Success Going Monti-less for Monti Eating Nudis?

[Moe K]

TLDR: Can you really starve out monti eating nudibranchs by removing all montipora from your tank?? I hear mixed results.

Before I toss the few montipora I have I would like to hear if anyone actually has experience getting rid of them by removing all montiporas in the tank. Has it worked for you? Have you added new montis after a certain period of time with no sign of the evil bugs? If so how much time did you let pass?

Thanks!

 

[Moe K]

Anyone?

 

[Moe K]

 

[JGT]

I had a weird experience with them a while back. They decimated a Spongiodes I had and then started on a Nauti Spiral. I decided to break off most of the Nauti with some of them on and toss. At that point I had other montis but over the next few weeks the nudis just vanished. Haven’t seen one since and it’s been over 6 months.

 

[old salt reefer]

It worked for me, years ago.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

No personal experience here, but knowing how most nudibranchs work, I'd be genuinely surprised if getting rid of the montis didn't starve monti-eating nudibranchs out (in fact, I'd be mildly surprised if they ate more than just a handful of montipora species at all).

 

[devocole]

I got them and had lots of montipora coral. My discovery was not early in the invasion of my corals. I tried many things, dipping and reintroducing. Keeping in separate tank and dipping on a schedule. I remember that it was very difficult for me to eradicate them due to the eggs not being affected. Ultimately my learning experience was the efforts to get rid of them was more then it was worth and I ended up literally chipping every last monti off the rock and out of the tank. Eventually added more many months later and it was fine.

 

[Moe K]

Thanks everyone. This is the info I was looking for. So it seems more likely than not. Previously I have been told that a full tank shut down would be the only way to truly get rid of them.

 

[Darkrooster]

Great timing for this post! I got these buggers a few months ago. I pulled all my montis. Dipped them. Threw some away etc. I see no new MEN in my QT tank so my plan was to move them back to my display this weekend. Lo and behold I saw a tiny baby one up at the water line before dawn on my way to work this morning. So I guess babies are still hatching in there! dang so 3 months isn’t enough. I am hunting for what else they are eating and I can see a branching cyphastrea at the bottom of the tank is half striped clean so I guess that has to come out. I really hope they don’t eat my encrusting cyphastrea. It’s very close to this one.
Only dos I have left in there is a myagi tort, pavona cactus coral a huge raja chalice, lepto and two stylophora

 

[Tired]

As mentioned above, most nudibranchs are extremely specific in what they'll eat. These actually eating multiple species of coral would be interesting, if a major shame.

 

[Moe K]

Cyphastrea? That seems like far too different coral than montiporas. I have one in my tank too. If thats true, we will never get rid of these nudis. I can only imagine they will soon be in 90% of reef tanks at least in the coming years.

 

[maroun.c]

yeah need to remove all the monties and not leave any fragments could sustain a few nudis which would restart the infestation when you add monties.
any monti pieces you can remove just break as much as you can and epoxy them..
I tired treating Monti eating nudis in a coral frag tank a while back and it was a hectic exercise with weekly dips at double the dose and heavy basting to disloge nudis from monties for weeks. most monties ended up being lost due tot he stress of the dips. I Also had many wrasses in the coral Q tank to consume any nudies moving from corals to coral or ones that went on open areas on the coral as I'm sure that helps a bit... expect huge losses in QT.

 

[Darkrooster]

Cyphastrea? That seems like far too different coral than montiporas. I have one in my tank too. If thats true, we will never get rid of these nudis. I can only imagine they will soon be in 90% of reef tanks at least in the coming years.

I don’t know if they are eating that or not. I just know it is half stripped and I have baby men still hatching. I pulled it for just in case reasons. I was really surprised to see a baby after 3 months. Haven’t seen one since. Fingers crossed