Living Growth on Astrea Snail?

[Mtroberts23]

I have an Astrea Snail and it appears to have some weird living growth/organism on its shell all of the sudden. I'm just curious if this is something normal or if this is something harmful that i need to remove immediately. Any advice or information would be extremely appreciated! Hopefully the images below are clear enough and close up enough! Thank you in advance!!

 

[Mike N]

Almost looks like a vermetid worm hitchhiking on the astrea

 

[Mtroberts23]

yeah looking up images it definitely looks like you are right! I'm also reading that they are not good for my tank. Think I can just pluck him off the snail or should i just get rid of the snail completely?

 

[Tahoe61]

Yup to Vermetid. I would pull the snail and snap off the vermetid with a pair of needle nose pliers.

 

[Mtroberts23]

Great! Thank you guys for all the information! I will do just that! Any way I can prevent this from getting into my tank again? did it come with a snail/hermit crab/coral?

 

[Tahoe61]

Welcome to R2R BTW

You just have to be diligent and inspect all new introductions. It's not the end of the world if they make it into your tank but they can become problematic in tanks that receive larger amounts of feedings. Vemetids will feed on suspended particles and they can irritate corals.

 

[Mike N]

Welcome to R2R BTW

You just have to be diligent and inspect all new introductions. It's not the end of the world if they make it into your tank but they can become problematic in tanks that receive larger amounts of feedings. Vemetids will feed on suspended particles and they can irritate corals.

+1
Helps to break off their little tubes when you see them, I do so regularly when performing maintenance.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Take the coral clippers and snap it off, make sure to pull the vermetid snail out of there, it will look like a worm. These things are annoying, especially the big ones like the one in the photo.

 

[ChiCity]

+1
Helps to break off their little tubes when you see them, I do so regularly when performing maintenance.

They grow back if you don't kill the snail inside...
Supergluing them is marginally more effective

 

[Mike N]

They grow back if you don't kill the snail inside...
Supergluing them is marginally more effective

No argument there.
For me, it's more about management than eradication. They seem to always make it into every tank I have, no matter how careful I am. Breaking the tubes off slows them down at least and I don't have to get in there with super glue. Just real quick snap off with the tongs/clippers and done.

 

[Mtroberts23]

Awesome I really appreciate all the feed back and helpful information. I pulled the snail out of the tank and used needle noses like was suggested. Their shell is pretty tough! Lol. But I cleaned everything off and got the worm completely off. I will definitely keep my eyes out for them. Thank you all very much again! =)