Need help with Zoa Eating Nudi's

[DracoKat]

For over a year I've been battling these guys. I pluck when I see them, I take the eggs off when I see them. I have several wrasses (Hoeven, leopard, yellow coris, flame, pylei). I take the colony out and dip when I can.. but some are just too big for me to take out and dip and inspect.

I dipped my rasta colony that was closed up, it was about 4" colony and about 6 nudi's fell off. some were rather large which makes me think the wrasses aren't doing their jobs well.

Can some one give me ideas on what I can do to get rid of these guys once and for all?

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

The only other thing I've seen people say is to dip the entire rock.

 

[DracoKat]

I can't in this case, some of the rocks are too big and attached to my structure. I can't remove it without dismantling the entire tank.

 

[leahfiish]

Dip all of the zoas every other day. Keep it up for like 2-3 weeks. They usually only lay eggs on zoas. But the dips don't kill the eggs so it's important to dip often to kill the juvies before they can lay eggs.

 

[leahfiish]

Can you frag them off of those main rocks? how many of your zoas are on the large rocks?

 

[ksfulk]

Here's is the thread I read and followed to eradicate my zoa nudis. Follow the direction inside and it should take care of things for you

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-eradicate-zoa-eating-nudibranch.225859/

 

[DracoKat]

The rocks are pretty much covered. I can’t frag them off without removing the rocks and I can’t remove them

I’m trying to avoid chemicals like flatworm exit. I have it but hesitant on using it- I don’t want to damage the other inverts I have that are good.

I’m teetering on the idea of a 6-line but I know they can get really mean

 

[BoomCorals]

The rocks are pretty much covered. I can’t frag them off without removing the rocks and I can’t remove them

I’m trying to avoid chemicals like flatworm exit. I have it but hesitant on using it- I don’t want to damage the other inverts I have that are good.

I’m teetering on the idea of a 6-line but I know they can get really mean

Don’t get the six line. The only way you are going to beat this is dipping it all. Otherwise the best you can do is just try to keep managing it until you can’t anymore.

 

[DracoKat]

Thanks all for the suggestions

I will dip the rocks and colonies that I can and keep plucking from the larger rocks and keep going.

Was hoping there’s a way I missed

 

[leahfiish]

Do you have pictures?
Another option is sacrificing the large rocks to save the frags. Move the frags into another tank, dip them often until you're confident that they are gone, and wait until the zoas that are left in the display are all eaten and the nudis starve. Depending on how many zoas are on the larger rocks and what kind, this may or may not be worth it.

 

[leahfiish]

And +1 on no six line. Yellow coris and melanarus wrasses are the best pest eaters that I've found. I think zoa eating nudis might have toxins in them that make them less appetizing, though that is just speculation.

 

[kashman100]

I had success plucking them off a couple hours after the lights are off using a coral flashlight. Made them easier to see. Did it every night for 3 weeks and finally stopped seeing them.

 

[dougers31]

I got rid of some zoa eating nudis a few years back by dipping all my zoas in a peroxide mix... kills'em dead pretty quick. Took a few repeated dips but after a few weeks they were gone.

 

[DracoKat]

I'd say 25% of the tank is all zoas in my 75g tank. Most are on bottom half of the rock structures.

Thank you everyone I'll continue to pluck and dip. I did get lazy for a while because I didn't see any and the zoas seemed happy for a few months. Just recently saw my rastas closed up with the nudi's on them.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

And +1 on no six line. Yellow coris and melanarus wrasses are the best pest eaters that I've found. I think zoa eating nudis might have toxins in them that make them less appetizing, though that is just speculation.

Nudibranchs usually retain the toxins they consume from their hosts. In some cases, they'll actually transfer the stinging cells from their prey to their external gills as protection from predators. It wouldn't surprise me if zoa nudis either did that or retained palytoxin as a defense mechanism...

 

[Bunnee911]

I used a double dose of flat worm exit. Then kept the dt fallow of zoas for 90 days. Qt your zoas and dip them 2 or 3 times a week until clean.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

tank you