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Dealing with frags from a tank with nudis

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richiev

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My frag tank is growing things very very well. Better than any experience I've ever had before. I have oodles of sps growing well. So well in fact I need to clear some space. I've literally never had this problem before.

My conundrum is this tank has Monti eating nudis. They're under control because I have two wrasse and a peppermint shrimp, and I don't see signs of nudi attacks now. However I know they're in there somewhere lurking and hiding.

Since this started I haven't disseminated anything from that tank. No new corals in my display, no frags given to others.

What would you folks do in this situation? Manual inspection on corals before transferring to the display, removing any plugs and covering any skeleton with super glue? Alternatively fresh frag things and transfer those?

What would you do with others? I'd love to finally sell or give away some of these, but again I feel weird. Ironically I know mine came in on a frag given to me, but I don't want to be patient zero for others (I guess patient one, not zero).
 
richiev said:
My conundrum is this tank has Monti eating nudis.
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I recently realized I am in the same conundrum... I'm not too pleased about it honestly. They decimated a WWC Contraband Digi which I'm really sad about. They took out quite a few other monti frags. After researching and figuring out just how difficult they are to manage, I'm just not confident I'll ever get rid of them. Now to pull all the montis out and start a dipping regimen for many weeks. Possibly months.
 
Darkxerox said:
KCl dips! Really gentle on the corals but note that the nudis can migrate in the tank a bit so it might take a few times.
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I've never tried it. Quick search looks like solution of 2 TBs/gal for approx 10 minutes? Most of the dipping strategies I have read, mention 2-3x/week for 6-8 weeks total?

I have recently been using Two Little Fishies Revive dip. But at $20/bottle, that was starting to seem a little out of hand. All I have left are easily replaceable and not expensive. A couple came from the frag swap, so I'm tempted to toss what I do have and let them starve and not introduce any other montis for a long time.
 
Regarding the dipping or fragging approach, that's the biggest / most depressing possible decision in this. My understanding is to really really say it is completely clear, I need to remove all montis and let it go monti-fallow for months. The alternative seems to be keep them under control (eg the wrasses + shrimps) + repeated dips and scraping.

However, the dipping/fragging version is depressing because I have some big colonies. Here are some fresh off the presses pics:



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The complications being I don't want to mess up these nice big pieces and if I dip it'll require a lot of water. Maybe if I use one of these other dips that'll be less of a big deal though, at least in terms of dip cost.
 
I wonder if you could do an extended “QT” tank to put your montis in, and let the display get fallow while you dip - if you dip on a schedule where hatchlings cannot reach adulthood, once all eggs are hatched, the corals themselves should be nudi free right?

And then it’s an observation, waiting and letting display go fallow.

This is all speculation - maybe an experienced reefer can chime in on whether this is actually feasible
 
I've had luck dipping in KMnO4. I can't remember how much of it to use for the life of me since it was so long ago. I was able to get some from my dad's Koi shop, so you know it's available for aquatic use.

Wrasse could only do so much and couldn't get in the crevices.

Hope you beat em. I lost quite a few montis to those things.
 
richiev said:
Regarding the dipping or fragging approach, that's the biggest / most depressing possible decision in this. My understanding is to really really say it is completely clear, I need to remove all montis and let it go monti-fallow for months. The alternative seems to be keep them under control (eg the wrasses + shrimps) + repeated dips and scraping.

However, the dipping/fragging version is depressing because I have some big colonies. Here are some fresh off the presses pics:



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The complications being I don't want to mess up these nice big pieces and if I dip it'll require a lot of water. Maybe if I use one of these other dips that'll be less of a big deal though, at least in terms of dip cost.
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Less than a dollar per pound, super cheap: Thread 'Hands Down Best Coral Dip' https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/hands-down-best-coral-dip.36190/
 
Maybe one more data point, they are very much under control at the moment. The nudis have been there for at least 4 months, and once I got the wrasses and a couple dip & scrub rounds, everything's growing without any visible monti chewing lines. Some of those pieces have doubled in size since this started.

Maybe a couple specific questions:

1. For the giant purple cup, it's attached to the rock. As long as I thoroughly soak the rock afterwards in clean saltwater, any reason I can't dip the whole thing, rock included?
2. Anyone have suggestions on cost efficient dips? If I go back to that it'll be a lot of dipping. (Edit: I see the suggestion above now)
3. If a piece is 100% clean without any bites, should I consider it safe if I remove it from any plug or potentially cover the whole thing in super glue?
 
richiev said:
Maybe one more data point, they are very much under control at the moment. The nudis have been there for at least 4 months, and once I got the wrasses and a couple dip & scrub rounds, everything's growing without any visible monti chewing lines. Some of those pieces have doubled in size since this started.

Maybe a couple specific questions:

1. For the giant purple cup, it's attached to the rock. As long as I thoroughly soak the rock afterwards in clean saltwater, any reason I can't dip the whole thing, rock included?
2. Anyone have suggestions on cost efficient dips? If I go back to that it'll be a lot of dipping. (Edit: I see the suggestion above now)
3. If a piece is 100% clean without any bites, should I consider it safe if I remove it from any plug or potentially cover the whole thing in super glue?
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1. Safest way is to remove all substrate and frag plugs. You can never know where eggs are hiding. But if you want to dip the whole rock, it hard to rinse off all the dip. A small amount shouldn’t matter if you’re using a tea tree oil based dip or KCl, but if you’re using something like Bayer/BioAdvance just take it off the rock.

2. I like and use Melafix primarily.

3. Even with careful visual inspection, I still wouldn’t consider it clean without dipping them every 3-4 days for a month.
 
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The decision on how to handle at least one colony was made by the reefing gods for me. I was dipping my large spongodes colony, which also was a nudi hotspot, and dropped it on the floor. Every single branch simultaneously broke off.

Good news was I could then very clearly cut off dead skeleton, removed and killed a ton of nudis, and got it all reattached to a bazillion plugs for hopefully easy future distribution when this is corrected.
 
Also, regarding the KCl dips, my research is showing me it likely doesn't help with nudis. I've stuck with using CoralRx. I'd prefer something that made me less paranoid about getting it into my tank, but I now dip->rinse->soak and haven't had any issue. In the past I did have tank bleaching events doing dip->rinse->replace, so I try and be careful.
 
finalphaze987 said:
I've had luck dipping in KMnO4. I can't remember how much of it to use for the life of me since it was so long ago. I was able to get some from my dad's Koi shop, so you know it's available for aquatic use.

Wrasse could only do so much and couldn't get in the crevices.

Hope you beat em. I lost quite a few montis to those things.
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Wrasses are also diurnal while the nudis are pretty much nocturnal.
 
richiev said:
I also have a peppermint shrimp in there which I think has been effective. Particularly the big Monti cup that it hides in the crevices of has been relatively clear of nudis bites.

Obviously the solution is just keep the lights on 24/7 and never let any fish sleep.
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Peppermint really helped my tanks.
 
richiev said:
I also have a peppermint shrimp in there which I think has been effective. Particularly the big Monti cup that it hides in the crevices of has been relatively clear of nudis bites.

Obviously the solution is just keep the lights on 24/7 and never let any fish sleep.
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BAYMAC said:
Peppermint really helped my tanks.
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I had no idea that peppermint shrimp would assist with nudis! That's great to know. Does anyone know how to train a mantis shrimp to not kill other inverts so it can help with pest cleanup?!

I was also reading that KCl dips don't do much against nudis. Great for flatworms, but that it's too gentle for tougher inverts. I just bought a 40lb bag of btw, so if any members want me to bring them some at our next event, let me know.
 
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