Vermetid Snails- The undefeatable pest

[Justin Swinney]

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

I have this one looks like it’s currently unavailable. There are others just like it though.

 

[Reefahholic]

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

Mine went after a few of my Acro’s. I sumped some and threw the rest in my overflow box. They did a good job in there until they were sucked down the overflow.

 

[Jono1487]

I have thousands of these all over my tank. I saw a decline in their numbers once I got my nutrients in check. High nutrient input and high nutrient output is key

 

[maaikejongens1]

I have read all 7 pages. It good to read about positive results. I also have vermetid snails in the tank. I have tried the screw driver. Now I want to use glue. The ones who are the closest to the corals, I want to get rid of at fist. But I'm scared I damage the coral as well. I do not have many snails yet. In a previous tank I saw how quick they multiply. I hope this time I can get rid of them befor my tank is full of snails.

 

[Leadfooted]

I have read all 7 pages. It good to read about positive results. I also have vermetid snails in the tank. I have tried the screw driver. Now I want to use glue. The ones who are the closest to the corals, I want to get rid of at fist. But I'm scared I damage the coral as well. I do not have many snails yet. In a previous tank I saw how quick they multiply. I hope this time I can get rid of them befor my tank is full of snails.

Stir up your sand bad a little to help identify the snails. Dollar tree Super glue and a sanitary sraping/crushing device is the one trick that's 100% when done correctly. These snails can decay in their shells after glued shut so it is possible to have a nutrient spike, be mindful of that.

 

[Scorpius]

I can't remember if I posted in this thread already, but I had these vermetid snails years ago badly. Oddly enough they disappeared on their own as my tank matured.

 

[baldbrah]

I had an infestation with these ****ers and it was all over my rocks like pin cushions and all in my plumbing. Absolutely no way of getting rid of them at that point and I’ve tried everything. I tore down the tank and bought a brand new tank and all new equipment and started over. It’s the only way to truly get rid of them. And now I inspect everything closely before putting in my tank.

 

[eggplantparrot]

I have had my bumblebee snail for a while now, and I can say for sure, he has done NOTHING.

I still see him here and there so he's survivng off something, but obviously not the vermetids.

 

[McPuff]

I have had my bumblebee snail for a while now, and I can say for sure, he has done NOTHING.

I still see him here and there so he's survivng off something, but obviously not the vermetids.

Just 1 snail? You will definitely not notice anything, even if you've got a pic tank. I have about 80 in my tank (300) and they seem to do a decent job. Again, it's only the small version of vermetids... unless you chop/crush them first. I have noticed that the bumblebees will be ALL OVER the smashed/cracked shells eating them up. It's a pretty quick response. But you have to have a decent a number of snails to fight the fight.

Fish will also eat the snails if you crush/cut them up with some bone cutters are other tools. It's really the only way they can access the meaty part.

It's going to take some manual work to control the larger version but it's much easier compared to the small ones (which the bumbles will eat).

 

[serwobow]

I was a skeptic of the bumble bee snails, but now I am a believer, sort of. I had the small vermetids all over my tank ( 1000's of them, probably) and bought a dozen bumblebees. Saw no difference, and never saw bumblebees eating them. Slowly though, maybe 6 months later, I noticed that the vermetids had begun to dwindle in number. Now, at 12 months after bumblebee introduction, there are zero live vermetids that I can see. But, the other day, I took off my overflow pipe to clean it since it appeared to be clogged, and it turned out it was clogged - with masses of vermetids. Maybe it was the only place the bumblebees couldn't reach. Anyways, I don't actually know if the bumblebees ate the vermetids in the tank, but they are the prime suspect.

 

[Backreefing]

I have hydroids . So I got a tuxedo urchin, and he’s doing ok at eating them .
back to the thread , my tuxedo isn’t doing nothing for vermited snails.
so has anyone tryed a more large and aggressive urchin ? Maybe a pencil urchin?

 

[Larry L]

I have heard the description of large 'mucus webs' irritating corals but I can't say I have seen that. The ones I have certainly catch food particles with a small tag of mucus at the entrance of their shell/tube but that's about it.

Bumblebee snails DO WORK! But it comes with a caveat... they only seem to eat the smaller type of vermetid.

Other than these couple things I spotted, there's not much mention in this long thread that there are different types of vermetids, including the the small spiky ones that barely extend past the top of their tubes, and the bigger ones (e.g. 1/4" diameter) that put out big mucus webs that can extend many inches beyond the tube.

So when some people say bumblebee snails work against vermetids and some say they don't, it wouldn't be surprising if it's because they were dealing with different types on vermetids. Same for coral snow and similar treatments - I'd expect that to work much better (if it works at all) against the big worms, since their mucus web would get clogged up and prevent them from feeding. I don't expect it would bother the small worms much if at all.

I personally don't mind the smaller ones too much, they are mostly just annoying when I scrape my hands on them. And they mostly don't bother my corals, but if they do I just break off the nearby ones that are being irritating to them. Unfortunately in the past I've also had big outbreaks of the big ones where their mucus webs were irritating the corals so badly that lots of coral were dying off, and I never managed to get rid of them until I eventually rebooted the whole tank with new rock.

 

[William Norman]

So I havent feed my QT Coral Tank since late Feb and have not disturbed the tank so no detritus gets stirred up and they are still there. I want to get these corals into my display. So what do you think I should do. I will make sure there are not obvious snail. Dip the corals in copper, flatworm exit or other to make sure no snail eggs or anything comes with them. The corals are zoas, frogspawn, ducan, blastos and acans.

 

[Backreefing]

IMO starvation doesn’t work. I mostly ignored my aquarium for several years . Never feed it . And every square inch got covered with hydroids and vermited snails.

 

[Nami]

Never feed it

Never feed as in no coral food or absolute no input of anything including fish food?

They may still be feeding off excess fish food.

Since they are not photosynthetic, they must be feeding on something.

 

[Backreefing]

I didn’t feed NOTHING.... my one 6 line eventually died so I thought @&*#-it what’s to feed .

 

[William Norman]

So what dip should I use to kill off any eggs or hitchhikers. I will make sure their are no obvious ones.

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

Has nobody ever thought of just using a molluscicide to wipe them out? All this talk of crushing them and adding bumble bee snails is just useless nonsense. If you have an established tank that is large and full of corals then those methods are simply not an option. Nether is breaking down the tank and nuking the rock. If I had to do that on my tank I would simply quit. There must be some kind of molluscicide or chemical that can be added to the tank that will exterminate all snail life without harming the corals.

 

[Reef and Dive]

Has nobody ever thought of just using a molluscicide to wipe them out? All this talk of crushing them and adding bumble bee snails is just useless nonsense. If you have an established tank that is large and full of corals then those methods are simply not an option. Nether is breaking down the tank and nuking the rock. If I had to do that on my tank I would simply quit. There must be some kind of molluscicide or chemical that can be added to the tank that will exterminate all snail life without harming the corals.

That’s exactly the question.

Medications like mylbemicin and fembendazole have been tried without success for those pests (used both myself).

 

[mfollen]

I know this isn’t an answer for most reefers, but if you’re willing to give up some coral (mostly meaty LPS & Zoas, some w/ acros) angels will keep your display rock vermetid free. Not sure about most dwarf angelfish species though as they are heavy algae eaters.