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View Full Version : Montipora digitata is being eaten


mgreen18
Thu, 26th Oct 2017, 08:17 PM
My montipora digitata has a bare spot on it and the spot is getting bigger every day.
Could this be from montipora eating nudibranch? I have another monti right next to it and it is doing fine.
alton
Fri, 27th Oct 2017, 06:01 AM
Do you have any fish in this tank, any wrasses? And welcome to MAAST. If you fear any bugs you may want to pull it dip and frag it. Isolate the base in a QT setup. Most eggs are safe from dips. Hopefully someone of the more knowledge will see this and have better answers.
mgreen18
Fri, 27th Oct 2017, 07:40 PM
I have fish, but not a wrass. Do I need to frag it? Or can I just dip and quarantine and try to save it?
alton
Sat, 28th Oct 2017, 09:13 AM
Isolation/ QT would be best until you find out what it is? Or you could dip and see if anything falls off as a minimum
mgreen18
Sat, 28th Oct 2017, 09:11 PM
I dipped all my montis in coral RX and went over them real good with a tooth brush. I have them in the QT. I also dipped a chalice coral that looked like it was receding. Does nudibranch go after chalice coral too? I guess I should dip every 3 days or so to get all the hatching eggs? If the bare spot on the monti is truly dead, should I frag it? Or will it be ok just to leave it like that?
mgreen18
Sun, 29th Oct 2017, 05:10 PM
Well if anything for documentation purposes. Here is a picture of the monti in the QT after dipping.
Joshua
Sun, 29th Oct 2017, 08:27 PM
Have you actually seen any nudi's or parasites? Did anything fall off or was left in the dip bowl after the dip?
I've seen that necrotic behavior plenty of times with various SPS in the past that wasn't due to any parasite.
mgreen18
Mon, 30th Oct 2017, 08:21 PM
I did not see anything significant. The coral plug it is attached to is a small piece of pukani and there were things living in that. I saw some copepods and some small feather duster worms in the dip bowl. But my eye sight is not that good.
Even with a magnifying glass. The skeleton of the monti seemed to be smooth and polished looking until I dipped it, but afterwards, it looks normal.
I do know that every day the spot seemed to get bigger until I dipped it. Now, the spot is not growing.
Justin
Wed, 1st Nov 2017, 02:02 PM
You should be able to see nudibranchs feeding at the edge of live tissue. What I have seen work on them for a dip but its a little harsh for sps at times is the following:

3x the Coral Rx dosage
2x the dip period

so roughly 1tsp for 20 mins, you will see the nudi's die from this.