Vermetid snails - are they really that bad?

lba4590 · Jun 30, 2022

I’m so over vermetid snails. I have billions in my tank. It’s 3 years old and I meticulously quarantined every single coral in my tank for at least a month. Dipped, inspected, and dipped again. Yet somehow I ended up with bubble algae and vermetids galore.

I saw a few at first and superglued each one I saw for a while. Then I bought a new house and moved my tank, and soon I had an infestation. I have emerald crabs and bumblebee snails and I think they’re putting a dent in them, but I still see little mucous webs EVERYWHERE and I’m feeling defeated.

Tonight I noticed my MP40 sounded awful so I took it off to clean it. The nem guard was glued shut with vermatids. When I took the housing off the entire inside was caked in them, thousands. So I’m sitting here scrubbing and panicking and having a minor anxiety attack. I don’t know what else to do. To those of you living with them and pretending to coexist.. what’s the worst possible scenario? I mean I only really have softies and a few LPS.

biguebs · Jun 30, 2022

They’re the worst. I tore down and restarted a whole 125 due to them. The fact that there is no answer besides bumblebee snails, glue, or manual removal is amazing to me.

Jaybeastin · Jun 30, 2022

I restarted a new tank and tried my best to scrape take them off my corals but they still came back. Added 15 bumblebee snails and I seen them eating one. So far bumblee snails aren’t doing much. I believe they’re at stunting my zoas growth and my LPS don’t want to fully extend

Spare time · Jun 30, 2022

I tore down a tank because of them. I know run a coral QT due to vermatids (and for other things)

lba4590 · Jun 30, 2022

biguebs said:
They’re the worst. I tore down and restarted a whole 125 due to them. The fact that there is no answer besides bumblebee snails, glue, or manual removal is amazing to me.

I hear so many people saying they tore down their tanks because of them. But from a distance my tank looks great and everything is happy. I really don’t want to go nuclear but also.. I haven’t really heard about the extent of damage they cause. They don’t sting things, don’t seem to be bothering my corals… but I don’t know..

Spare time · Jun 30, 2022

lba4590 said:
I hear so many people saying they tore down their tanks because of them. But from a distance my tank looks great and everything is happy. I really don’t want to go nuclear but also.. I haven’t really heard about the extent of damage they cause. They don’t sting things, don’t seem to be bothering my corals… but I don’t know..

The main issue I had was that they coated my tank with their webbing whenever I fed and it annoyed me

moz71 · Jun 30, 2022

I had one of those bad infestations. They even grew on my other snail shells. I tried everything for a couple years. I know have very few. I did put in several dozen bubblebee snails but don’t think that what finally beat them down to manageable levels. Not really sure what caused them to decline but one thing I know for sure is whenever I put in coral food ie reef roids , reef energy, etc they rapidly came back. I completely stopped all broadcast feeding and will never again. That stop just feeds them and extreme growth

vtecintegra · Jul 1, 2022

I've got small ones that don't put out any nets. I dip corals in a strong bayer solution and they still got in the tank. I don't think you can keep them out indefinitely if you put a lot of hammers, frogspawn, or torches in the tank. They seem to readily infest those. I've got bumble bee snails but see no impact.

psumms · Jul 8, 2022

I read somewhere that Marine biologists count them on reefs as an indicator of Reed health.

I think breaking down a tank due to Vermetid snails is a bit extreme, just needs time and patients to resolve. I had a bad outbreak a couple of years ago, still find some today, you’ll never be free of them but you can get them under control…

What did I do? Bumblebee snails and … KZ Coral snow! Give the tank a good stir to get them feeding then dose the Coral Snow, this should over time start to block the feeding tube.

Forty-Two · Jul 8, 2022

I have them as well. Right now I manually clean them when I can but some of my rocks are too large to remove and clean.

I have a theory that If PO4 is high and/or calcium is low they can’t build their shells and thus will die out over time. I haven’t tested this theory yet however

BanjoBandito · Jul 8, 2022

You just have to stay on top of it. I live to crush em. Brings me joy. Just stir up the sand and go hunting. Anything can become plague levels.

fish farmer · Jul 8, 2022

lba4590 said:
I’m so over vermetid snails. I have billions in my tank. It’s 3 years old and I meticulously quarantined every single coral in my tank for at least a month. Dipped, inspected, and dipped again. Yet somehow I ended up with bubble algae and vermetids galore.

I saw a few at first and superglued each one I saw for a while. Then I bought a new house and moved my tank, and soon I had an infestation. I have emerald crabs and bumblebee snails and I think they’re putting a dent in them, but I still see little mucous webs EVERYWHERE and I’m feeling defeated.

