Vermetid snail control

Charterreefer · May 3, 2017

I might have stumbled onto a way to slow down and possibly reverse the spread of these little buggers. I have been battling patches of cyano in my tank and added coral snow to my cyano regime. I had been dosing the Coral Snow for several weeks. Soon after, my wife was gazing into my tank and commented that she didn't see that many vermetids on the rocks. I gave a good look and agreed. They stopped spreading and looked like they are on the decline! Coral snow is known for making the tank look like there is no water in it...it gets the water that clear! There are next to no suspended particles after a treatment. I believe that the coral snow cleared the water so well that the vermetids lost their food source.

I will say that I am also using Cyano clean and Zeobak too but my money is on the Coral Snow for it's effects on the vermetids.

I would like to hear from anyone who is having this issue. Try coral snow every other day for several weeks and see if you get the same results.

Jason mack · May 3, 2017

Following !

FDAWG · May 3, 2017

Interesting... I broke down my tank because I couldnt stop them from populating.

Leadfooted · Aug 15, 2018

Charterreefer said:
I might have stumbled onto a way to slow down and possibly reverse the spread of these little buggers. I have been battling patches of cyano in my tank and added coral snow to my cyano regime. I had been dosing the Coral Snow for several weeks. Soon after, my wife was gazing into my tank and commented that she didn't see that many vermetids on the rocks. I gave a good look and agreed. They stopped spreading and looked like they are on the decline! Coral snow is known for making the tank look like there is no water in it...it gets the water that clear! There are next to no suspended particles after a treatment. I believe that the coral snow cleared the water so well that the vermetids lost their food source.

I will say that I am also using Cyano clean and Zeobak too but my money is on the Coral Snow for it's effects on the vermetids.

I would like to hear from anyone who is having this issue. Try coral snow every other day for several weeks and see if you get the same results.

Any updated on your theory? I'm about to give this stuff a shot at my vermetid population, thanks!

Charterreefer · Aug 15, 2018

It seems to have had a major impact. During its use the vermetid population dwindled. I will add now that I believe the coral snow gets into their nets and irritates them too. It also has the added benefit of making the water crystal clear as well. If you try it let me know how it goes for you. It would be great to have someone else confirm these results.

shred5 · Aug 15, 2018

I know they can reach plague proportions but they are not hard to control.
Take away their food, Feed the fish and not the water. It wont eliminate them totally but they will decrease.

Halal Hotdog · Aug 15, 2018

Unrelated but I have found triggers and harlequin tusks love vermetids. These fish + less particulate may get you pretty close to having a very small population of them.

Larry L · Aug 15, 2018

This is great news, in the past I've had to reboot tanks and replace all the rock when the vermetids got totally out of control. It makes sense that keeping the water clear would prevent them from filter feeding, would be interesting to know if that's the main effect or if like you said the coral snow irritates them somehow.

I suppose the coral snow would affect other filter feeders too, you'd have to be careful if you had e.g. feather dusters or maybe smaller clams that are relying heavily on filter feeding in addition to photosynthesis.

Leadfooted · Aug 18, 2018

Charterreefer said:
It seems to have had a major impact. During its use the vermetid population dwindled. I will add now that I believe the coral snow gets into their nets and irritates them too. It also has the added benefit of making the water crystal clear as well. If you try it let me know how it goes for you. It would be great to have someone else confirm these results.

I received my Coral Snow yesterday. I'll add after feeding the fish and corals today when their nets seem to come out the most. Fingers crossed

Leadfooted · Aug 18, 2018

Charterreefer said:
It seems to have had a major impact. During its use the vermetid population dwindled. I will add now that I believe the coral snow gets into their nets and irritates them too. It also has the added benefit of making the water crystal clear as well. If you try it let me know how it goes for you. It would be great to have someone else confirm these results.

Are you adding the ZEObak by them as well or just dosing coral snow?

Charterreefer · Aug 19, 2018

As I recall, I was using Zeobak and Cyanoclean alternately at the time as per dosing instructions although, I don't believe their use was making a difference to the vermetids but that's just my view.

While treating with CS be patient and wait several weeks for any results. You might want to take a picture of concentrated patches within your tank and then some in several weeks to be able to notice small changes. I still have a few here and there but nothing like the plague proportions that I once had.

**My fish feeding has always been the same throughout.

Leadfooted · Aug 19, 2018

Charterreefer said:
As I recall, I was using Zeobak and Cyanoclean alternately at the time as per dosing instructions although, I don't believe their use was making a difference to the vermetids but that's just my view.

Thanks and I'll just use CS only for now. I did a half dose yesterday and I'll don one more half dose in a few days then switch to full does. I've got some pictures of colonies already so I'll use these as reference. Thanks again!

Leadfooted · Sep 9, 2018

So good news and a turn for the better. Since this discussion I've stopped feeding Phyto and reef roids. I've reduced the fish feeding and added half dose Coral Snow about once a week. I did do best to crush ones that were clearly burning my Acans and Blasto's and a few others. I also have many bumble bee snails that seem to help but they can't always kill/eat the snail even though the try, some do. I can clearly see where some snails are dead now with hollow tubes and corrals are able to grow over them. I'll send some pictures for visuals later today.

Leadfooted · Sep 9, 2018

Monti was finally able to close this snail shut.

Dead snail, just a hollow tube now. This is what i like to see and shows some form of this method is making the snails die without being crushed. It's lack of food, maybe the bumble bee, maybe the Coral Snow, maybe a combo of all? Somethings working though

Charterreefer · Sep 10, 2018

I believe the coral snow gets in their nets and kills them. FYI: I never changed my feeding regime during the time I noticed the vermetid die off when using CS.

Leadfooted · Sep 10, 2018

Charterreefer said:
I believe the coral snow gets in their nets and kills them. FYI: I never changed my feeding regime during the time I noticed the vermetid die off when using CS.

Thanks and I can tell some blasto's and lobo's are in need of more food so I'll start feeding again. I'll keep using the Coral snow and see if the snail continue to die.