Think I got some monti eating nudibranchs!

[Fish Boss]

If you're going to go the dipping route, which is a good one, you should be dipping every monti every couple days. There's guides online, but I think it's approximately every 3-5 days (some guides say daily, some 5 days, more is better). Scrub with a brush or at least a toothpick any white tissue spots. Repeat for ... weeks.

They don't live just on the monti, as is probably obvious given you saw them on the glass. This is why it's a bit of a nightmare to fight these guys. If you don't love your montis, the easiest path is honestly toss em while the tank is still young, but the info online says you need to wait like 6+ months with no montis to get em all.

That all sounds pretty extreme, but these things are really difficult to get rid of. They're the type of thing you get once, and afterwards you never trust any frags again.

The other alternative is if you can get some shrimp and wrasses, you can just live with them eating your montis and hope they grow fast enough that they're just annoying but not devastating.

Yeah, I saw a brs interview with the owner of WWC, and he said it was the number 1 worst pest, toss out everything but one small frag, seal up the crevices with super glue, then dip monday, wednesday, friday. I’ve been watching my montis closely, morning either before or right after lights come on, when I get home after work, and 2 hours after lights go off. Going to dip every other day minimum, up to once per day. I’m really liking this potassium chloride that will handed out at the swap. I like how safe, non irritating, but effective it is, as well as being clear. I dont know why anyone would use anything else (unless it doesnt affect their pest).

I do want to have montis encrust my back wall, so it would suck if I have to continually deal with these, thinking instead of just straight tossing them out, I might just start up my cube as a monti quarantine tank. And you are right about not trusting any frags now lol, I do want a few more montis, but reading about how long the eggs last, plus how they arent affected by dip, its pretty scary. But having my cube set up as a monti qt would give my mind some ease. We’ll see what happens

 

[richiev]

Yeah, I saw a brs interview with the owner of WWC, and he said it was the number 1 worst pest, toss out everything but one small frag, seal up the crevices with super glue, then dip monday, wednesday, friday. I’ve been watching my montis closely, morning either before or right after lights come on, when I get home after work, and 2 hours after lights go off. Going to dip every other day minimum, up to once per day. I’m really liking this potassium chloride that will handed out at the swap. I like how safe, non irritating, but effective it is, as well as being clear. I dont know why anyone would use anything else (unless it doesnt affect their pest).

I do want to have montis encrust my back wall, so it would suck if I have to continually deal with these, thinking instead of just straight tossing them out, I might just start up my cube as a monti quarantine tank. And you are right about not trusting any frags now lol, I do want a few more montis, but reading about how long the eggs last, plus how they arent affected by dip, its pretty scary. But having my cube set up as a monti qt would give my mind some ease. We’ll see what happens

My understanding is potassium chloride doesn't works on nudis. I might be wrong, but I looked into it when the club was taking about it so much and then saw that and abandoned the idea.

If you experience otherwise, or read otherwise, please do share.

I use Coral Rx, I think. No specific reason. I just make sure to really rinse and then let the coral soak in a clean water container for awhile before putting it back.

Also make sure to blast the Monti with at least a turkey baster while doing this. Otherwise the nudis just sit there chilling out as normal. Either need to blast them off or poke em with a toothpick or equivalent.

 

[Fish Boss]

Also, whats the norm for discussing pests acquired from fellow hobbyists? Are people normally accepting if you reach out to them? Because I think I know who I got them from, but I dont want to seem like a dick if I’m wrong. And surely they wouldnt know right? I wouldnt feel good about giving out frags without writing on the lid that I have/had in x months nudis, if I knew I had them. And then if anyone else got frags from them, it would be nice to somehow let them know.

And I want to make it clear, I’m not upset I got these, I think its good experience overall and just increases my understanding of the hobby even more, and I dont think anyone should be ashamed if they have nudis, but I feel like its a lightweight dick move if you do know you have em, and dont write on your monti frags that you have them.

 

[Fish Boss]

My understanding is potassium chloride doesn't works on nudis. I might be wrong, but I looked into it when the club was taking about it so much and then saw that and abandoned the idea.

If you experience otherwise, or read otherwise, please do share.

