I went to Home Depot or Lowes and bought 2 identical half gallon plastic measuring containers. They were on an endcap near paint. I wrote DIP on one. The only thing that ever goes in that is coral dip. I do not use it for anything else. The other one get used for fragging, rinsing, etc...I also bought a red and a black turkey baster. The red one is used for dip only also. The black one I use for everything else tank related. I like to do the BRS method of dipping. First in Coral Rx, then in Bayer.
there is no dip to kill monti nudis that I'm aware of, as stated before removal of all dead rock/coral around the base is a must. You can frag up caps and move them to magnetic frag rack if you have one, but know those nudis can get anywhere and everywhere. I had a melanarus that ate them all in a clients tank, planaria, monti nudi, zoa nudi, but not every melenaraus will do that either. I know most folks believe QT is just a dipping procedure but through examination of each and ever coral is imperative, I remove every mariculture base, frag plug, or base rock a coral is attached to and glue it to a fresh plug. Yet another reason I prefer fresher cut stuff. The war with MEN is rough but with some patience and persistence you can get rid of them.
Coral RX kills them. I always mix strong! Example. I dipped a few frags yesterday. Two had red bugs which I just discovered. Coral RX doesn't work on red bugs......or does it? Your suppose to mix 30drops in a gallon. I mixed 20 drops in 1cup. It killed the red bugs! I didn't use a timer, guessing they were dipped 2-3 min each. Look great at the moment. I use a container just large enough for the coral. Clean and simple. I also do everything tank related with my bare hands and have only one turkey baster for all my needs. For me, being OCD or ultra detail oriented takes away from the hobby. The only thing I stay on top of is Alk.
I removed all of the unattached montis earlier and did a freshwater rinse and removed what I could see with my fingers and a pipette. I then used a bent tube brush on the eggs and in crevices. More rinsing then back in the tank. Montis sure do stink! I plan to go ahead and pop the attached ones off and do the same. I also plan to dip them. I have been reading up and apparently with some diligence they can be eradicated. I read you have to inspect and dip/rinse every 4 days to keep catching them as they hatch. I think I may also set up the 20 gallon to house the montis in while I do all of this rather than transferring the qt over. If I'm taking the time to dip and inspect every 4 days or so, would i also need to change the water to remove any strays or eggs that may have dropped? Also, in reality, how long would I have to leave them out of the DT to starve off any that may have made it into the rocks? Or stray eggs? If it gets to be too taxing or never ending, I may toss them but I'm at least going to give it a try to save them first. Right now they aren't really showing stress but right around the edges. And it's like it just happened all of he sudden too, so hopefully he infestation isn't too bad at this point. The sad part is I really think I may have seen them at some point but had no clue what it was. I guess I thought it was sand or something. I definitely know better now!
I decided to check out the tank with one of my dark orange films over my light tonight to see if I could catch any critters out and about and to my surprise, I found my yumas covered in these! I sucked off as many as I could with a pipette but they started scattering as soon as I touched them. I'm sure I missed several but I went back for seconds a few minutes later and got about 3 more. I also got this guy off the glass, thinking it was one gone rogue but quickly noticed it wouldn't let go of the pipette! It is also partially white/clear with almost a circular pattern through its body. It was the only one I could find but I'm assuming there are probably more somewhere. Not knowing if it was good or bad it got a hot tap water treatment and is no more. I took a video of it crawling in circles in the pipette but my YouTube isn't wanting to work lately so you'll just have to do with pics I snapped during the video. This is a 10ml cheapo pipette for size reference. I'm about to go pest/hitchhiker hunting for this guy but if you know, please chime in!
On a happier note, I saw many and various pods crawling and swimming around. In and out of corals and rocks. There were even a group of teensy baby mysid shrimp living in the Yuma rock. They were everywhere! I need to find out what all these little critters eat and get some so their populations can thrive I'm sure my Wrassey will love having fresh snacks to hunt for throughout the day. If only he didn't go to bed right after lights out! Lol Is it phytoplankton? Don't people grow this in big vats and sell in small coke bottles? I'd like to learn how to get 1 small vat going so that I could feed my tank and maybe sell a bottle here and there. I know the 6 line eats throughout the tank, but doesn't rely on stuff like dragonettes, so how much would I potentially need and how often should I feed? *disclaimer:I just took an ambien then a Sat down to type this so if I'm starting to sound ramble or not make sense then that's why! Lol
Siphon out as many Red Planaria as possible and then do a Flatworm exit treatment. Getting rid of as many as possible first may save you from crashing your tank. The pictures of the one in the Pipette scares me. Do you have a lot of Acros?
