Life cycle of the montipora eating nudi

[BlueCorn]

In my 60 gallon, shortly before taking it down, I had a battle with some montipora eating nudibranchs. By the time that I figured out what was going on I'd already lost my m. cap. I'm using some of the rock from that tank in my 180 now. Recently I added a couple of monti frags from another reefer and am, once again, loosing them to nudis.

I was under the, apparently false, impression that like berghia these guys would die out without food. Does anyone know how long that they can survive without montipora in the tank and failing that how I can have long term success in their removal?

Cheers

[TacoKing]

I just removed all my monti's last week. I figure I'm going to go a good 6-8 months with out montis. From then on i'm going to strictly QT all montis i get. No idea on the life cycle though.

[BlueCorn]

That's the basis of my question. Basically I was 4 months "monti-free" and I still have them.

[griss]

Doug, Sorry to hear about this. I have never had those nudis, so I really can't advise what to do about them. However, once you are Nudi free, let me know and I will send you a couple Monti frags;)

[mrpet]

what do they look like?
tahanks scott

[BlueCorn]

They are tiny - I'll try and get a picture this evening.

[JB NY]

Hey Doug, I'm thinking the nudis were on the new monti frags. I had them two years ago and only was able to get rid of them by chucking 90% of the colony, and checking and brushing off any on the frags. But after that, I've never had them again.

[sealife]

jb ny how long do you have to brush them off

[sxmreefer]

What people dont realize is that even when you remove the nudi (that you can see), you are not ridding yourself of the larval nudi's because nobody told you what to look for.

If you pick up your monti and see little squirmy things on it that look like baby shrimp and only kill the white/tan nudi you are leaving behind the babies. You have to take the whole colony out of the tank and rinse it off into another bowl and make sure you get into the nooks and crannies of it.

You must also get rid of the eggs that can be anywhere around a Monti cap or digi even on the rock. I also found that the larva can be free floating and in the sandbed. I checked this out myself.

So thay are hard to get rid of but get spread because people are giving away frags with the larva on them (innocently) because they dont see the actual nudi.

HTH

[sxmreefer]

I have also come to notice that the patterns of the Nudi are as such :

1. If you see one or more large (.3-.5 cm) nudi under the cap or on a digi, it is laying eggs. You will not notice the eating pattern of the nudi because they are laying eggs and the larval nudi's eat away at the underside skin. The adults stop eating and moving until they finish laying eggs and then they move on. If you are having good growth you might not notice the underside damage until it stresses the coral and shows through as white spots.

2. As the larva grow they spread out around the surrounding areas of the rock and look for other montipora (to settle and feed and grow) in order to start the cycle again. As they get bigger and take on the familiar shape and color of the adult nudi they become free floating and rest on anything they can until they find your other prized montipora corals.

3. And to my surprize, I have found larva on my acro colonies. They are not eating them but I suspect that is also how so many of us are getting them into our tanks. Because I did not have any in my tank until I started trading "acro frags" and buying wild colonies. I had not purchased a monti cap or digi for over a year.

I have rinsed my corals off with tank water and collected samples of 2 stages (larval and adult) of nudi and put them in a tank for observation with a sacrificial frag. I am trying to see how long they can last after hatching and eating all of the coral.

Can someone please also tell me what else they have observed with this pest. I may be missing somethings.

PS can someone also help me find a way to kill these bastards before I freak out. I am running out of Beer.

[lt]

I know that I have no concrete proof, but as soon as I added a 2 inch banana wrasse all of my monti eating nudis disappeared within 1 month and I battled them for over a year. I tried and tried to get rid of them before that (checking at night, breaking up the large caps) and nothing worked. I still had some smaller frags of monti left (and scraps on the rock) when suddenly they were all gone. My montis are now slowly growing back again and I have been in the clear for over 7 months now.

[imbuggin]

Originally posted by lt
I know that I have no concrete proof, but as soon as I added a 2 inch banana wrasse all of my monti eating nudis disappeared within 1 month and I battled them for over a year. I tried and tried to get rid of them before that (checking at night, breaking up the large caps) and nothing worked. I still had some smaller frags of monti left (and scraps on the rock) when suddenly they were all gone. My montis are now slowly growing back again and I have been in the clear for over 7 months now.

i have 2 yellow coris wrasses and no luck eating the sucker yet!

