I've got nudi's!!!

[drouner]

Last night sitting in front of my tank looking for red bugs on my Acro's, I started looking around with the flash light to see what other night critters I could spot. And what did I find on to of my zoo's nudi's............ That was not what I was expecting to see.

I have seen one or two small one's on the tank glass before and thought, cool more diverse tank life, that was until last night.

Some of zoo's have been closed up recently and on particular colony has been shrinking, but did not think much of it.

Well I picked off two of those @#%!*%# this morning. I guess where there is two there maybe more.

[plandy]

Afer reading everyone's horrendous experiences with zoo nudis I'd advise long term quarantine and treatment as the only way to minimize losses. Myself have prepared an extra 10 gallon tank ready on moment's notice if and when I get hit.

[kryppy]

Look carefully for the small egg swirls and you will be that much further in the battle.

[planton]

i saw a nudi the other day in my tank too, I'm getting my gear ready to go to war with them.

[MentalDragon]

I had nudis in my 10g nano... i just did a FW dip ... without iodine.

1 dip in the morning .. 1 dip at night for 3 days. Make sure after you do the dip you put it upside down and shake it really hard.

Haven't had a nudi prob since then.

Oh and I only did the ones that were closed for a long time.

[greenstarman]

Is it safe to say if you see one there are others even if you havn't seen any for a while?

[drouner]

Thanks for the advice. I guess I know what I am doing this weekend.

My night hunitng tonight bagged 3 more.

Could this also be the cause of why some of my zoos are closed up?

[Nano Nana]

Yeap, this is why they are closed and why I'm done with zoa's. Some people have luck getting rid of the nudi's. I have waged war for 6 months now and they still turn up. Good luck with the fight I really hope you win.

[gflat65]

Here is what I've been doing. I can't say it is the right way to do it (no pH adjustment), but it has been working for me. I bought some from a local reefer knowing they had nudi's and spiders, so this is my first experience with the nasties (I've somehow stayed away from zoa critters). Can't pass up a challenge or experience... This was in response to a questin about just doing a FW dip with no Lugol's (never done it that way...).

"I'm not sure without Lugol's (I know people do just FW dips, but I don't know the specifics of duration, etc.). With Lugol's, here is what I am doing for those I got (these things are still covered in them). I took some RO water in a tupperware container and floated it in the tank that the zoas are in. After temperature acclimation, I pulled two smaller tupperware containers worth of tank water from the tank and put all the zoas in one of them. More on the second one in a minute. I transferred some of the RO water into a smaller container for the dip, so I could treat in batches (I got about 20 different pieces). I dropped 7 drops of Lugol's in about 16oz of RO water (they recommend 2-3 drops per gallon...) and dropped the zoas in. After 5 minutes, I started picking through them. I used a clamp on light to help spotlight the zoas. I held them under the lamp and looked between and at the base of every poylp with a toothpick to scrape out any nudi's. I started with the smaller pieces (at the 5 minute mark for each batch) because the larger pieces take longer to look over. It took about 20 minutes to pick over each batch, so some of the zoas were in the water for 18 or so minutes (they recommend 5 minutes). After picking through them, I dropped them in the second small tupperware container with tank water. When I had picked through all from one batch, I would drop more in the dip and go and drop the ones I had just dipped into the QT tank. By the time I had done that, it was time to pick through another batch. I changed the dip solution (still had some RO after the transfer) every two dips, as well as the water in the 'clean' container and the holding container (uncleaned zoas). Float whatever you can for as long as you can to keep temperature differences down. It took a little over an hour to thoroughly scour every zoa I got from him. Then I found another on Tuesday cruising around one of the frags. I dipped on Saturday... Nasty little bastards. I'm going to continue three more times on one week intervals. I may shorten it to 5 days, though. I don't adjust the pH, but if you can, it wouldn't hurt."

Like I said, this not as recommended in the dip thread, but it is how the procedure best fits my habits and techniques. The clamp on light helps alot, as well as a magnifying glass (thought I didn't end up using it a whole lot). I picked out the cruising nudi and haven't seen any or eggs since. I assume it was in the rocks in the QT tank when I did the dip.

[TWallace]

I won the nudibranch war several months ago using FW dips (no Lugol's), a neon wrasse (Halichoeres garnoti) and Salifert's Flatworm eXit. I'm not entirely sure that the wrasse was integral, but I did frequently see him inspecting zoanthid frags and picking at them. He would even flip the frags over and inspect all sides of them. After adding him, I never saw any bug nudibranchs again, but the small ones were still showing up when I dipped the frags. At that point I used the Flatworm eXit and that finished them off for good.

I've been considering getting rid of the wrasse as he's not very pretty and I think he killed my two blood red fire shrimp. But I'm worried that one day I may be fighting nudibranchs again and will need his services.

[drouner]

My only problem is that I have zoo's growing on base rock. I would have to tear down the whole tank to get those out.

gflat65 - thanks for those instructions..........

[msman825]

I often wonder what a dragon wrasse would do with them. I know they will turn over big rocks hunting for BW's my freind has a 5 inch one But NO corals So i dont know if its reef safe. but they are no kinda pest , worms are any pods in there

[edwing206]

what do zoas look like when there are nudis eating them?

[TWallace]

The zoas will close up when they're being bothered by nudis. Just look for zoanthids that aren't open, rather than looking for the nudibranchs themselves, as they're pretty hard to spot.

msman, I'm pretty sure dragon wrasses will kill most/all crustaceans, and maybe mollusks, too.

[edwing206]

twallace what i meant was what symptoms like white spots or shriveling up

[msman825]

I wonder if a dragon wrasse would get the nudis. I seem to wonder. There agressive as they come. I guess now the eggs:reading: reading

[bilby]

Wrasse don't work, try the dip

[msman825]

yes some wrasse eat them