zoa nudi's????

[CUZ]

noticed over the last few days the odd colony closing for the day but they always seemed to re-open the following day with a different colony closing up after that?? well today i found a green nudi tickin off a smaller colony and plucked him out!! I'm going to peek in with a flashlight tonight after lights out to see what i can find in regards to any more, I'm going to assume there's a bunch as i havn't added anything new to the tank for at least 2 months.
curious if anyones erradicated them with success?? dipping would suck as alot of these zoa colonies cover huge rocks and would require a 5 gallon pail for treatment as well a few other rocks have sps on the top side. I've heard of using flat worm exit but would need to dismantle the tank to remove all snails, crabs, shrimp.
heard wrasses are hit or miss, mostly miss.
open for any help please!!!

[tahoe61]

Nudibranchs tend to stay next to their food source, and resemble the coral they eat.

Dipping and manual removal seem to be the only effective tx.

Yours looks like a zonathid so I would error on the side of caution.

[MikeandNicole]

Give the colony a very short (10secs) fresh water dip (appropriate PH) and hit them with a turkey baster. They can devastate zoa colonies if they are in your tank. Revive can also knock them off just hit them with a powerhead or baster. Good luck.

[CUZ]

i'm going to fight it manually unless it looks to bad tonight after lights out.
dipping although sounds effective would mean 20-30 colonies some with other lps as well as sps attatched to the same rock.

so if a colony appears to be happy for awhile, likely theres no nudi's on it? they should only be on colonies that are closed or stressed for a starting point right?

[CUZ]

http://www.practicalcoralfarming.com/zoonudis.html

any thoughts??

[lurchw00t]

Definetly look like zoa eating nudis.

There are a couple different methods you can shoot for.

One would be treating your tank with a 4x dose once a week for 3-4 weeks to kill the nudis that are alive, as well as the newly hatched eggs. Make sure you have a waterchange ready to go though.

Otherwise, FW dips and manual removal of the eggs (U or C shaped white strings on food source).

I recently dealt with zoa eating nudis (actually targeted my palys too). Definetly not fun.

[CUZ]

couldn't for the life of me find any coral dip chemical today at all so my fight will have to be delayed till the fedex brings my order. Did pick up a 6-line wrasse to help things along hopefully but he's got to do his 2 weeks in qt before even trying it!

[MUCHO REEF]

noticed over the last few days the odd colony closing for the day but they always seemed to re-open the following day with a different colony closing up after that?? well today i found a green nudi tickin off a smaller colony and plucked him out!! I'm going to peek in with a flashlight tonight after lights out to see what i can find in regards to any more, I'm going to assume there's a bunch as i havn't added anything new to the tank for at least 2 months.
curious if anyones erradicated them with success?? dipping would suck as alot of these zoa colonies cover huge rocks and would require a 5 gallon pail for treatment as well a few other rocks have sps on the top side. I've heard of using flat worm exit but would need to dismantle the tank to remove all snails, crabs, shrimp.
heard wrasses are hit or miss, mostly miss.
open for any help please!!!

So sorry to hear about the infestation you have. Many of us have been there and it isn't a pretty sight but you can defeat them. But there's one thing you must know, if you are going to rely on manual removal only, you will never defeat them. I don't care how many you catch, there are many more you won't catch or see. Nudis are primarily found in or around a food source, true. But nudis can be found any and everywhere else in your tank, on the glass, crawling over a rock to get to the next frag or colony, in a rock crevice etc etc etc.

You must take a 3 point offense or you will only catch adults. ( 1. ) Fresh water dipping or using one of the chemical dips on the market which I have never tried. If using the fresh water dip detailed in the dip below in the link, you can dip them every 3 or 4 days. Every rock with polyps in your tank has to be dipped. ( 2. ) Manual removal of adults and juvi nudis with a turkey baster at first light in the morning, during the day, in the evening and even after dark. ( 3. ) Removal of any and all egg sacks which can hold anywhere from 60 to 70 babies just waiting to hatch and do some damage. If you run your actinics only, they will highlight the egg sacks for easy spotting and removal ( see the links ).

