Monti eating nudi question

Chameleon · Jul 11, 2012

Hey yall
I traded some frags with a local reefer and friend yesterday. Today I noticed the sunset monti wasnt extending polyps all over and was reminiscent of when I had monti eating nudibranches so I inspected it closely and found 3 adult nudis on it. I took it straight to some dip and will probably dip it for the next couple of days every other day or so. Do yall think I should expect an outbreak of nudis again after having an infested frag in the tank for 24hrs or do you think I may have got lucky and caught it in time. Last time I lost two large monti colonies before I even realized what was killing them, but this time I am prepared so don't expect any loses to montis from nudis but maybe from dips. Should I start dipping all montis to be safe or do yall think I'm good. You better believe I am going to be scrutinizing them all for the upcoming weeks as my last experience was less than optimal.
Thanks
Cham

Daimyo68 · Jul 11, 2012

Been in your shoes. I had the frag in my system for 24 hours and seen the same things. Removed it permanently. 4 months later I was infested. Removed all monti's and qt'd for 3 months, lost 2 out of 6.

Point, if the monti saw any type of flow across it, it's possible that even just 1 got blown off and is now in the system, and the possibility of eggs being that they were adults as you mentioned.. If you have the ability to check the entire coral/s, do so on a daily basis.

Do you have any wrasses in your tank? Some wrasses are known to eat them, I keep a Yellow Coris for this reason.

Troylee · Jul 12, 2012

Dip and quarantine.... "can't stress this enough!!!" only cure I have ever heard of for monti eating nudis is tossing all your monties.... :cry:

Aquaph8 · Jul 12, 2012

I agree with Lee, I learned this lesson the hard way.

Kbra · Jul 12, 2012

Agree with Lee. Never heard of a dip that works though so not sure how much that would have prevented but quarantine and close inspection. Are you able to easily remove your tanks montis or are they well incrusted?

Chameleon · Jul 12, 2012

Daimyo68 said:
Been in your shoes. I had the frag in my system for 24 hours and seen the same things. Removed it permanently. 4 months later I was infested. Removed all monti's and qt'd for 3 months, lost 2 out of 6.

Point, if the monti saw any type of flow across it, it's possible that even just 1 got blown off and is now in the system, and the possibility of eggs being that they were adults as you mentioned.. If you have the ability to check the entire coral/s, do so on a daily basis.

Do you have any wrasses in your tank? Some wrasses are known to eat them, I keep a Yellow Coris for this reason.

4 Months seems to be the time it takes to rach full blown infestation. That is what it took me last time I had a outbreak as the last monti I added was 4 months previous to the outbreak.

For wrasses I have a sixline, blue falsher, and mccosker's wrasse. Not sure if any of these will munch them, but they sure do a number on the pod population.

Being as my tank has about 75x turnover I am sure the frag saw some flow. I can only hope no montis came off, but I know the chances are slim. Well I think for now I'll quarantine the known culprit and for the rest of the montis Ill keep an eye out and treat if needed to prevent unnecessary stress.

Chameleon · Jul 12, 2012

Kbra said:
Agree with Lee. Never heard of a dip that works though so not sure how much that would have prevented but quarantine and close inspection. Are you able to easily remove your tanks montis or are they well incrusted?

Bayer insecticide works great on nudis...dead within 2 minutes. I dont even measure it I just our a bit into a liter or so of tank water and drop the montis in and in no time nudis rain off. The only problem is some of my montis are very encrusted to supporting rock so its going to be a hassle if it comes down to dipping all montis again. If it comes to that I may go montiless again for several months and fill in with some more acros.

Kbra · Jul 13, 2012

Chameleon said:
Bayer insecticide works great on nudis...dead within 2 minutes. I dont even measure it I just our a bit into a liter or so of tank water and drop the montis in and in no time nudis rain off. The only problem is some of my montis are very encrusted to supporting rock so its going to be a hassle if it comes down to dipping all montis again. If it comes to that I may go montiless again for several months and fill in with some more acros.

And that won't kill the coral? Just gotta redip for eggs hatching...

reefknight · Jul 13, 2012

What would be the time frame to leave the system fallow of montis for the nudi's to die off?

Chameleon · Jul 13, 2012

Kbra said:
And that won't kill the coral? Just gotta redip for eggs hatching...

Not in my hands it doesn't. Acros dont show any sign of stress in it. I did lose one monti but that was after repeated dis every other day for 2 weeks. I plan to redip every other to every 3 days for eggs hatching as I cant seem to spot them and remove them by eye.

Chameleon · Jul 13, 2012

reefknight said:
What would be the time frame to leave the system fallow of montis for the nudi's to die off?

Last time I did 2 months. I left my setosa in because they didn't seem to infest that one but all other montis came out and were quarantined with extensive dipping procedures for two weeks then sat in quarantine for another 6 weeks. Never spotted anther nudi so they went back in. After that I continued checking display, but never had a reoccurrence.