Current thinking on vermetid snails?

Chriscrna · Aug 12, 2016

I have hundreds, perhaps thousands of vermetid snails. They don't seem to be harming any coral, so I've not put much thought to them.

However, it appears that their numbers are getting greater and greater all the time. I don't find them to be terribly unsightly, and they only time I really notice their mucous strands is when I stir up the sand bed.

I don't know at what point I would define them as being "out of control", but I believe I'm now either at that point or beyond.

I've read dozens of differing opinions on whether or not they are harmful to coral...........everything from hobbyist's self-proclaimed snake oil remedies to scholarly articles written by Ph.D.'s

Anyway, as the title says, what is the current thinking on vermetid snails?

Robertchrisroph · Aug 12, 2016

Hello wonderful day to you. Well I like them. But to a point. So to many babies, what I would try is getting something to eat the babies, maybe a hermit crab species that eats them? I Hurd people sucking them up with gravel cleaner. Good luck. I have thousands turbo snail babies. All over my glass at night but go away in day. It's funny

Chris Adams · Aug 12, 2016

I found them to be no more than an irritant to corals. Have never had a tank that did not end up having some.
I have also noticed populations clime and then slowly disappear.
Depending on qty and where they lay down their home I would take a pair of tweezers and crush them at the base before they go back into tube(sorry can't think of proper name).

Good post! Will be interested to see what others do if anything

BlueDevil · Aug 12, 2016

I'm not a huge fan of them. That is one reason why I went with all new rock in my new tank. The rock in my old tank was infested with the little buggers. For the most part they didn't seem to affect corals. However the ones that did get too close to the corals did irritate them for sure. One of them actually made a home in one of my acros which resulted in it causing a gaping hole in the main stalk. The only way to keep that stick from dying was for to superglue the worm hole which also affected the coral.

So yeah, I'm not a huge fan of them and try to crush them as and when I see them. Especially the bigger ones that make darker, harder shell homes in rocks.

As far as remedies, crushing them or superglue are two most common. I've heard of people having mixed luck with yellow coris wrasse and foxface to eat them.

bsagea · Aug 12, 2016

I personally cannot stand them. I think they do annoy the corals when their nets are out and just plain don't like the look of them. Our yellow coris doesn't touch them.
bsa

Jeeper · Aug 21, 2016

I do not like them.
I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox
I do not like them in a house
I do not like them with a mouse
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.

Nibejeebies · Aug 22, 2016

This weeks BRS 160 video , Ryan used a pair of dollar store pliers to cut/rip them from the rocks... I've been thinking of doing the same since they seem to multiplying

Lionfish Lair · Aug 22, 2016

Jeeper said:
I do not like them.
I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox
I do not like them in a house
I do not like them with a mouse
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.

Lionfish Lair · Aug 22, 2016

I don't like them. I totally believe in the motto "live and let live", but I tell ya... I've changed my tune where these guys are concerned. I've always has a few in a couple of my tanks, but my 210 gallon has more than I would like of the little small variety. I've had the large ones and the medium ones and they were fine. Never took over anything and I rather enjoyed them. These small ones.... they are major suckage. I haven't figured out yet what I want to do about it. Dosing the tank is not an option. I may look into some vermetid eating fish, but am not really into anything I can't feed with a stick or would have to feed daily + some other obstacles. I don't think it's feasible to do the manual crush method (that boat has sailed) and definitely can't use epoxy or super glue as they are too tiny.

I've had a Foxface in the past and still had vermetids (I liked the vermetids back then).

Macdaddynick1 · Aug 22, 2016

So from my 8th grade biology class I vaguely remember that snails will multiply along so called J curve - meaning if the food is abundant snails will multiply at an uncontrollable rate until at some point there will be so many snails that they will consume all of the food and the population will drop drastically. Following that logic , your population is close to the end of the J curve. Perhaps you can crash the whole population or at least starve the majority of these guys if you do a major cleaning , syphon detritus , feed less , add a 100 micron filters sock, perhaps add a UV sterilizer to remove phyto from the tank ( you would need to skim out dead phyto after the UV killed it ) But be careful making all these changes , and keep an eye on the corals.

Sidenote - i have the small ones and they are annoying with their tiny webs. However, they're nothing compared to the big version, the ones that get about 2" and send out webs that can cover a huge area, causing most coral colonies to close.

authentic · Aug 22, 2016

Had a big one on a wild colony,never knew what the net was until I watched the brs video,cut and glued it the next day

Lionfish Lair · Aug 22, 2016

But here's the kicker.... my tank isn't rich in nutrients. They developed when the tank was cycling and they just sort have hung around. Their numbers haven't changed in over a year and perhaps more. I feed with a stick, so there isn't any food floating around, as happens in most normal tanks (less detritus). I clean my glass maybe once every month or two, because there's no film algae to clean. I have a few collonista snails in a back corner, where I've been trying to get a little film algae to grow. For a little bit it looked like I was going to have a few cool stomatellas, but their numbers dwindled to where I hadn't seen any for a couple of months. At one point a while back, over a year, I let some film algae grow (other than my little area) and I did see pods start to appear and a couple amphipods. I feel my tank is almost too sterile. There's not a single bristleworm, flatworm, nuisance algae or pod to be seen. :-( These are things I feel define a healthy tank, so I don't care for it. It's the curse of the dry rock and also at points it had zero fish (and yet it still had the vermetids

)Up until a month ago, there was only a 3" fish in a 210g tank. So, once these things are settled, they need the bare minimum to survive. I'm a little hesitant to say this, but the coralline algae is starting to overtake them. I say hesitant, because coralline algae in itself can also be a pain. In the next couple of months, I'll be putting a third fish in the tank and am actually looking forward to adding the bioload.

Oddly enough, I never see webs unless I'm stirring up bubbles in the tank. Otherwise you'd think they were dead... actually, I haven't really sized them up lately. Maybe I should actually check the tubes for snails before I say anything more. LOL! I know there's a few, because I DO see the couple of webs at times, but maybe it's time to do a closer inspection.