Tonight I noticed my MP40 sounded awful so I took it off to clean it. The nem guard was glued shut with vermatids. When I took the housing off the entire inside was caked in them, thousands. So I’m sitting here scrubbing and panicking and having a minor anxiety attack. I don’t know what else to do. To those of you living with them and pretending to coexist.. what’s the worst possible scenario? I mean I only really have softies and a few LPS.

I didn't give vermetids much thought until a few years ago, so I "coexist" with them.

They were all over the rocks in a 120 gallon FOWLR that was running for 20 years. I had some hard PVC returns that hadn't been cleaned for a awhile that were solid with them. The PVC skimmer on that tank had them covering the bottom.

In my reef tank (29 gallon) they certainly annoy zoas and really do like to take up residence on hammer stalks, I try to crush them when I can. I try to crush them if they are on the edges of my favias since I think the favias may not successfully encrust over them. My cyphastrea is able to encrust over them.

I'm sure I'm not helping the situation by feeding more. I've added some bumblebee snails recently and yet to see them do much of anything, they actually have spent more time on rocks devoid of them since I added them a couple months ago.

rckfsh44 · Jul 8, 2022

psumms said:
I read somewhere that Marine biologists count them on reefs as an indicator of Reed health.

I think breaking down a tank due to Vermetid snails is a bit extreme, just needs time and patients to resolve. I had a bad outbreak a couple of years ago, still find some today, you’ll never be free of them but you can get them under control…

What did I do? Bumblebee snails and … KZ Coral snow! Give the tank a good stir to get them feeding then dose the Coral Snow, this should over time start to block the feeding tube.

KZ coral snow ?? Sounds good in theory

DHill6 · Jul 8, 2022

KZ coral snow and bumblebees also. Pretty much took care of them. Now the brittle tubes break off easily, nothing in them. Granted I didn’t have thousands of them but enough to be unsightly and annoying.

HuduVudu · Jul 8, 2022

lba4590 said:
I’m so over vermetid snails. I have billions in my tank. It’s 3 years old and I meticulously quarantined every single coral in my tank for at least a month. Dipped, inspected, and dipped again. Yet somehow I ended up with bubble algae and vermetids galore.

I saw a few at first and superglued each one I saw for a while. Then I bought a new house and moved my tank, and soon I had an infestation. I have emerald crabs and bumblebee snails and I think they’re putting a dent in them, but I still see little mucous webs EVERYWHERE and I’m feeling defeated.

Tonight I noticed my MP40 sounded awful so I took it off to clean it. The nem guard was glued shut with vermatids. When I took the housing off the entire inside was caked in them, thousands. So I’m sitting here scrubbing and panicking and having a minor anxiety attack. I don’t know what else to do. To those of you living with them and pretending to coexist.. what’s the worst possible scenario? I mean I only really have softies and a few LPS.

I don't understand this.

I have them have had them for years across multiple tanks. They, like the many other pests in my tank never get out of hand. My favorite is watching them attach to my corals. They never win, but is fun to watch. Coralline seems to do them in also. I kinda feel bad for them because they have to compete for space and they rarely survive and their shells end up being new territory to be taken over by other creatures further building out the rockscape of the tank.

I guess you could say that I live with them.

Dkmoo · Jul 8, 2022

here's a different take - don't blame the vermatid snails - they are the symptom of an underlying problem of the tank - they explode because conditions allow them to. I'd expect, since they are filter feeders, that you have too much dissolved organics / nutrients in the water columns. If the snails didn't explode and filter them out, then something else (which might be wayy worse, like hydroids) will just take their place.

focus on your water parameters, filtration, and nutrient export, and the vermatid population should self-regulate.

THESTRZA · Jul 8, 2022

I added about 10 bumblebee snails and they have been wayyyy less prevalent.

SimonHP · Jul 9, 2022

HuduVudu said:
I don't understand this.

I have them have had them for years across multiple tanks. They, like the many other pests in my tank never get out of hand. My favorite is watching them attach to my corals. They never win, but is fun to watch. Coralline seems to do them in also. I kinda feel bad for them because they have to compete for space and they rarely survive and their shells end up being new territory to be taken over by other creatures further building out the rockscape of the tank.

I guess you could say that I live with them.

This is my opinion too. I have found that certain non-ideal conditions seem to favour them. If your water parameters are good however, then I have found they are outcompeted by especially coralline, encrusting corals and spreading softies, etc.
Needle-nose pliers are good for crushing individual shells.