I couple of months ago I reported how I found Montipora predatory Nudibranchs on a Monti coral in my 135. Over the next few days I pulled the coral out and picked off at least 12 of the dirty buggers. They just kept appearing. Well another white spot showed up yesterday on a different Montipora coral. Here's a picture....
Two affected areas are clearly visible. Sometimes the offending bugger is right there chowing down but I had to look further. Upon removing the coral and turning it over I found him/her/it!........
The Nudibranch can be seen munching away on the underside. I will have to check this piece of coral for the next few days by, removing it and looking underneath.
These are nasty little buggers and again wanted to alert everyone to watch your Montipora corals for the telltale white area.
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
Yes. In the second picture above, he's on the far left of the piece of coral. Here's one of him after I removed him....
They're very tiny and often go undetected because on a large Montipora they sometimes do their dirty work on the underside out of sight.
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
I'm not aware of any remedy. I've been fortunate enough to be able to pick them off larger pieces of Montipora or being able to remove the frag as in the pics above and pick them off.
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
I just discovered nudibranchs eating at my new $100+ pink zoas rock
I noticed that the polyps weren't opened when I got home from work today and then I looked closely and saw them. I have picked off at least 20 of them. They look a little different than the kind in Dick's tank.
I'm not sure what to do. The zoa rock is floating in tupperware in the top of my tank. I want to do a freshwater dip on this rock, but will the zoas survive? Would a FW dip even help???
__________________ Gwen - 2007 Atlanta Reef Club Secretary MACNA XX Committee 125g RR AGA "The Simple Reef Tank"
Sorry to hear that Gwen.
I know the Zoas will survive. Im not sure it would help with the nudibranchs / nudibranchs eggs. But after picking off 20 I would sure give it a try. I had to dip a colony of mine for sundial snail / eggs. what I did was dip for a few min. (about four) then rinse with a baster then dip for another min. or two rinse again thin back in to Isolation
Gwen, I'm sorry to hear about those buggers you have. Take a picture if you can so we can see them. Good luck!
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
I was just thinking a few moments ago while chopping up the toadstool that if it wasn't for this thread that I wouldn't have known what they were or may not have seen them. Much thanks to you for this thread.
What happens from here? If the entire tank is infested, are we doomed? What is usually the outcome for tanks with this problem?
I may not be able to get a picture. I haven't seen anymore for over an hour and they are very small.
__________________ Gwen - 2007 Atlanta Reef Club Secretary MACNA XX Committee 125g RR AGA "The Simple Reef Tank"
If it were my problem, I would hand pick them for a few days. If that doesn't get rid of them, then I'd try a hyposalinity dip. I don't like total freshwater dips. That scares the bejesus out of me and stress the animal a bunch. I usually take tank water and dilute with RO/DI down to 1.010 and dip for about five minutes. I like Steve's idea of a turkey baster to swoosh the dead or weekened buggers and eggs off the rock.
Are they smaller than the ones pictured above? They are less than 1/4" long.
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
I did a 3 minute freshwater dip and squirted the rock with a turkey baster. I also took a tweezers and scraped off anything that looked like eggs. The tank will be under close observation for now.
__________________ Gwen - 2007 Atlanta Reef Club Secretary MACNA XX Committee 125g RR AGA "The Simple Reef Tank"
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