[sxmreefer]

I had the Corris wrasse and it did pick at my corals. While I dont discount it yet , I do think that they 'might" pick at the larval stage of the nudi's as they look very similar to pods and yound shrimp which is a staple diet. But I never did see it eat a full grown nudi.

But the coris is still a nice addition until it gets eaten by a green brittle starfish after it goes to sleep in the sandbed.... My bad :-(

[mjcarl]

Here's a few things I've learned:

The eggs hatch out in 4-5 days. There is no larval stage, they have direct devolpment. They hatch out at a relatively large size (1-2mm). It takes 3 weeks for them to be large enough to reproduce.

There are wrasses and such that will eat them, but if you have Monitporas w/ whorls, nooks and such, they will never eliminate them (though they might keep them in check).

They will eat any species of Montipora, but prefer caps and will eat them the fastest. I have also just found them eating and doing damage to Anacropora.

As far as getting rid of them, if you only have a few colonies, diligent manual removal can work. If your working w/ alot of colonies, chemical baths might be your best bet. Lugol's iodine at 5ml/L for a 3 minute dip will kill them and will effect hatch rate of eggs. Another promising drug is Levamisole. Levamisole at 20ppm for a 24 hour bath will kill them and reduce the hatch rate of eggs.

I'm right in the middle of a study on these guys and will hopefully be able to answer how long they can live w/out a host and other questions soon.

Mitch
Omaha Zoo

[North Bay 101]

It took me months and months to rid my tank of these buggers. I went on nightly "flashlight patrol" to get rid of them. I used a toothpick to kill them and haven't seen any for 1.5 to 2 months. I had to make all of my montiporas available to be removed from the tank. This way I was able to look on all sides of the monti. I lost several pieces that I will not be able to replace - pink monti, blue denea with red polyps and lavender monti with dark purple polyps. I feel that I have been very lucky getting rid of these and all of my pieces are still able to be removed from the tank. Good luck getting rid of them and you can do it. Here is a picture of mine:

http://www.qrp.net/fish/nudi1.jpg

[Thales]

Originally posted by mjcarl

There are wrasses and such that will eat them, but if you have Monitporas w/ whorls, nooks and such, they will never eliminate them (though they might keep them in check).

Hi Mitch!

What species of wrasses have you found to eat the nudis?

[mjcarl]

<What species of wrasses have you found to eat the nudis?

There are a few species which I believe eat them, and a few species I know eat them. Pseudocheilinus sp. and Coris sp. wrasses are ones that I'm pretty sure eat them. In a few tanks w/ these wrasses the nudibranchs numbers are always very low. The Thalassoma sp. I know eat them from a study done by a student out in Hawaii. He found the Saddleback wrasse and Chaetodon auriga would readily eat the nudi that preys on Porites. He also found a variety of inverts (crabs and such) would also eat them. I have the paper if your interested in viewing it.

Mitch

[imbuggin]

i am fairly certain I got the monti nudi's from an acro frag! I had not added a monti to my tank in 1.5 years and all of a sudden I got them. The only things added were a FEW acro frags!

My huge monti caps are now a memory

[Thales]

Originally posted by mjcarl
<What species of wrasses have you found to eat the nudis?

There are a few species which I believe eat them, and a few species I know eat them. Pseudocheilinus sp. and Coris sp. wrasses are ones that I'm pretty sure eat them. In a few tanks w/ these wrasses the nudibranchs numbers are always very low. The Thalassoma sp. I know eat them from a study done by a student out in Hawaii. He found the Saddleback wrasse and Chaetodon auriga would readily eat the nudi that preys on Porites. He also found a variety of inverts (crabs and such) would also eat them. I have the paper if your interested in viewing it.

Mitch

Thanks Mitch! I would be very interested in reading the paper.

RR

[sxmreefer]

Mitch,

I would like to read your paper also.

