New Montipora Confusa

Do you have another tank that you could move the montis to? I ask because it's easier to treat them in a separate tank. Also, if you are able to save them, you will have to leave your main tank free of montis for at least a half a year to insure that there are no other eggs in your system.

 

Yep I've got other tanks. But those also have monti frags in them.
Don't mean to be a pain but if I do treat them in their original tanks what are the side effects?
I've read that the lugol's iodine solution is 100drops to 2.5 gals of tank water and dip the coral for 20 mins is this true?
Is it safer to use a prepared coral dip on the market?
Also, should I repeat the dip after one week.
How often is it safe to dip? or is too much dipping harmful?

 

Iodine should be fine. The issue with only treating the affected coral is that the nudibranchs may have already spread out and laid eggs in other places in the tank, not just on that one coral. You can't treat the entire tank and you can't very well dip everything in the tank every week to kill whatever nudibranchs may have hatched since you did the last dip. These critters are the worst. I lost a tank full of monitopora to them a few years ago which is why I now quarantine all incoming corals.

 

Here's a few articles that you may find helpful:

News / Feature Articles - Quality Marine)

Melevsreef.com - Montipora Eating Nudibranchs

 

yeah monti eating nudis are HORRIBLE! When I had mine I had a 10g that I had up as a QT tank and was bare bottom. I sat up a couple 10g tanks that i would transfer the monti to once I dipped them and then drained and cleaned out the old tank and refilled it and the cycle went on. I treated all my montis that I had in my reef tank as they spread very very fast, and I did wind up loosing every single monti that I had to it!

But like amcarig said, if you have 1 nudi in your tank then you have 1000...because these little bugs dont need anybody else to reproduce and they can reproduce very very quickly! The eggs are the worst...hardly anything will touch those so it takes several treatments.

So I suggest you set up a qt tank to keep your monti that were exposed in and start treating! Good luck

I was monti free for about 8 months after that.... only good thing about these is that they only eat monti

 

Great articles. Thanks
I'll set up a small QT for treatment.
I've removed all my montiporas and have them in a lugol's solution of 50drops to 1gal right now. I'll leave them in there for about 30mins and try to brush the underside of the coral so as to get as much eggs off as possible.
I'll attempt to repeat the dip one a week and see if this helps.

Also, Is it wise to frag the un affected pieces or leave the coral be?
I was also wondering if the eaten tissue would regrow?
Thanks for your help.

 

No sense in fragging as you don't really know if those areas are unaffected or not. The eggs are so damn small that for all you know, they will still be there after you scrub. The flesh of a montipora can regrow over dead skeleton but, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I have yet to read any montipora survival/success stories after a bout with nudibranchs

 

Wow. burst my bubble for sure lol.
Well after 30mins, all the adults are dead which gave visibility to the eggs. There is a lot of eggs. The toothbrush itself couldn't reach under the branches for me to scrub them off. I'll dip again in a week and hopefully keep them under control.:-/

 

Good luck and please keep us updated!

 

I saw on another forum that someone employed a yellow wrasse (halichoeres chrysus) to rid the nudis. Could this be an option? Or what about a six line?