Vermetid Snails- The undefeatable pest

[SaltyAddict]

I have some vermetid snails that were introduced into my tank after purchasing some corals off of a local reefer. I've read online that someone was using a high powered laser pointer to cook them in their tube, that sounds like fun but would probably be a tedious job. I also read about keeping magnesium at high levels kill snails over time. Has anyone looked into or tried keeping magnesium high to rid the tank of these?

 

[RichReef]

The problem with them isn't in your display. The problem is them getting into the plumbing.

BB snails will clear them up in a display, sump, or refugium. It just doesn't happen overnight. I put 10 in my display and now I have to search to find one.

But the plumbing is a completely different animal.

 

[Backreefing]

I bought 6 of them ( BB ) snails and I yet to see one eat a single vermited snail.
The funny thing about my vermited snails is I never ever see any mucus nets or strings from them. IDK

 

[DarkSky]

keeping magnesium at high levels

Shouldn't affect them. What do you consider high levels? My mag is usually around 1500.

 

[Punchanello]

I bought 6 of them ( BB ) snails and I yet to see one eat a single vermited snail.
The funny thing about my vermited snails is I never ever see any mucus nets or strings from them. IDK

I don't really either. I see them catch detritus and algae when I scrape out the sumps and it blows in to the DT but never the nets people describe. I'm thinking we have a different kind.

 

[SaltyAddict]

Shouldn't affect them. What do you consider high levels? My mag is usually around 1500.

I read keeping a level of 1700 could cause mortality for snails if kept high long term.

 

[SaltyAddict]

I just came across this article:

Our muricid-vermetid paper is out in MEPS! – Osenberg Lab

Death and life: Muricid snails consume the vermetid gastropod, Dendropoma maximum, and use empty shells for reproduction - Coral Reefs

link.springer.com

I don't think the natural predators are available in the hobby right now.

 

[DarkSky]

Oh that's promising.

Wonder if anyone can get those snails in, Mancinella armigera looks promising.

 

[piranhaman00]

I have been blowing my sandbed for dinos and its definetly benefiting the verms. Each night I have been blowing the sandbed, then its easier to see their nets, then crack them down to the base with a pliers. Fun stuff.

Edit: They are fascinating though.

 

[Msteven1]

I've given up on my Biocube 29. I removed all rock one piece at a time, chiseled every snail off, replaced. 6 months later I'm back to pin cushion rock. Tubes on my hammers, duncan, mushroom frag plugs, zoa plugs. I was already planning on an upgrade to a 40 breeder, but now I don't trust transferring anything to the new tank.
From now on I'm doing a quarantine on everything that goes in the display. Even inverts.

 

[tankstudy]

I also read about keeping magnesium at high levels kill snails over time. Has anyone looked into or tried keeping magnesium high to rid the tank of these?

I wouldn't recommend high levels of magnesium. I was recently just battling an issue where magnesium had been leaching in my system and pushing magnesium into the 1700 zone for quite an extended period of time. Corals, this includes all 3 categories we keep, do very poorly. They won't die instantly but they look awful and their health slowly declines till they die.

Most of my grazing snails, banded trochus snails, florida ceriths and dwarfs ceriths became totally inactive. Many ended up dying in this extended exposure period of time. This might be effective against vermetid snails but I did notice that nassarius snails were somewhat still active so it might not be effective against all snails.

I do recall a video recently of someone explaining at the molecular level about the negative effects of increased magnesium as well in our hobby. I can say that increasing magnesium to 1600-1700 is not a good idea at all.

However, if reefers want to test it out, they can... but I'd advise highly against it especially since you need to keep magnesium high for an extended period of time for it to be effective, at this point sacrificing all your other inhabitants.

 

[boacvh]

I am a newbie so take with grain of salt, but here is what I have observed at least on mine.
1. I have seen my emerald crab breaking their tubes and eating them. However, at the speed he works on one I think I would need 200+ emerald crabs to even make a dent on the vermetid population.
2. I added 10 BB snails. Still haven't seen a single one eating a vermetid.
3. I was crushing their tubes and bases weekly at WC time, and the population just kept growing more and more. I sort of gave up since it was a lot of work and accepted they would be part of my biodiversity going forward. Since I stopped crushing them their population growth declined drastically. Maybe crushing them elicits a response? I don't know, maybe the population just plateaued for the amount of food particles in my water column and it was just a coincidence it slowed when I stopped crushing them.

 

[Two Gay Reefers]

Every outbreak will have thicker tubed mother colonies, these are the ones you’re after. They coil against the rock like a snail shell, which they will hide in if you break off the rest of the tube. Find and destroy these mother colonies and they have no way to reproduce.

 

[Jesterrace]

I haven't seen my bumblebee snails eat them, but the few Vermatids that did start popping up around my tank seem to have vanished since I added a handful of bumblebee snails. I do think I would be in a totally different boat if I had a bunch of vermatids though.

 

[Rod Webb]

Every rock absolutely covered in the little ones. You cant even start to get rid of them. They started off on a Euphyllia skeleton. They grow strait through any encrusting coral that grows over them.

 

[Rickyreef]

Ohh and they climbed on my corals.

I just pulled out an emerald
Crab from my tank yesterday night. He was getting just way too big. And he like to climb o. Corals but I never saw him nip at one, till yesterday after feeding my candy cane, he went and pinch him a bit so that was it for me. What I’ve read and also seen in my tank is that males are the ones that start getting confident, I have another female that is half the size and only eats algae

 

[jimc40]

I saw some small vermatids on my bumble bee shell but have yet to see a bb eat a snail

 

[Dorinda]

I had a bunch of them and was just ready to live with it. But I bought a couple of green emerald crabs (really gray not green) and now I don't see any!

 

[Justin Swinney]

I bought one of those 5mw lasers and fry them. You can watch them smoke and hear them snap crackle and pop. Feed the tank watch for the webs and zap. I also notice the bumblebee snails swarm them afterwards

 

[jimc40]

I bought one of those 5mw lasers and fry them. You can watch them smoke and hear them snap crackle and pop. Feed the tank watch for the webs and zap. I also notice the bumblebee snails swarm them afterwards

I am going to pick one of those lasers up.which one do you have