Vermetid Snails- The undefeatable pest

[Reefahholic]

Eme

Vermetid will return, they’re in the pipes.

I’ve seen some angels eat them. Only few animals can crunch and scrape rock and most of them eat coral.

Emerald crabs scrap rock very well over time. The put several in my tank one time and caught 3-4 of them munching away on basing Acro’s.

After one ate half of my ARC Master Yoda, that ticked me off and I removed them all.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

You can bleach the rock and re cure it like I did. I made it about 3 years without these snails, but they don’t always die on coral dips. My two spot wrasse and bumble bee snails keep the Vermsnails numbers down to the point where it’s hard to find one. Bristle worms have also started to stay hidden during the day. I love that wrasse, he’s a hard worker, always on the hunt.

 

[bryanfuel1]

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

Maybe put some cages over the acros and let a couple emeralds run loose for a couple weeks?

 

[Ernie C]

Not sure how effective emeralds are against vermetids but I’ve always had a few in my tank and never had any issues with them eating coral but have always had to deal With Vermetids. Trick is to make sure you get smaller females. They have tiny claws compared to the males that have the giant claws. But I’m sure they are opportunistic so if you have really clean rocks they’ll find something to eat I guess.

 

[Double monti 61]

Never had a problem with them!

 

[ActualProof]

 

[Midrats]

Still infested here.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Bumble bee snails are very effective

 

[piranhaman00]

I listened to some advice about not doing anything and eventually they just went away

 

[Backreefing]

I think they are related to the phosphate levels of the aquarium. And deep sand beds falicitae them as well.
here is the difference between the white picture with low phosphate and the blue picture with raised phosphate. Same rock same coral different water parameters and time

 

[Backreefing]

Sorry folks I thought this was the hydroids thread . I can’t figure out how to delete it.
Good thing I didn’t post any nudes .

 

[lisajulia]

If you want to try the KZ Coral Snow, save your money and just buy powdered calcium carbonate, it's the same thing. As far as introducing vermetids goes, I have never seen them come in on real live rock, and I looked at thousands of pounds of Fiji when I was in the trade. LPS corals are the main suspects, Euphyllia in particular.

I haven't had any coral in my tank for about 8 years and had nothing but live tonga and fiji rock. I recently broke down the tank and moved. i kept the 80+lbs of rock that's around 17+ years old. What i thought all these years were small feather dusters, i learned today are vermatid and it answers so many questions. They seem to be multiplying at rapid speed in my tank which is at the moment bare bottom with nothing but water and rock and no lights. Crazy.

 

[lisajulia]

I have found that they die out over time as your tank matures.

i have not personally found that to be the case but i'm not sure why. I have more than i ever had and i have nothing in the tank but my 17+year old rock and water. Weird!

 

[lisajulia]

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.

This has been my experience. Starvation honestly seems to have made them worse!

 

[Lividfanatica]

My current tank has been up and running for 5+ years now and I have not had a problem with them in my display. With that said, I LOVE the biodiversity of my sump - sponges, feather dusters, vermitids, and even aiptasia grabbing any particulate that floats past. Call me crazy, but as long as they aren't taking over all my rockwork - I'm not on a mission to eradicate them.

My guess is between my wrasses, filefish, emerald crabs, and who knows what else, they get gobbled up in my DT.

 

[Double monti 61]

Yes I agree with Lividfanatica I also had feathers and some survive in the main tank I have a few aptasia in my filter that were in the tank in when I first noticed them and used aptasia x which helped then I purchased a legitimate peppermint shrimp now I have no aptasia in the tank the shrimp and aptasia are doing well.

 

[Reefahholic]

I just bought 10 Astrea snails today. I broke my rule on this tank already. I did tell the guy to pick the very white ones that were mostly clean, but sure enough…I got them home under the magnifying glass at 20x and there were the good ol’ Vermetid’s. Some tiny little turds. I took a knife and scraped every single one off and then took a wire brush a brushed every shell extremely well. I hope I got them all, but they’re also microscopic and there’s a good chance I just let them in. Maybe I’ll get lucky though. I’ll update in 3-6 months when they pop up. Haha.


But hey…if they do then it’s all bets off and LPS can come in. Initially and even now I’ve only added Acro’s (live tissue only) no base’s or plugs. So I guess we’ll see soon.

 

[Reefahholic]

Bumble bee snails are very effective

I will need to get some probably in about 6 months.

 

[J1a]

How about mystic sunset vermitid...

 

[Reefahholic]

The guy that finds the cure for these snails will make a ton of money.

I would say dip them in Potassium Chloride, but I’m sure that will kill the other snail too. Corals can tolerate it though. I wonder if it would have the same osmotic shock effect as it does on AEFW. Maybe I’ll test it out.