Vermetid Snails- The undefeatable pest

[Reefahholic]

If you've been in this hobby long enough...you often hear reefers boast about how they defeated a particular pest with a natural predator. However, Vermetid snails seem to be the exception. The really don't have many natural predators.

I've had them in a few of my systems over the years and they are the most annoying pest out there other the AEFW. They will irritate Acro's and stunt their growth, they will grow up through the coral, they multiply like crazy if nutrients are left unchecked and they ruin your photos.

You hear people Bumblebee Snails work. I haven't personally witnessed that to be true. You hear Emerald Crabs work. Emerald Crabs actually help tremendously with the Vermetid's on your rocks, but some Emerald Crabs have a palate for corals. Recently, I had 4 out of 5 Emeralds go for my corals and I took photos of one crab on top of an Acro and also where it ate the base of the coral. Anyway, there's not too many options for dealing with Vermetid snails. It's depressing. Even if you killed them, they will leave behind their hard little tubes which would need to be broken off the rocks. You can put super glue on 20K snails so that's out of the question for most of us.

These guys are microscopic too. The only way to possibly avoid them is to only introduce "live tissue" or microscopically check everything going into a new system after it's been quarantined for months which is way too difficult for most. The best way is to cut all frag plugs off the corals, keep only live tissue, and quarantine the corals. You might get lucky for a while just doing the first two steps.

If anybody has heard of a sure way to eliminate these snails, please let me know. I think about 75% or more of hobbyist have these in their tanks.

 

[mfollen]

Agreed 100% - there has to be a predator. It’s the ocean. Nothing goes wasted.

my tank is free of all pests but these little guys.

interestingly mine only grow in crevices and not in the open, maybe urchin?

 

[brandon429]

vermitids are not phased by direct application of 35% peroxide right in the opening

hold 35% in palm of hand five mins, go to hospital w third degree chemical burns but five mins to a verm is nothing


they twist and froth and recoil and bend the tube, you are thinking they’re getting it this time / aha

then tomorrow, four more and the treated ones full normal.

 

[Injoynit]

I would think the predators for those are the same predators for SPS corals. You'd need a strong mouth to break open the shell. I'm just throwing this out as a guess.
Fish like the parrot fish, Harlequin File Fish, Puffer fish and such.

 

[DylanE]

I had a valentini puffer that kept them in check for a long time. Saw him chip them off the rocks regularly. Lost him in a move and now they are creeping out of the inaccessible places. I’ll be getting a new one soon.

Edit: He never touched a coral. Hopefully not an exception

 

[Backreefing]

I got them to, hundreds . I seen a sea hair eat them , but it died with plenty to go ....

 

[eggplantparrot]

I threw a bumblebee in my tank a couple days ago... I will report progress

 

[krash7172]

I have emerald crabs, bumblebees and a trigger fish. Nada. Vermetids have been in my tank since before I knew they existed. I smash them with a stainless steel pick when I am doing maintenance. Diamond goby stirring up sand clouds are like Vermetid radar system lol.

 

[Reefahholic]

I had a valentini puffer that kept them in check for a long time. Saw him chip them off the rocks regularly. Lost him in a move and now they are creeping out of the inaccessible places. I’ll be getting a new one soon.

Edit: He never touched a coral. Hopefully not an exception

Might have to pick one up.

 

[Reefahholic]

I threw a bumblebee in my tank a couple days ago... I will report progress

Thx. Please do!

 

[Reefahholic]

I have emerald crabs, bumblebees and a trigger fish. Nada. Vermetids have been in my tank since before I knew they existed. I smash them with a stainless steel pick when I am doing maintenance. Diamond goby stirring up sand clouds are like Vermetid radar system lol.

I smash their little tubes when I get into the tank and if it wasn't for that I wouldn't be able to tolerate it.

I try to imagine they're not there. They have to be the most irritating pest on the planet. I would rather do a week on Naked and Afraid getting bit up by sand flies than to have Vermetids in another system.

 

[Reefahholic]

The Emerald crabs were working until this happened!

 

[Leslie Tabor]

This is such an odd post for me. When I first started my tank I had them like crazy. I spent SO MUCH time crushing tubes and cut myself with a screwdriver plenty of times digging the tubes off rocks. Then I gave up. Then, one day, they vanished and I haven't seen one since. I did nothing special, have no idea why.

 

[Reefahholic]

They were really effective at “scraping” the rocks and cleaning the tubes off!

 

[Reefahholic]

This is such an odd post for me. When I first started my tank I had them like crazy. I spent SO MUCH time crushing tubes and cut myself with a screwdriver plenty of times digging the tubes off rocks. Then I gave up. Then, one day, they vanished and I haven't seen one since. I did nothing special, have no idea why.

Very interesting! Same thing seemed to have happened to a friend of mine. Are you running extremely low nutrients?

 

[Reefahholic]

I can tell you guys one thing for sure...I'll never use live rock ever again.

 

[Reefahholic]

This is such an odd post for me. When I first started my tank I had them like crazy. I spent SO MUCH time crushing tubes and cut myself with a screwdriver plenty of times digging the tubes off rocks. Then I gave up. Then, one day, they vanished and I haven't seen one since. I did nothing special, have no idea why.

How old is your system now?

 

[Vincent Azzano]

If you've been in this hobby long enough...you often hear reefers boast about how they defeated a particular pest with a natural predator. However, Vermetid snails seem to be the exception. The really don't have many natural predators.

I've had them in a few of my systems over the years and they are the most annoying pest out there other the AEFW. They will irritate Acro's and stunt their growth, they will grow up through the coral, they multiply like crazy if nutrients are left unchecked and they ruin your photos.

You hear people Bumblebee Snails work. I haven't personally witnessed that to be true. You hear Emerald Crabs work. Emerald Crabs actually help tremendously with the Vermetid's on your rocks, but some Emerald Crabs have a palate for corals. Recently, I had 4 out of 5 Emeralds go for my corals and I took photos of one crab on top of an Acro and also where it ate the base of the coral. Anyway, there's not too many options for dealing with Vermetid snails. It's depressing. Even if you killed them, they will leave behind their hard little tubes which would need to be broken off the rocks. You can put super glue on 20K snails so that's out of the question for most of us.

These guys are microscopic too. The only way to possibly avoid them is to only introduce "live tissue" or microscopically check everything going into a new system after it's been quarantined for months which is way too difficult for most. The best way is to cut all frag plugs off the corals, keep only live tissue, and quarantine the corals. You might get lucky for a while just doing the first two steps.

If anybody has heard of a sure way to eliminate these snails, please let me know. I think about 75% or more of hobbyist have these in their tanks.

Ya I think you need a predator for sure. Maybe a clownfish or pufferfish

 

[Reefahholic]

Ohh and they climbed on my corals.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

Oh gosh no! My nutrients are always crazy...I over feed...I can't help it. I do my weekly water changes, and did start some NOPox dosing. I don't do anything fancy, I like PaulB method...keep it simple! My reef is 4 years old, moved to a bigger basement tank about a year and a half ago now but I hadn't seen a vermatid for a LONG time. I feel like the first 1-2 years was the worst of them. I do softies with anemones, started the tank with all dry, boring white rock. At that time, I dipped everything going in religiously...still had them.