Bubblebee Snails

[Booyah]

I discovered many vermetid snails in my aquarium. I have manually removed all the visible ones. I am going to get some bumblebee snails. How many snail do you recommend for a 55g tank? Are the bumblebees totally reef safe?
TIA

 

[ScubaFish802]

I’m not sure anyone has had any real luck using bumblebees for vermitid control. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but there are better ways to try and control them IMO. To be honest though, once they are in your tank you will never truly be rid of them.

 

[sixline]

I have vermetids and bumblebee snails in my 100g. I've had both for a while.

About a year ago, I did a big manual removal campaign on the vermetids and got everything I could see. Now I usually have about 5 or 6 of them somewhere that I eventually manually get and then I get 5 or 6 more. They're not really that bad if you keep them under control. I'd say once every two weeks or so, I go at the visible ones with needle nose pliers.

I haven't noticed the bumblebee snails doing anything bad, but Im not sure if they're doing anything to mitigate the vermetid snails. It doesn't seem possible that they could successfully attack an adult vermetid. Although, if I recall correctly, juvenile vermetids are small and move around, then plant themselves somewhere and start growing the tube. Maybe the bumblebees are eating them when they're in the mobile phase. (I'd love to hear all of this confirmed or denied, I'm just repeated what I've read somewhere about the lifecycle of vermetids)

Edited to add: I just did some google searching and found an article that confirms the above about vermetid snails here.

 

[Bfragale]

In my experience Bumblebee snails seem to only eat the very small vermedit snails. At least that’s what I assume because since I added 25 to my 90 gallon I’ve seen a decrease in new ones. I still manually remove anything I can see but it has become manageable with the bumblebees and manual removal. Unless maturity of the tank has something to do with it? Not really sure why I see less lol. Hope that helps.

 

[Booyah]

I have vermetids and bumblebee snails in my 100g. I've had both for a while.

About a year ago, I did a big manual removal campaign on the vermetids and got everything I could see. Now I usually have about 5 or 6 of them somewhere that I eventually manually get and then I get 5 or 6 more. They're not really that bad if you keep them under control. I'd say once every two weeks or so, I go at the visible ones with needle nose pliers.

I haven't noticed the bumblebee snails doing anything bad, but Im not sure if they're doing anything to mitigate the vermetid snails. It doesn't seem possible that they could successfully attack an adult vermetid. Although, if I recall correctly, juvenile vermetids are small and move around, then plant themselves somewhere and start growing the tube. Maybe the bumblebees are eating them when they're in the mobile phase. (I'd love to hear all of this confirmed or denied, I'm just repeated what I've read somewhere about the lifecycle of vermetids)

Edited to add: I just did some google searching and found an article that confirms the above about vermetid snails here.

That was my thoughts also about the Bumblebee being effective in the pre hard shell phase. I found some at the base of my goniopora ! Of course my favorite coral lol it wasn't opened and upon investigation I found the little lol I am a newbie to saltwater and trying to enjoy and go with the flow but if these little critters keep me from having a goni garden I'm going to

 

[Booyah]

That was my thoughts also about the Bumblebee being effective in the pre hard shell phase. I found some at the base of my goniopora ! Of course my favorite coral lol it wasn't opened and upon investigation I found the little lol I am a newbie to saltwater and trying to enjoy and go with the flow but if these little critters keep me from having a goni garden I'm going to

My emojis didn't show up in the post?