Thanks

Please email to [email protected]

[daveandcole]

I wonder if these guys have voltage gated sodium channels.
Apparently they dont have gaba receptors.

[mjcarl]

Here is the abstract from the paper I was talking about. If you want to see the whole thing, I would have to fax it to you. The abstract pretty much sums up the whole thing.

Here is the publication: Gochfeld, D.J. and G.S. Aeby, 1997. Control of
populations of the
coral-feeding nudibranch Phestilla sibogae by fish and crustacean
predators.. Mar. Biol. 130(1):63-69.

Abstract The aeolid nudibranch Phestilla sibogae (Bergh) is a specialist
predator on corals of the genus Porites. Predation by this gregarious
nudibranch causes extensive damage, ultimately mortal, to colonies of
Porites compressa (Dana) kept in laboratory tanks at the Hawaii Institute
of Marine Biology. In contrast, individuals of Phestilla sibogae are seldom
found on Hawaiian reefs, even in areas of high coral cover by Porites spp.,
and evidence of predation by Phestilla sibogae, such as feeding scars on
corals, is rarely encountered. We tested the hypothesis that predation by
coral reef fishes and crustaceans on P. sibogae is an important factor
controlling populations of this nudibranch under natural reef conditions.
Survival of nudibranchs was determined in the presence and absence of two
species of reef fishes, a carnivorous wrasse, Thalassoma duperrey (Quoy and
Gaimard), and an omnivorous butterflyfish, Chaetodon auriga (Forsskål).
Both species significantly reduced survival of P. sibogae. T. duperrey was
a more efficient predator on large (1.5 to 3.0 cm length) than on small
(0.7 to 1.4 cm length) nudibranchs, while C. auriga fed equally effectively
on both size classes. These differences may be related to foraging behavior
of the fish. Four species of crustaceans were found in abundance within
colonies of Porites compressa, and fed readily on small nudibranchs. The
largest and most abundant of these species, the xanthid crab Phymodius
monticulosus, also consumed large nudibranchs. This combination of
predation by fishes outside the coral colony and by crustaceans inside the
coral colony may control populations of Phestilla sibogae. At low
population densities, P. sibogae does not inflict excessive damage on its
coral prey. In the absence of predators, P. sibogae populations have the
potential to explode, resulting in extensive damage and mortality of coral
colonies.

[bean3178]

I have some experience with nudibranch's eating my zoo's, but not montipora, so not sure if this will help.

I'm dealing with a nudibranch infestation on my zoo's. I found another thread here that said to fresh water dip the zoos for about 5 minutes and then shake moderately (and dip up and down) for about 1 - 1.5 minutes. Tons of nudibranch's fall of the zoo. I've so far done this twice, as well as picked off every nudibranch that I saw. I haven't seen any more, but I'm going to continue this process every 2 days for about another 1 - 2 weeks. My zoo's look fine and are all open again.

[sxmreefer]

Do not fresh water dip your Montipora. It causes them to loose their zoox and immediately stresses the coral. Zoos are totally different from montipora. I really wish it was that simple.

But thanks for the input.

[bean3178]

Thanks. I don't have any montipora yet, but that's great to know.

[stoelton]

step 1 remove all monti's from your display tank to dip them in the following solutions

dip #1 -

.75 ml copper sulphate/liter of saltwater (tank water) - 10 minute dip


dip #2-

10 drops lugols solution per liter of saltwater (tank water) - 10 minute dip - shake and rinse dead and injured nudi's from all areas of coral following dip. Inspect and remove eggs from undersides of corals.

dip #3

saltwater - 10 minute dip - to remove traces of previous dips

following these dips the monti's should be placed in a quaranteen tank until the nudi's have been eliminated from the display tank.

This dip sequence should be done every other day for about 2 weeks, and you should be rid of the nudi's on your monti's

During the dipping process, all saltwater should be removed from the QT tank and the QT should be freshwater rinsed for at least 20 minutes. This will kill any lingering nudi's in the QT tank that may re-infect your corals (the little scumbags like to run around the tank on the rocks and such). Until I started this step, I would kill the nudi's and they would come back within a few days.

