 30 mins.

So far, it hasn't killed my zoas... now to see if it killed all the nudis.

 

[capture]

Out of curiosity and for others on the site, I wonder why you didn't just decide to remove them manually?
Were your zoas that infested there were too many to remove by hand?

The reason I asked about the eggs in my first response was to hopefully find out whether or not this is a cure all for nudis. I think of lice hearing about this; you want to kill the living, already hatched creatures as much as you want to kill the eggs so as not to get another outbreak.

Just fill us in as this comes along.

 

[Lotus99]

Well, I saw at least four babies, and figured if I saw four, there must be at least a dozen.

The babies were tiny, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to remove them all manually. Even when I've removed adults, I've messed up and had to have a net standing by to catch them.

 

[Lotus99]

Update: A month later, no nudis, zoas doing great.

I'll definitely do this again if I see a nudibranch problem in my zoas.

 

[capture]

Great to hear this worked out for you!