Read as much of the Zoo Dip thread as possible as I updated it somewhere in the middle. You can use 6 or 7 drops of lugols if you wish, it is safe. Primarily you are relying on the osmosis shock of the fresh water uptake to kill the nudis. The FWE will also help kill some types of nudis, but it is not affective on all types of nudis even at double or triple strenght.

Even when you think you are nudi free, there could still be nudis in your tank. You must make it a habit to visually check your tank several times a day. The best time to catch them is early in the morning. Once your lights click on, they will scurry for cover so you've got to be quick to extract them before they reach cover. Look for the colonies which have obvious retracted polyps and suck those out first. The 1/16" curly white egg sacks can be found just about anywhere, on the glass and most often on the crown of a retracted polyp or all the way down to the base of the polyp and anywhere in between. A few hours after your tank is completely dark, you can go in and flick your lights on and you will most likely catch some on the glass laying eggs or even on or around the colonies or frags.

Don't give up my friend, you can beat them, but you must be diligent.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1167318&highlight=mucho+nudis

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=451720&highlight=mucho+nudis

Try to remain proactive in keeping them out of your tank by QTing and dipping everything before it enters. May the force be with you. Good luck.


Mucho Reef

[fishoutofwater]

bad nudis for sure. I had an outbreak myself and if you see one there are 24 more behind it. they lay eggs in a circle on the side of the zoas so you need to check each zoa. very time consuming. yes dipping is a must for everything that enters your tank. I use an iodine solution and have used melafix. both work great. I also use the kent marine feeding squirt to suck them out of the tank. work great. good luck you have a long road ahead of you.

[CUZ]

excellent advise all!!

mucho, thanks for the links and the reading material!! I don't know how i missed those searching!!
i"m going to start the battle tomorrow!!

still 2 days after seeing the nudi I have yet to see another morning or night with lights out and a flashlight, and none of my zoas are closed or irritated?? I'm not fooled into thinkin it was only 1 but was planning to start with any stressed out colonies 1st.

[MUCHO REEF]

I guess I should have asked, did you recently purchase any new polyps just prior to finding the nudi? If so, and there were only a few on the rock that you JUST purchased, there may be a small chance that you dodged a bullet and only have a small few of them. In that case I would jump on it really hard today as they multiply rapidly. Double dosing the tank alone with FWE at double strenght will kill some but not all nudis. Be ready with a well aerated water change afterwards as you don't know how bad the infestation is.

I think I recall there is a new product out there to kill them, just not sure of the name, maybe someone else can weigh in.

Maybe start with dosing, then random rock removal or only those with retraction polyps. Good luck mate.

Mucho Reef

[EasyEd77]

I had the same problem with zoa eating nudi's. First, I did an RO Lungols dip for 5 minutes with most of my colonies. Next, I purchased a small yellow coris wrasse. It finished off the remaining nudi's in about a week. My colonies have been open and healthy ever since and has been a couple of months.

[MUCHO REEF]

Thanks Easy, glad you whipped them buddy. What you did is exactly what's detailed in those 2 links above and further proof that it does work.

Mooch

[CUZ]

nothing has been added to my dt for 1 month so my concern lies with eggs mostly. I dipped close to 30 pieces today and only found 1 nudi and 2 small pieces did have eggs. I used a dental pick to examine each polyp closely. I used revive along with ro for dips ranging 6-7 minutes.
my battle with dips is only a quarter done, theres still alot in the dt that need to go through it.
I'm confident in dipping and hunting eggs now but my main concern is any eggs left in rock work ect, is it wise to dip all rock? is it possible to see eggs on rockwork?
I can set up multiple tanks to house my zoas/palys but how long should they stay out to beat the life cycle of nudis without food?

[CUZ]

bump for rockwork ???'s please