As far as the display tank goes, I'm not sure how long it takes for them to die without their host, It has been 4 weeks since they had any food, a week since I killed the last one.

Mine came in from a LFS that knew they had a problem, but kept on selling stock from the tank. Nice, I spent my last dollar there when I learned they knew they had 'em and didn't warn customers or QT the tanks.

All corals, frags, live rock, inverts and fish are now quarenteened prior to entry into my display.

[HOC]

I just tried that last method with no success. Even at double the amount. I first tried coppersafe for ten min, then 10 drops lugols per liter for ten min, then 20 drops lugols for five min, then diluted that solution with fresh water by 50% for 5 min. I watched the nudi's become more irritated with each addition. They finally died with the freshwater dillution. We'll see if the coral makes it. It was an encrusting monty. Those things can move faster than I thought.

[stoelton]

Coppersafe is a chelated copper solution, it is not copper sulphate. I don't believe coppersafe is as toxic to inverts (short term) as copper sulphate. This may lead to having to dose at higher levels to kill the nudi's.

I also recall from my fish only days that Coppersafe is a much more dilute solution than copper sulphate. I have used both in the past for fish illnesses and coppersafe was generally added in teaspoon measures, while copper sulphate was added by the drop. I have not used any coppersafe in many years (15 plus) so this is all from my feable memory.

I would guess that the use of the wrong copper solution is why the Nudi's didn't start showing signs of stress right away.

Copper sulphate is a dark blue-green color and is found in many Ich/Oodinium treatments. Copper sulphate is the main ingredient in many of these treatments.

The brand name of the one I use is "Super Ich Plus"

Copper Sulphate is also sometimes called Malachite Green.

The Super Ich Plus is labelled for fresh water use only and like all copper containing solutions should never be added to a reef tank. You all probably knew that, but, I wanted to state it anyway.

The solutions I recommended above in this string are very toxic to the nudi's and to the corals, but they do not make the nudi's drop dead on the spot. Most of them move slower and are easier to rinse/shake off the coral. It also turns them a blue/green color due to the strong coloring of the copper sulphate. The copper sulphate poisons them, and they will likely die anyway.

I also fresh water rinse all of my equipment between treatments to insure no Nudi's remain alive in the containers/buckets etc.

I also guarantee that multiple treatments will be needed.

In future treatments (which you will need to do) I suggest you get something that specifically says it has copper sulphate or malachite green in it.

Note: this "cure" was adapted from an article by Tracy Gray on the coralfarmers.com site. At the end of the article, Coral Farmers added a note about the treatment dips and solution strengths using "Tetra Oomed" solution (which is no longer available). I did a little research and found that Copper Sulphate was the main ingredient in Tetra Oomed and adapted what I had available.

The every other day dips and the freshwater rinses of the QT Tank are adaptations I made to the treatment based on what was happening with the nudi's.

If you try this treatment without a quaranteen tank I think you will find that the nudi's reinfest the corals due to their propensity to wonder the tank. You won't get them all.

[HOC]

Just curious, coppersafe has 1.58% copper sulfate. How Much do the others have?? That stuff didn't even seem to bother the nudi's.

BTW the Monty made it and has polyps out already. Thinking of trying the 20 drops/liter lugols for 15 min again and then change 50% with chlorinated freshwater from the tap for 5 min. The Nudi's pretty much disintegrated.

[stoelton]

If you do a freshwater dip, you need to adjust the PH of that freshwater before you dip the coral. Otherwise, you risk killing it.

I would also dechlorinate the freshwater as the killing action for the nudi's comes from osmotic pressure rupturing their cells and the chlorine will only stress the coral further.

Note: I would be really careful with freshwater on any montipora, I have read several posts indicating they tend to die with freshwater dips. As for the copper sulphate dips, I know mine tolerate that rather well, and only slime a little after treatment.

The copper sulphate concentration in other Ich treatments is much higher. It turns the water emerald green, I would guess at more like a 50% solution, although that is merely a guess. It is strong enough to stain buckets and bowls blue/green when mixed at the .75 ml/liter rate. The label does not indicate a concentration.

Good luck with the nudi's.

