Identification and Info on Montipora Eating Nudibranch

[organism]

I'm having a slow day at work and I've always heard people ask about whether they had monti nudis or not and what their eggs looked like, so hopefully this can help a few people out, plus it'll give me a link to send people to when I hear the nudi eggs questions again

 

As a foreword, if you've got nudis, it's because you failed to quarantine. Always qt montiporas for at least a month because these things can stay tiny before you even see them. For instance, these are montipora nudis in their tiniest form.

 

 

If you see nudis then you need to check all of your montiporas and remove them into a quarantine tank. There is no way to treat them in your display because they'll get on the rocks and glass. Nudis can live for over a month without montiporas, so yours are going to be in qt for a long time... Manual removal of the eggs and nudis is probably your best bet, a toothbrush works wonders, but don't have anything in your qt aside from the montiporas and an HOB. No rocks, nothing for them to hide in or under.

 

Eric Borneman has done some very promising studies with potassium permanganate and garlic but had some issues here and there, I'm going to do a bunch of dips and try it out though, will make a new thread on that one... Here's Eric's article

 

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/eb/index.php

 

This is your classic nudi with montipora damage pic. These are usually the easiest ones to find, it's when the infestation is relatively early and they're just getting started on the colony. If you see this then you can still do something about it through manual removal.

 

 

Another one, classic damage picture

 

 

One very common mistake people make is thinking that asterina starfish are the cause of the montipora damage since the nudis can be quite small. The reason for this is that asterina starfish are attracted to the dying flesh and are actually cleaning the montipora of the damage caused by the nudis, so this is your classic nudi and asterina pic. Again this is just one adult, no eggs, you may still be good on manual removal.

 

 

 

As far as eggs, they're usually pretty hard to see, and nudis like to lay them either directly on the flesh or right next to the flesh of montipora species. Once you see eggs then you've got a problem, for example this is an adult that's just laid eggs. That's the turning point where things in your tank go from "manageable" to "pain in the ass".

 

 

A few adults with eggs is a huge uh oh.

 

 

And then there's this following set of pics. This right here is where you just got effed in the a. That $5 monti cap just nuked your sunset monti, because these things are everywhere in your tank now. Several different sized adult and immature nudis are in one spot meaning that one set of eggs have hatched, and the baby nudis are tiny and like to float around your tank in search other tasty snacks. This means you've got two generations of nudis in your tank already. If you look at this first pic before I added in the arrows and names in the next two you'll see that you probably missed a few things.

 

 

Now after looking closely at that one check these two out.

 

 

There's also two tiny nudis next to the eggs on the left that probably recently hatched.

 

 

At that point even manual removal might not be much of an option, and you're probably better off just tossing any montiporas that you're not attached to and trying to save the small amount that you can't live without.

 

Then there's these pics right here. This is what I like to call "trash day" and is a full scale infestation, and unfortunately it's when the vast majority of people find out they've got nudis. You've got eggs and adult nudis as far as the eye can see, and these eggs are probably third or fourth generation and have already spawned thousands of nudis into your tank.

 

The coral was a cap that I cut the top off of to show the nudis on the bottom, at this point I hope you enjoyed your montiporas because there's like a 10% chance that they're going to survive. On caps they're so hard to see due to the growth form that more often than not you've got them everywhere before you even noticed the first real damage, always quarantine new arrivals!

 

 

 

[Nemo Niblets]

Thanks. Never gotten a good picture or good guide. I never quarantine my montis.

[franklypre]

Great photos, bad problem. I thought the frag and QT would work, even with dips and such my wife found one on my monti peltiformis last night, JUST ONE. So now I wait to see if anything else is in there. QT is not the only reason these get in your tank they can hide under the glue or in a sponge, seriously they are the ultimate monti killer. Next step is Interceptor.

[Weetabix7]

Is there anything that kills these guys?

Does Cora Rx do it?

[organism]

Next step is Interceptor.

 

Interceptor's not going to do anything unfortunately, the problem is that they start off so tiny that by the time you see one of the babies in your qt tank there's probably a couple dozen more in there somewhere. Just keep up with the manual removal and toss any that you can't live without...

 

Is there anything that kills these guys?

Does Cora Rx do it?

 

I forgot to add this one to the first post, but Eric Borneman did some very promising studies with potassium permanganate and garlic but there were a few issues he found along the way.

 

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/eb/index.php