I use Coral Rx, I think. No specific reason. I just make sure to really rinse and then let the coral soak in a clean water container for awhile before putting it back.

Also make sure to blast the Monti with at least a turkey baster while doing this. Otherwise the nudis just sit there chilling out as normal. Either need to blast them off or poke em with a toothpick or equivalent.

Interesting! The very first one I found on the glass, I dropped it in my dip and it immediately curled up and stopped moving, I guess I assumed it was dead. I also made my dip very strong, not sure if there is a danger zone with potassium chloride. When I dipped last night. I’m pretty sure I saw one in a crevice, but it really seemed to hold on, had to blast it a lot to let go.

If they arent dying from the dip, they are at least getting blasted off and dumped down the drain lol

 

[richiev]

Also, whats the norm for discussing pests acquired from fellow hobbyists? Are people normally accepting if you reach out to them? Because I think I know who I got them from, but I dont want to seem like a dick if I’m wrong. And surely they wouldnt know right? I wouldnt feel good about giving out frags without writing on the lid that I have/had in x months nudis, if I knew I had them. And then if anyone else got frags from them, it would be nice to somehow let them know.

And I want to make it clear, I’m not upset I got these, I think its good experience overall and just increases my understanding of the hobby even more, and I dont think anyone should be ashamed if they have nudis, but I feel like its a lightweight dick move if you do know you have em, and dont write on your monti frags that you have them.

I think regardless of what that norm is, it should be that people get nicely asked/told about it. Ideally it'd be publicly shared, so everyone could know they got tank STDs.

However public would be either overtly aggressive or at least passive aggressive, so I usually just ask nicely if they have any possible issues like that because I'm trying to track down a source of X.

I can say with high certainty I've gotten Monti nudis in two different tanks, two different times, from club frags. I doubt anyone did it maliciously, just happens, and is why I personally don't trust anyone . I can't think of an easier source of tank diseases than a frag swap or trading fish or macros around. Definitely need to quarantine all that.

Or go the other way and decide you don't care, get a bunch of wrasses and other things, and try and outgrow the baddies. Some folks take that route successfully too (though then getting frags is kinda like hooking up with the "experienced" person in the friend group).

 

[Fish Boss]

I think regardless of what that norm is, it should be that people get nicely asked/told about it. Ideally it'd be publicly shared, so everyone could know they got tank STDs.

However public would be either overtly aggressive or at least passive aggressive, so I usually just ask nicely if they have any possible issues like that because I'm trying to track down a source of X.

I can say with high certainty I've gotten Monti nudis in two different tanks, two different times, from club frags. I doubt anyone did it maliciously, just happens, and is why I personally don't trust anyone . I can't think of an easier source of tank diseases than a frag swap or trading fish or macros around. Definitely need to quarantine all that.

Or go the other way and decide you don't care, get a bunch of wrasses and other things, and try and outgrow the baddies. Some folks take that route successfully too (though then getting frags is kinda like hooking up with the "experienced" person in the friend group).

Lmao, its funny how much crossover there is between our tanks and stds. I think this is a very fair guideline

 

[MarcosDelgado0]

Also, whats the norm for discussing pests acquired from fellow hobbyists? Are people normally accepting if you reach out to them? Because I think I know who I got them from, but I dont want to seem like a dick if I’m wrong. And surely they wouldnt know right? I wouldnt feel good about giving out frags without writing on the lid that I have/had in x months nudis, if I knew I had them. And then if anyone else got frags from them, it would be nice to somehow let them know.

And I want to make it clear, I’m not upset I got these, I think its good experience overall and just increases my understanding of the hobby even more, and I dont think anyone should be ashamed if they have nudis, but I feel like its a lightweight dick move if you do know you have em, and dont write on your monti frags that you have them.

