Acclimating monti frag, saw a nudi :(

[chrisstie]

I haven't put this coral in my system yet, phew!!

I have been reading the threads about these and it seems like theresv ery little one can do successfully time and again to get rid of these other than pick them off?

I am going to start the surgical process of removing any nudi I can find and removing it before that frag goes in the tank.

Anything else I should know or try before I go ahead?

[wentreefgirl]

You need to look close for eggs also. That sucks. Hope you have luck.

[chrisstie]

Well, without much of a fast reply and relying on my instinct and reading done here my plan of action was to manually pick off what I could. i then used maybe 60 seconds of swishing in a dilute kent lugols solution (My zoos seemed to survive but sps seem more fragile in that special.. sps sort of way)

I removed about 2-3 .. sorta grabbed and squeezed with tweezers.. some smushed in half..hope they dont clone themselves! (can they?)

A few little amphipods or what not came off and little mysid looking things instantly croakd but no sign of nudis.

Went out tonight, came home with lights off and plucked another 2 or so as best I could juggling a flash light. I suspect more will appear - What happens if they get swooped up and free float with the flow in your tank ? I only have 2 monti frags but want to protect them!!!!


Also what does long stringy gooey stuff on sps mean? stress? hunger? I also noticed tiny spaghetti worms living in my monti cap frag.

here's my new one
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/370259584_44ab77aef0.jpg

[REEF-DADDY]

The stringy stuff is slime, its how the coral protects itself

[mpoletti]

The small V shaped worms are OK as well. Did you scrub the frag with a toothbush for eggs?

[highquality]

Well first thing is break it off that bali mount. throw it out. Your gonna want to lightly brush the underside of the cap with a soft tooth brush for eggs. Lugols will only make them loosen up where you can blow them off or swish them off.

[highquality]

Duh ! didnt read that last post there of marko ,s . It wood be best to keep it out and moniter it for a few weeks. I think i read the life cycle for the eggs are like two weeks maybe. if you put it in too early and introduce them to your tank, they have been know to survive for up to two months without a food source.

[wentreefgirl]

Gosh chrisstie, I hope you got them all. What other montis do you have in there. Was this pic after the dip or before? I see something fuzzy on the lower right. Yup, forgot last night about snapping the base off.

[chrisstie]

That thing on the lower right is a deadish piece of coralline. I will be casing this thing over and over again.

I will have to go back into the monti nudi threads and see what eggs look like. All I could see on the underside of it was a pale color that looked like the underside of the coral.

I am sooo new to SPS so please forgive me but how does one safely snap it off the base? It feels like it would be so brittle to the touch.. and why do we do that?

The other monti I have is what the consensus has settled on being a digitata

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/134/353265974_af11a5d6e8.jpg



And if you snap them off their bases then what? they are sorta encrusted onto it... then can i just epoxy them down where they are? Right now the bases are kind of a counter balance to keep them sitting up on top of the rocks haha

[wentreefgirl]

That one is gorgious. And how hard is that one going to be to rid them in between the branches. Well, ya, the cap may break off but then it looks like a more solid cap so perhaps not. I have a supply of tools that one normally use for repairs around the house that help with my stuff. Although never had a reason to snap off a base of the frag, and only had one like that but its not that hard. I have latex gloves i use to touch them because the acid in your finger will burn them. Hold with one hand and plyers of some sort with the other and gently work back and forth to snap it off. Otherwise too many nooks and craneys to have eggs laid in waiting to attack again. Without the base you have a better chance of ridding them.

[chrisstie]

Ahhhh wow okay I see now. So the idea is to make sure they aren't all snuggled up together underneath like my amphipods do under my zoo frags.

That is good to know about how they react to skin, too I have some gloves leftover from when i got my rock uncured I will use those and see waht I can do and keep my fingers crossed theres nothing in wait for me.

There is another little crab in this one too. I got rid of the crab in the green one but darnit they are sneaky and tricky. Maybe I will have to consider getting my SPS from this particular store and will let the seller know his tanks have this crap in it.

[wentreefgirl]

The crab might have been a good crab. You need to look for ones that are hairy and with blue eyes. Not always have both. BUt thats how you tell whether they are good or not. They have a husband and wife relationship with the coral. And they also might clean the coral of nudis too. When you find a crab in the coral, you need so ascess whether they are good or bad before you toss them. And then I would just put them in my sump. You dont have to dump the lfs yet. But when you go to buy corals, always assume they have some pest or another and look carefully before you buy. Even after their bagged up, look close before you leave the store. Most likely youll see the preditors before you leave. And then educate them. Believe it or not there are still lfs and online people who dont know about preditors. I just helped 2 ebayers with red bugs. One didnt even know what one was. :(. And the pics online were like woooooooooooooooo. Anyway, enough babble. Keep me posted in your progress.

[chrisstie]

I did put the crab in my sump. I have to go to a wedding but when i get back later ill try to find him and take a pic. He has hairy legs but not blue eyes. kind of black and white. i'd love that crab if it ate nudis haha

I DID look real hard at this coral in the LFs but didn't see anything but when i was acclimating it to my water i had it in kind of a dark place and they came out then...

This particular LFS i went to is like #2 on my list.. its not my absolute favorite but its on the way home from school and the guy owns 2 stores and really makes a lot of $$$ .. He knows what hes'd oing but he may not even be aware that he has these things in his tank. I think in the future as far as SPS go I will look to my #1 store that gets al ot of nice ORA stuff that I would probably have a better chance with - not saying everything is perfect, but they take a lot more time to keep their corals, qt stuff, etc etc before they will let them sell.


Thanks for the tips! I will let you know how it goes and get a pic of Mr. McCrabster

[wentreefgirl]

Cool, will wait for pic. It doesnt sound like were off to a good crab with the hair though but we shall see.

[highquality]

I read that one egg laying adult will lay 100 eggs all around in some incredibly short period of time. You can easily overlook a small monti while staring right at it. you can imagine how hard it is to see eggs. the corals look great tho. Im sure you will handle it if ya keep at it.

[chrisstie]

So far i've been removing about 1 nudi per day. This weekend I will get the gloves on and prepare to take it off of its base. im so scared!

[chrisstie]

Well, I tried to rock it off the base but it was stuck on. With some ingenuity, a hammer and flathead screwdriver and my own two hands i managed to break it into a few pieces. I am going ot leave a big chunk on the base for now and let it heal after my molestation.

Other 2-3 x 1 inch size frags I de-nudied and have placed them on my rockwork in hopes they will do well and maybe start to encrust my own rock.

The larger chunk I will give time to heal and go at it again eventually.

No such luck on my green monti.. its so branchy i just knock the nubs off. I'm thinking dremmel and leave part of its base on the plug?

[wentreefgirl]

Sounds very productive. A dremmel will do. I wouldnt want it to encrust until you get all the nudis under control as you wont be able to look underneith.