That one looks like a miniature of the polyclad flatworms I had in my tank as hitch hikers. I know those big ones are predators of snails and other inverts. I'm with you, that one is a little scary.
I looked everywhere and it was the only one I could find. Granted, I have a lot of rock work and corals they could be hiding in and around. This one was on the glass near the Yuma rock so I assumed it was a red one til I realized t wasn't. I briefly looked for more red planaria tonight but we have to get up early tomorrow so I can't play with the tank all night like some nights! All of this stuff happening all of the sudden is making me wonder about the health of the tank with the previous owner. He has kept tanks for years and years and I guess I just assumed it would be coming pest free. I have montis ( most have been dipped and moved to QT, but need to be redipped tomorrow) there were a few that I did a freshwater dip on (as read--I know.. ) and most of the flesh died. I was going to yank them then o saw patches starting to come back. I need to break them up and dip the salvageable pieces and dry the rest. I can see them making good coral foundations. Would letting them dry or bake in the sun erradicate any eggs or would I need to do a bleach bath and then sun? I also have a few chips of monti on the rocks that I couldn't get to break free. I did pull a few more nudis out with the planaria. I also removed my cyphastrea and I think some sort of encrusting monti with tiny fluorescent green dots and a digi but my only other sps at this moment are the pocillopora, possible stylo and possible fat birdsnest. Oh and the Hollywood stunner. Is that an sps? Do I need to remove any of those? I've heard horror stories of using flatworm exit and nuking everything because of the toxins they release.. would running carbon a little while after dosing be beneficial at all or would it just suck up the treatment? I've only seen the few on the duncans, which I removed, and then the ones on the neighboring Yuma rock. Should I assume the tank is full of them or that it may be a small outbreak at this point? Can I dip corals in coral rx first before doing the treatment? This may help to remove some so the treatment goes better. Most everything is unattached, except for my Yuma rock. Would dipping kill off all of those good critters I just saw living in that rock? All of this is great timing too, because I just ordered some birthday corals! Should be here tomorrow! I guess it's a good thing I have an empty 20 gallon tank and a new frag rack that should also be here tomorrow. Going to have to set up the tank and a dipping station! Is it beneficial to dip in 2 different things? Coral rx then peroxide? Crx then seachem iodine? Crx then furan?and I have a new monti on the way too.. here's hoping it doesn't get infected.. here's hoping nothing gets infected!
H2O? Yeah ... found that out the hard way. Everyone said to toss them anyway though. Well, I didn't dip them all ... I still have some I moved to QT. Lesson learned.
I didn't use peroxide. Or were you just warning? I rinsed in water but it seemed to kill off almost all of the tissue. I can see some coming back on the big green one so I may not toss it all. I wish I hadn't killed my brown/blue polyps one.
acros don't mind FW dips but montis typically don't like them. One method of eliminating the nudis a little quicker, is to bait a DT once you've removed all the montis. I did this as much on accident as deliberately the first time but most people will agree that caps are what the nudis like best. When I removed all my montis to QT there was a brown cap that got left behind a rock, a few days later I noticed I'd left in it there and when I picked up what I though was just a dead cap there were hundreds of nudis on it. I tossed it in the trash but later that night after a few beers I had the bright idea to put another piece of cap in there just to see if I could bait the adults up and over a period of a month or so of repeating this every few days there quit being any nudis on the bait. I did have a sixline and coris wrasse in the tank, I'm sure they helped as well. I kept checking for another month or so before I put what was left of my monti collection back in the DT. I've had client tanks that I've removed all the montis "with wrasses"in for 90 days only to add clean frags and see nudis on them soon after. I would suspect these little buggers can go a while without a meal, but I will say they can find a polyp of monti in a 180g tank and they aren't leaving their food source until it's gone.
Yeah I believe you! I've got to redip my QT montis because I saw a few in there today. I wish I hadn't killed off most of my big green one because it was huge! I totally could have broken off bait and done that for a while! Hopefully I can get rid of these little buggers. I also hope I can get rid of the dang red planaria. I saw another one on a Duncan last night but not sure I got the whole thing out. Duncan closed up on me when I tried to get it. Haven't seen any of those white/clear ones since the one and I've been looking. So do we think it was an Acro eater? Are the stylo, fat birdsnest and pocillopora Acro family? (I guess I could look it up!)