[mjcarl]

"Copper sulphate is sometimes called malachite green"

Malachite green does not contain copper. Super ich plus does not contain copper. Super ich plus is malachite green and quinine.

Mitch

[HOC]

To be honest i was supprised the coral made it through the 50% tap water dip. It was an encrusting though, I doubt a plating would have done as well. I have fresh water dipped sps before with no success which is why i tried it at 50%.

Hey Mitch have you tried that levamisol treatment in a reef system or just as a dip??

[mjcarl]

"Have you tried that levamisole treatment in a reef system or just a dip"

I have used it in a reef system, but only in low doses (4ppm) to get rid of flatworms. The doses needed to actually kill the nudibranchs are much higher (75ppm). At this dosage the levamisole will kill off alot of other creatures. The dosage I ended up using was 40ppm for 5 hours in a separate tank. At this dosage the nudi's become paralyzed and fall off the coral. It's a nice drug to use since you aren't constrained to a short period of time if you want to treat multiple corals at once. Like everything else it doesn't harm the eggs, so multiple dips are necessary.

Mitch

[stoelton]

Mitch,

It sems you are right, malachite green and copper sulphate are different things. I stand corrected.

However, the Super Ich Plus does kill the nudibranch's in the solution concentrations I listed above.

Possible reasons for this: either

Malachite green is toxic to the nudi's or

The quinine in the mixture is toxic to the nudi's

Either way, the mix has worked so far and without the corals showing significant signs of stress.

I have treated the corals with this solutions 7 times, and they still look fine and they appear to be nudibranch free so far.

[Thales]

Mitch,

Do you still fell iodine will is a good dip to kill the nudis?

[mjcarl]

>Do you still feel iodine is a good dip to kill the nudis?

Iodine works well when done correctly. In my case it's too hard to dip multiple corals at the same time, since the dip duration is so short. If you only have one or two to dip, then it works very well.

Mitch

[bhujang]

Originally posted by imbuggin
i have 2 yellow coris wrasses and no luck eating the sucker yet!

I had a terrible outbreak and added a bannana wrasse now they have all gone :) must be luck of the draw! The damage done before I found out that this fish can help was immense though.

Cheers

[mia1974]

The bannana wrasse worked for me as well. I had them for over a year. They were gone within weeks of adding the wrasse. I didn't have any large colonies left by that point for them to hide in though so maybe it was easier for him to find them.

[Brad A.]

Any new updates on ridding a tank of these pests?

[JoeMack]

I used an herbal ich cure and just tossed some in my frag bag for 10 minutes. The water was DARK brown I swished it around for a while. I put the frags in my nano and waited a few weeks. Everything looked great and added the caps to my tank.

The pieces were infected and I seen the nudis before I treated, after I didn't see any. Did they fall off? dono.

Just my two cents. I was just dealing with frag. The origional colonys were gone in less than a week. Hope I never get them again.

[ac green]

Joe, what is this herbal ich medicine?

TIA

[JoeMack]

Prevent Ich by Kordon. It says its 5% Active Ingredients (multiple natural herbals containing naphthoquinone)

Here is the thread I started when I found out.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=418419

[bhujang]

Well all mine are gone now but eatten by the coris/ canary wrasse but the monti is nuked! :(

[thereefgeek]

^

[SuperNerd]

Originally posted by mjcarl
<What species of wrasses have you found to eat the nudis?

There are a few species which I believe eat them, and a few species I know eat them. Pseudocheilinus sp. and Coris sp. wrasses are ones that I'm pretty sure eat them. In a few tanks w/ these wrasses the nudibranchs numbers are always very low. The Thalassoma sp. I know eat them from a study done by a student out in Hawaii. He found the Saddleback wrasse and Chaetodon auriga would readily eat the nudi that preys on Porites. He also found a variety of inverts (crabs and such) would also eat them. I have the paper if your interested in viewing it.

Mitch

What inverts eat them??

