Monti Eating Nudi's

[ronj]

well i just decided to check out everything in the tank with a flashlight....i looked at my new monti caps and they were covered with little white nudi's!!!! i got the Lugols out immediately..i picked off as many as i could get and dipped the rest...so far, i haven't seen any more...i am going top keep checking them several times a night for a while....it was my fault for not dipping them, but i was at work when they arrived at home.. Kimmy had to acclimate them and everything for me....i hope the Lugols doesn't discolor them.. i guess i will see when the lights come on tomorrow!!! i went back and checked out all of my older caps and i didn't find any...Thank goodness!!! i am going to keep checking to be completely sure

 

[Damsel13]

This sounds like a Saturday serial matinee!

 

[Dr. Dee]

Ron i had those guy's on one of my monti's a purple haze tons of them and the lugo's just slowed them a bit, but they came back and i fresh water dip, Man will not try that again i lost my coral. Good luck bud

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I once had some luck with interceptor dip on them, don't know why it worked.

 

[ronj]

yeah, i found one more right after the dips!!! i got quite a few of them though...i am just going to keep at it until they are all dead!!!!

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Try the interceptor.

A friend of mine used lugols and the corals was effective on, was also killed. Cured the disease, killed the patient. Perhaps a wrasse of some sort?

 

[krisfal]

Ron you may want to try this product recommended by curtswearing on another post a few days ago "Even though it's sold for fish, dogs, cats, etc. Praziquantel/Droncit is a much better dip to kill the monti-eating nudi's than Iodine. In fact, if you get the Iodine to a high enough concentration to kill the nudi's, you're likely to kill your coral as well. My favorite brand to use is Prazipro....kill's them nudi's dead."

I do not know if you remember but we both had this problem back in March (You had one nudi, I had enough to almost wipe out my montis). I tried the iodine with very little luck, I tried a freshwater dip which resulted in massive tissue loss (since then I learned to match PH first) and ended up fragging my medium sized monti down to 3 dime size pieces, and then I used iodine dip weekly on the frags for a while. The good news is that the frags are now a couple inches across and growing like crazy, and I have not had any more issues with the nudi's (although I still check for them every evening). I kept the above info from Curt for future reference and thought I would share here.

Good luck, those Nudi's are devastating and I hope never to see another one. I love Montis and really thought I was going to loose all of mine for awhile.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I tried Prazipro on Monti nudis, no effect. It also didn't touch the red planaria. It did appear to cure a Pygmy cherub of tapeworms though.

 

[NaH2O]

ronj - one time dips and other things aren't going to work if eggs are allowed to hatch. Make sure you brush the underside of the corals with a soft toothbrush to make sure you get any eggs present. Also, if any of the montis have grown into plates/layers, then you'll want to get inbetween them to get anything there. Even if that means fragging them apart.

 

[NaH2O]

I also wanted to add that Levamisole is another way to kill the nudis, but remember dips are not going to work against eggs.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Nicky is 100% correct (as usual)
Be sure to brush any mounting rock, disks, or plugs too. Many are itsy bitsy tiny.
Takes diligence to rid them, and be ready for a few more to show up later.
Keep at it and they will be eradicated.

 

[Juanfer]

good luck with the dips

 

[Sherman]

Months ago, I read somewhere about a product by Tetra called Gold-Oomed that was reported to work on Monti-Eating Nudis (Why hasn't the acronym MEN stuck yet? LOL). It's not sold in the US any more, but I found some on eBay, and swooped them up. I don't know what sort of expiration timelines there are on this product, but it is still in a sealed bottle. I've never had the "opportunity" to test if it actually works.

Ron, want to be a test pilot on one of your frags? PM me.

 

[ronj]

Nickki, what is Levamisole??? is there anything that is just known to kill these things for sure???? Sherman, i would be willing to try it on one of my frags that i have more than one of, but i don't know if there are any nudi's left...i would have to see one before i could try it out..i am down to try it if i find one though

 

[NaH2O]

Ron - Levamisole is an anthelmentic drug (kills parasitic worms) used in livestock. I used it for the acro eating flatworm problem I had. I don't know what dose you'd use for the monti eating nudis. I'd have to look around at threads and see what folks are using against these guys..."MEN" ROFL. I know there have been a couple of threads on here, and I'm not sure of the successes for the majority of people. One problem I've read, is the "MEN" can lay eggs elsewhere, other than the coral colony or base.....so, it would be important to isolate the corals from others, and continue doing some type of dip every few days or so. I don't know what the gestation period is for these guys, so I'm only guessing on the emergence of the babies. I'd keep them isolated for a couple of months, just to ensure that the other corals they are kept with have time to hatch out potential eggs, and the young to starve without a montipora.

There is a wrasse out there that supposedly eats them, but I'm not 100% on which one it is. I think there is a thread on RF that links to a thread on RC discussing the wrasse. Ahhh....here is the RC thread: Nudibranchs No More