Let the Battle Begin - Monti Eating Nudis

[tvoydan]

The other day I noticed a small nudi on my frag tank glass crawling around. This was a day after 2 new monti frags were added into my frag tank. I quickly killed the little pest and hoped I would dodge a bullet on this one.

Well, reality kicked in this evening as I inspected a large monti cap frag and sure enough found some eggs on the top and 3 nudis on the underside. I quickly inspected all monti frags in the tank and plan doing so nightly for a while. Some damage is visible on a green apple monti they seemed to favor. I'm lucky that these are all frags in this tank and I can easily pick up each frag and inspect them.

Any tips on dealing with this problem? Will they stick to monti's only? Caps? Digis, undata? encrusting montis?

And recommended dips to help kill off these guys?

[dadummy]

I had them like yourself on some frags, weren't too hard to get rid of being able to take out all the montis and dip. ..Lugol's killed the adults but did not kill the eggs. Scrubbed the eggs off with a tooth brush then dipped frags twice a week for a few months. Had them again a few years later, and they were in all the montis, digi, cap, encrusting and not easy to get out of the display.

good luck

[tvoydan]

I haven't inspected the digi frags yet. Maybe I should take a look at those too.

The monti cap they infected had some clear discoloration on top that turned out to be eggs.

[tvoydan]

dadummy,

Did you get rid of them in your frag tank then?

[stevedola]

Its difficult to rid the tank when you have an investation with mature colonies. I had them in my old 75 with many monti caps, and encrusting monties...the biggest hurdle is getting the babies out of the nooks and crannies. At first the seem manageable but then after a few life cycles they become overwhelming and colonies have large white spots showing up almost every morning. Eventually they infected 80% of my monties. My lengsy, my flower pettle, sunset, superman, grape, apple etc...all dying before my eyes. I tried to dip but I eventually just went fallow of monites/digis. In retrospect I should have snaped some frags and tossed the tougher colonies that I could never get the eggs out of the crevices. I would dip the colonies on a weekly basis until there are no signs and then continue to dip a few more times. These buggers have a life cycle (cant remember how long but that info is out there ...4wks maybe) that you need to break.

[Moser]

Get a banana wrasse. They will demolish nudi's in no time. Unless you get a dud!. Lol.

Mo

[tvoydan]

Get a banana wrasse. They will demolish nudi's in no time. Unless you get a dud!. Lol.

I've been looking into a Yellow Corris Wrasse. I'll have research Banana Wrasse's.

This is a frag tank, so inspection of each coral and a dip is not out of the question. For now, I think this is the route intend to go for a least the next week or so.

Tom

[swanny]

I've been looking into a Yellow Corris Wrasse. I'll have research Banana Wrasse's.

This is a frag tank, so inspection of each coral and a dip is not out of the question. For now, I think this is the route intend to go for a least the next week or so.

Tom

Yellow coris, yellow coris, yellow coris!!! Killed my nudis off two seperate times, they are great. Just make sure you have a deep enoiugh sanbed for them to sleep at night.

[Moser]

Yellow Coris= Banana wrasse.

They can survive just fine in BB tanks too. Dip and inspect takes ages with Nudi's, but can work. Banana wrasse and no inspect is less labour intensive. :)

Mo

[tvoydan]

Well, I've been inspecting the frags each night, killing a few nudis each time. I plan a dipping session this weekend either with Bayer insecticide or Lugol's solution.

Also have a yellow coris wrasse on my list of fish to pick up. I'll have to talk to the LFS to see who has one in stock or can get one in.

Tom

[glennr1978]

+100 for the yellow coris!

[ganjero]

Yellow Coris= Banana wrasse.

They can survive just fine in BB tanks too. Dip and inspect takes ages with Nudi's, but can work. Banana wrasse and no inspect is less labour intensive. :)

Mo

Not the same, the banana wrasse gets big and can be very aggressive, juveniles look similar to the yellow coris. The yellow coris is a smaller wrasse and not as aggressive.

I haven gotten rid of monti nudis twice, once with a yellow coris and the other time with six-line wrasse.

Good Luck.

[dadummy]

dadummy,

Did you get rid of them in your frag tank then?

Once I got rid of them when I could get the frags out and dip, dip, dip. Second time I had them in the display, yellow coris wrasse could not get them all. Would look in the tank with a flashlight at night and suck them out with a turkey baster. Finally ended up cutting a few frags of each and put in frag tank. Then once again, dip, dip, dip... Turns out had AEFW in display as well, ended up cutting frags of the acros and more dipping. Took half the rock out at a time and cooked it on the porch, then the other half and started over. So what finally stuck in my thick skull is quarantine, quarantine, quarantine..lol

[tvoydan]

Picked up a yellow coris wrasse today at LFS. It swam around a few seconds and promptly buried himself in the substrate. We'll see how he works out over the next few days. Meanwhile I'll keep visually checking frags each night and start performing a dip over the weekend.