I just noticed I have a bunch of these nudis too!!!!:mad:

[Reef Junkie]

Ordering my Yellow Coris wrasse this week. I'd like to buy one locally, but you can get them on the internet between $10 and $15.
No matter how diligent I am, (Dips, scrubs, dirty looks) they keep coming back.
I couldn't bare to lose my prized montis...
Bill

[HOC]

I lost every single one of my monties(except my Superman). Even put them in a quarantine with only corals, used several diff dips. They always came back. I was able to use a real low salinity and watch them all die. The corals made it through, but they always came back. Those things are evil. I ended up starting completely from scratch when we moved. I completely killed all my LR and started over with new. Those things are evil!! Copper won't even kill them without killing the coral first. I tried everything but that Levamisol or what ever it was called. I really hope these things don't become common. I do have yellow coris wrasses now so we'll see if I get them again. Those things cost me 1000's of $$

[Kurt448]

I just noticed that I have the little buggers. They must have either gotten on my coral while it was being babysat or they came in on my 80lbs of live rock. So far I can see them laying eggs under my montipora spongodes...although they haven't done much damage yet. The biggest damage has been done to my purple cap. As soon as I saw the buggers I dipped them in Reefdip(2x recommended dose) and bobbed it up and down in the dip. This was enough to get all of the hatched nudis off except for the ones wedged in the nodules...those I had to use a toothbrush to get out. I don't know if it had any effect on the eggs so I am probably going to remove it again and scrape off all of the eggs.

Has anyone else had experience using reefdip to get rid of these guys?

[Reef Junkie]

I've been using Lugols, a very strong solution of it. They curl up as soon as they hit the container with the strong lugols. I then use a tooth brush to get the rest and eggs. It's the colonies that I have that are attached to 50lb rocks that I cant get out. I may have to break them up...
What's in Reefdip?

[Kurt448]

Reef Dipâ„¢ contains elemental iodine complexed to a protective slime coat for safely and gently disinfecting corals. It is effective against bacteria, fungus, and protozoans. It may be used prophylactically (without evidence of disease) or to remedy diseased specimens. It is safe to use with both stony and soft corals. It is also safe for anemones and polyps.

[SuperNerd]

I can't post my pics on threads!!! :mad:

[HOC]

I tried reefdip and lugols. Problem with these things is they aren't just on the coral. They're everywhere. It even seems they can live at least several months without any Montipora in the system.

[SuperNerd]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/29092Montipora_Eating_Nudibranches_croped.jpg

This is what I have. Same thing...maybe not...but they sure are eating my montis!!!:mad:

[Reef Junkie]

Yep, those are the little buggers!
I haven't noticed any for a few days, but I bet they're on one of my caps. I'd just hate to have to break it off it's rock.

[Kurt448]

Here is a pic of one of the larger ones I pulled off of my cap.
http://tkreefs.homestead.com/files/50gPics/Monti_Eating_Nudibranch.jpg

[Kurt448]

So far I have had decent success doing what Northbay did. I haven't seen any since I did my second dip and basting. You just have to have good eyes to spot these little buggers.

[Reef Junkie]

You're telling me that you would wait until night, use a flashlight and then attack the nudi's with a toothpick?!
There has got to be a better way! I can barely see them, let alone hold a flashlight still and then attack them with a toothpick.
You're a better person then me, can I hire you to come over and do this for me? :lmao:

[ctxmonitor]

I was also attack by these nudibranches a month ago. I didn't know better so I dip them in fresh water.. Yea that did kill some of the bigger one, but my monti lost most of the color.. :(.. Yea I should have research and ask before doing it.. Then I was killing them with the toothpick method for a week or two..

So far, I think I got most of them.. I haven't seen any lately..

I hoping here that they will not come back!!!

Good Luck everyone..

[Claeth]

I was under the impression that my nudibranch were lettuce nudi's until i lost a 12" green cap and about 30% of my red cap, even after fragging the big green apart, all of the frags had been eaten :( I havent seen any for a few weeks now and the white areas on my red cap seem to be slowing their growth. I sure hope theyre all gone. and to think, I was actually happy to have baby nudibranchs on my glass. Dumb Dumb Dumb! shoulda known better. thanks for the pics and info on how to get rid of them guys, you may have saved my 8" red monti cap!