I don’t know about publicly unless you’re 1000% sure it couldn’t have came from anywhere else. But if you think you’re sure, I’d reach out to the person. I for one definitely would want to know if someone got something from one of my corals, because if that was the case I definitely wasn’t aware of the issue. I have gotten frags from other hobbyist with pests and I’d like to think that they weren’t aware or they’d let me know, but now I try to inspect everything. I know they’re very common pests but I’ve had to fight with bristle worms and vermetid snails and I wish I would’ve been more careful in my early stages of the hobby and avoided them. Although I’m not sure if they came from frags or live rock. Honestly unless you QT EVERYTHING and start off with sterile sand and dry rock, you’re bound to get pests unfortunately

 

[Raj Gill]

Found 2 more on the suspect monti this morning, so I sucked them out with a pipette

Do you have any more? I would be interested in taking them off your hands just to observe them.

 

[Fish Boss]

Do you have any more? I would be interested in taking them off your hands just to observe them.

I hope not! But I almost certainly do. The one I took a picture of was the largest and clearly a nudi, next 2 were smaller but also clearly a nudi. Everything else I have seen have been small white dots, so I’m not sure if they are nudis or if I’m just paranoid lmao.

I’ll keep an eye out and save one for you if/when I see another

 

[Coral reefer]

I would contact who you suspect may have been the source. Ideally they will make a note of it and maybe even share on their tank journal.

 

[under_water_ninja]

Sounds like it would be worthwhile to at least let us know who you are talking about, how to reach him, if he has a website or whatever, etc. Maybe invite him to share whatever info he would like to with us or ask his permission to do so.

I also get my CBB’s on Prepared foods! Mysis especially! They are a challenge to get through QT eating prepared foods as I medicate with copper which is an appetite suppressant. But then the end user gets a fully qt’d CBB that’s conditioned to prepared foods

Pretty sure it’s a dude that frequents the FB groups. He makes $ off his CBBs and his services as an “expert” in training CBBs to eat frozen so I suspect he’d be reluctant to share what he knows widely. Apparently, for enough money, he can teach your CBB to bark and play fetch.

This hobby is becoming increasingly ridiculous … lol

well I’ll just leave this here

 

[under_water_ninja]

I doubt I have an “infestation”, my tank is pretty new, and I picked up 3 montis at the recent frag swap. 2 are just encrusting the top of the plug, one was very well encrusted, with crevices coming off the sides of the plug. This one had some dead tissue, and I think was patient zero. I was just surprised I didnt see anymore come off after the dip, I thought I would see some. Only one bristle worm crawled out, and I was really blasting all of the crevices with my pipette. I think it was just one of those one in a million chances I saw it on the glass rather than a high density leading it to be on the glass.

I’m going to dip them every other day and really monitor them, probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to super glue the crevices so that they cant hide out of sight.

Does anyone know what their habits are like? Do they roam more during the day, and come back to the montis after lights out? Or just always roaming whenever? Just wondering if there is a most effective time of day to dip them

What Richie is referring to is if you see one on the glass that means you have a shit ton “infestation” in your tank. Every other day dips are not necessary. Once a week is fine, just need to get ahead of the egg hatching cycle. If you only have 1 or 2 montis, toss em!!

 

[under_water_ninja]

I’ve got a leopard, they can’t single-handedly wipeout a pod population. If your tank has a healthy ecosystem and you’re not starving the wrasse, pods will be reproducing in numbers it (and other predatory fish) can’t wipe out, though I think it’s a good idea to supplement with fresh pods occasionally.

The pod myth for mandarins is exactly that as well. A myth. Mine eats any food I drop in the tank, as long as it can fit it in his tiny little mouth (THAT is a reason they may struggle, food size). Frozen, pellets, coral food (coral cane, benepets), whatever - the mandarin eats it. He’ll even nibble on full sized shrimp chunks I drop in occasionally.

I have a cheat code, the guy I got it from breeds Copper Band Butterflies. He is the most unorthodox reefer I have ever met, and not only challenges, but disproves so many of the “industry myths” I can’t even.

I wish I could tell you guys more (it’s truly fascinating), but it’d be unfair to him for me share the process and divulge his secrets of success.

He’ll be back in the area early Dec, anyone looking for gorgeous, hearty CBBs let me know, he’s working on selling mated pairs as well. He had a few pairs his last trip here in the summer but the sell FAST.

My mandarins are also converted over to prepared foods, same as my cbb’s. I’m still in no position to call myself an expert! I’ll leave that to the experts that I learn from!