Guard Dogs on Duty/ protecting your polyps

[MUCHO REEF]

Many of us have had the unfortunate experience of combating Nudibranchs in the past. I don't wish them on anyone as they will wreck continuous havoc on a zoanthid population. Many will only keep Palythoas as a sort of proactive measure to keeping their reefs Nudi free. It is still possible, if great care is not taken, to infest your tank with Nudibranchs. They will Hitchhike on rocks without a single zoanthid present. I have seen them in LFS on rocks without a single zoanthid or palythoa on the rocks. From many hours of just watching them, they will consume one rock, start on another colony, move, then comeback, then travel to find more polyps to consume and yes, they will travel across other rocks to get to the next colony they want to devastate. If you purchase that rock without any zoanthids at all on the rock from your LFS during their commute, you will infest your tank with Nudibranchs.

Dipping, close visual inspection and QTing are the most noted ways of preventing infestations, but keeping GUARD DOGS on the prowl 24/7 will also decrease the amount of time the infestation will occur, help with the eradication and keeping them from overtaking your reef until dipping, manual removal and treating begins. For this reason, lets create a list of known Nudibranch consuming fishes for future reference. Listed below are a few, there are about 20 to 25 that I know of. Lets list them all for future reference. I'll start with a few of them.

1. Yellow Coris wrasse
2. 6 Line wrasse
3. Lunar wrasse
4. Possum wrasse
5. Orange Striped wrasse
6. Christmas wrasse
7. Pink Striped wrasse
8. Some have said most anything in the Halichores Family as they are serious stalkers
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Mucho Reef

[Sir Patrick]

Glad to see the yellow coris at the top of the list!! Right where it belongs!

Other than wrasse, there are a few other guard dogs that I beleive should be mentioned also-

My suggestion for pod control- you know, when they over populate and start causing problems-

PJ/Bangaii cardinal fish, just to name one.

[jimsflies]

Although I never had a nudi for it to go for, I always figured my yellow fang/canary blenny was a good guardian....they are aways hunting the rock for stuff to eat.

[Sir Patrick]

Couple pics of my guard dogs-

Yellow coris-




Lunar-




and my bangaii-

[demonclownfish]

i know that sometimes you may get a mandarin with a taste for nudi's, flatworms, etc...

[MUCHO REEF]

Hope you guys can add their names to the list and keep it going. I didn't know Bangaii ate nudibranchs.

Trying to compile a list of known, observed, seen, reported fishes that have eaten Nudis. In the event that someone has Nudis, they may want to run out and pick up a known GUARD DOG.

[Rabidgoose]

This thread has been unstuck at OP's request for exposure purposes. After some time I will re stick this thread and delete this post.

thanks.......chuck

[Sir Patrick]

Oh- I thought guard dogs was meant in a broader scale. Pretty sure cardinals dont eat nudis- but they do keep pod populations down and in check.

You know how it can get when a pod population gets out of control- they can irritate polyps to death, and in turn get eaten.

My pair of wrasse are my nudi munchers.

[tazzy695]

I don't know how much it eats of pests but I know my royal gramma is always pecking at the rockwork

[Werdlone]

I know the spotted mandarin is very efficient at eating flatworms and pods...quite possibley nudies as well. I got my spotted mandarin to control pods and flatworms. Always hunting and picking at the rockwork.