Vermetid Snails!!? How do you eliminate them!!!???

[CoralScape123]

Appreciate it, any particular super glue you would recommend for this if I wanted to complete it underwater?

The dollar store super glue gel works fine. I had a few that I couldn't get rid of via dipping. Just sealed them shut before the coral went into the tank. If I have to be in lock down, so will they.

 

[rantipole]

How many bumblebee snails would you put in a 13 gallon?

Cheers,
rant

 

[moorjames]

I have 2 in my biocube 32- but I also used the superglue trick on like 1 or 2 that I found. But the bumblebee snails seem like a good part of the cuc- I barely see them- they usually hide

 

[Snoopy 67]

There is really nothing "proven" to work.

 

[Cory]

My two decorator urchins as they clean my rocks leave behind white bare rock. But they also remove those stupid vermentid worms (thr mini ones) either by eating them or bumping them. But i do not see any of their tubes on my bare bottom glass just tons of urchin sand. So im assuming they eat them for calcium and protein!

 

[schooncw]

My two decorator urchins as they clean my rocks leave behind white bare rock. But they also remove those stupid vermentid worms (thr mini ones) either by eating them or bumping them. But i do not see any of their tubes on my bare bottom glass just tons of urchin sand. So im assuming they eat them for calcium and protein!

They may get the tubes but they just grow back

 

[JonnyTorch]

Pair of needle nose pliers work great. Very rewarding too as you break off each little bugger.

I used an xacto/utility blade. I was fortunate enough to find them on frag plugs and not the rocks. Both plugs that had them was from the same shop, which is a horrible shop but at the time I had thought they were the only place around. Anywho it is def rewarding to hear them snap off and die. LOL

 

[Cory]

They may get the tubes but they just grow back

Not mine. They actually remove the whole thing. The only ones they cant get are between cracks.

 

[tdlawdo]

Good Evening Reefers,

I have recently realized I have a major outbreak of vermetid snails. Does anyone have experience killing these or finding a predator that eliminates them. I’ve noticed them on bases of torches, frogspawns and stopping growth on zoanthids. Finally noticed the spider web type thing they put out and I will crush them by hand if need be.

Just looking for any advice!?

Stay Safe ALL!

#reefsquad
@ReefSquad

Bumble bee snails

 

[schooncw]

Bumble bee snails

I only had/have a few. I put in 20 bumble bee snails and they are doing the job. I put several on the large mushroom rock a few days ago and they are still on the rock, which would indicate that they have a food source and no new nets are coming off that rock

 

[McPuff]

BUMBLEBEE SNAILS DO WORK. But... you need to buy more than you think. And, keep in mind that they are much more effective on the smaller variety of vermetids. I've probably got 80 bumbles in my 300 and they basically eradicated the smaller species of vermetid. But the large version (siphon of 3-4mm diameter) are generally ok. So what you need to do is a combo approach. Bumbles + crushing. I just did this again today in fact. The response by the bumbles is nearly immediate after you crush some shells. They find and start feeding on the vermetids once they are much more susceptible. The long siphons serve as a very effective defense to bumbles so removing that safeguard really helps. I've been dealing with these for a few years now and I only go "hunting" 2-3 times per year so it's not a labor intensive chore at all. It's pretty amazing how quickly the bumbles find and start to feed on the vermetids. Again, get as many bumbles as you can. 20 of them for a 120 is not enough in my opinion. I'd shoot for 40. Another plus is that when you have a snail that dies (astrea, etc.) they will find and eat it pretty darn fast. I haven't seen any snail "murder" from the bumbles though which is good.

 

[ryshark]

BUMBLEBEE SNAILS DO WORK. But... you need to buy more than you think. And, keep in mind that they are much more effective on the smaller variety of vermetids. I've probably got 80 bumbles in my 300 and they basically eradicated the smaller species of vermetid. But the large version (siphon of 3-4mm diameter) are generally ok. So what you need to do is a combo approach. Bumbles + crushing. I just did this again today in fact. The response by the bumbles is nearly immediate after you crush some shells. They find and start feeding on the vermetids once they are much more susceptible. The long siphons serve as a very effective defense to bumbles so removing that safeguard really helps. I've been dealing with these for a few years now and I only go "hunting" 2-3 times per year so it's not a labor intensive chore at all. It's pretty amazing how quickly the bumbles find and start to feed on the vermetids. Again, get as many bumbles as you can. 20 of them for a 120 is not enough in my opinion. I'd shoot for 40. Another plus is that when you have a snail that dies (astrea, etc.) they will find and eat it pretty darn fast. I haven't seen any snail "murder" from the bumbles though which is good.

Are you saying you need to crush the smaller variety too in order to show the bumble bees it is a food source? Or were you just referring to the big ones.

 

[ryshark]

BUMBLEBEE SNAILS DO WORK. But... you need to buy more than you think. And, keep in mind that they are much more effective on the smaller variety of vermetids. I've probably got 80 bumbles in my 300 and they basically eradicated the smaller species of vermetid. But the large version (siphon of 3-4mm diameter) are generally ok. So what you need to do is a combo approach. Bumbles + crushing. I just did this again today in fact. The response by the bumbles is nearly immediate after you crush some shells. They find and start feeding on the vermetids once they are much more susceptible. The long siphons serve as a very effective defense to bumbles so removing that safeguard really helps. I've been dealing with these for a few years now and I only go "hunting" 2-3 times per year so it's not a labor intensive chore at all. It's pretty amazing how quickly the bumbles find and start to feed on the vermetids. Again, get as many bumbles as you can. 20 of them for a 120 is not enough in my opinion. I'd shoot for 40. Another plus is that when you have a snail that dies (astrea, etc.) they will find and eat it pretty darn fast. I haven't seen any snail "murder" from the bumbles though which is good.

Also, do you notice that the micro tubes are gone or just not shooting out nets anymore?

 

[McPuff]

Are you saying you need to crush the smaller variety too in order to show the bumble bees it is a food source? Or were you just referring to the big ones.

Also, do you notice that the micro tubes are gone or just not shooting out nets anymore?

Just need to crush the larger ones. They bumbles seem to be able to consume/destroy the smaller ones without any help.

 

[king aiptasia]

Do they harm softies? I have a few leathers, clove polyps, and zoas in my tank. I want to try an LPS or two soon. However, my tank is thick with vermetids right now. I spent the last several months combatting dinos, so I kinda let the vermetids get out of control. But, if they aren't really a problem, maybe I should just get a few bumblebee snails and not worry too much.

Cheers,
rant

i have never heard of solid info of them bothering anything except sps corals

 

[rantipole]

i have never heard of solid info of them bothering anything except sps corals

Thank you!

Cheers,
rant

 

[Drendo]

I put 20 in my 180 about 4 months ago. Took a while for them to start crawling my rocks, but now I find them around the base of the ******* snails and feel reasonable sure that it is workings. This plus super glue seems to be keeping them managed.

 

[Biologic]

A progress health report to show folks the benefits of removing these. You can really see this Montipora setosa is very happy.

 

[tritonpower]

I had a couple thousand. They were irritating Ricordea, hammers, etc. I got about 20 bumblebees. I was also having bubble algae and got a few emerald crabs. The largest crab likes to eat the coralline off the vermetid tubes and so he rips the whole tube off. Between the snails and the crabs I am down to a few hundred. I only manually removed the ones at the base of corals that were irritating the corals. Overall they are slowly disappearing. Has been around 2 months.