[Claeth]

I have also noticed that my royal gramma was picking them off the glass when there were lots of them after the first hatch. He wasnt necessarily eating them, but he would mouth them and spit them out, im sure after a few chews, they didnt have much of a chance and the numbers dwindled quickly (from about 100 on the glass to 0 in about a week) jeez i wish i woulda known about these bastages before.

[diverrad]

I think I finally got rid of mine I did the lugos dip and moved them all to my nano cube I also placed a choris wrass in there and did not feed him, I've seen him cruse the monties and pick at them and it's been a week since I've seen one.

[poknsnok]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=3569616#post3569616 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JB NY
Hey Doug, I'm thinking the nudis were on the new monti frags. I had them two years ago and only was able to get rid of them by chucking 90% of the colony, and checking and brushing off any on the frags. But after that, I've never had them again.

JB, hopefully you will see this. you mentioned fraging and chucking the colony. did you have any other montis in the tank?? did the nudis spread at all?? sounds as if they were contained to 1 cap colony

[JB NY]

Yeah I did have other monti's in the tank. None of the other were effected. But I think I caught them on the main monti colony before they were able to spread.

[poknsnok]

lucky you to not have them spread to other montis. did you have a lot of montis in your tank? hard to believe they didnt spread. I have unfortunately/ seen them on most of my caps but not so much on the encrusters

[Claeth]

I havent had any nudis ever since getting the six line wrasse. I think the combo of him and the royal gramma completely wiped them out.

[dilligaf_biker69]

do they look like this?
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/montieating1.jpg (http://www.theimagehosting.com)
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/montieating2.jpg (http://www.theimagehosting.com)

[gflat65]

Yup. Sorry...

[MiddletonMark]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=5073251#post5073251 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HOC
It even seems they can live at least several months without any Montipora in the system.
I don't `know' anything for sure, but IME this is a suprising statement.

They are difficult to get rid of, but I've been a few months without seeing any/seeing any damage ... I'd be personally suprised if they're still alive months later.

IME, just dipping doesn't assure getting rid of them, but once I removed some of the rock with Montipora encrusted into it, removed all heavily affected colonies [and after a month + of weekly dipping/inspection/egg-removal] ... the remaining Montipora haven't shown any nudi damage since.
Leading me to wonder how they can survive months without a Montipora ... yet somehow didn't in my case.

[Thales]

Mine came back after months in remission - no signs of them at all. However, they haven't come back as bad as they originally were.

[poknsnok]

they are hard to get rid of. I got them from a cap colony which I have fragged the good pcs and tossed the rest which got rid of everything on that colony. but I have other encrusted caps I have seen small nudis on. I am going to remove ALL of them by cutting and chisling the rock and makeing sure there is no montipora flesh/coral left in the tank. I will then qt the removed pcs for 6 weeks and dip weekly/inspect. ill dip using Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure because I have used it before and it seems to kill them. Im not sure it is totally effective because I had them return to a coral I dipped, which is the one I have since fragged, and the nudis were fairly large which tells me the dip may not have killed them all. in any case, Im going to keep everyone posted on my experience, especially the 6 week montiless period in my tank to see if the pests die off without a monti food source. i need to rid my tank of these pests

[reefknight]

Hi guys! Guess I am in the same boat. I have lost one green M.digi frag and am in the process of losing a purple colony as well. I posted a plead for help a few months ago when the first started to go and did not know that there was such a creature. The second colony started going down hill and I scraped a couple of these buggers off. Since then I have not seen any. I have noticed that the colony has started regenerating some tissue and polyps, but I don't know if there are any others in there. From the base up I have a lot of skeleton exposed. Will the tissue regenerate and cover that area or should I frag from the good portion up? Kind of lost right now and I did want to add another couple of colonies. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Bill

[poknsnok]

it is almost a certainty they are still in your tank. the best thing to do is remove all montipora from your tank to a seperate qt/treatment tank

[reefrubble]

You will have to teach Rufus to attack them. He has to earn his keep some how. Ted

[poknsnok]

Ill need special scuba gear for his ears to fit in!

Ill see you the 9th at Johns!