Vermited Snails

[jerimiah74]

Tank is year old this month. Fish only, no coral. Waterbox 50.3. Started with dry rock, so no hitchhikers. Purchased invertibrates, and few fish from saltwaterfish.com. One Turbo/Astrea Snail had the few vermitid snails on its shell, Their prices were the best at the time. Orange red mass, with a small thing sticking out, small feeding lines. Thought cool, an unexpected gift. They are a curse.

Two weeks ago the mucous trails were everywhere. Never had I seen them (mucous feeding lines)before, till that day, beside the small one on the snail shell. They multiply rapidly. Sent a picture out to a friend and he said what he think it was. Killed it, not realizing the animal comes in masses on one snail. The few left over rapidly multiplied. Now it is an epidemic.

This week purchased 2 Eheim 4000 wavemakers, to stir up fish waste to expedite cleaning waste in dead areas. Turns out the fish, especially foxface loves the current. This stirring brought out the mucous feeding lines to catch the circulating debris. Strange thing, the mucous collects in back sump in middle return area to main display. How does this mucous go thru the 2 filter socks on both sides, and thru the protein skimmer. It floats on the top. Pull it out.

Last weekend purchased 6 line Wrasse. Amazing beautiful fish, picks at something. Has a fat stomach. Not sure if it actually eats vermitid snails. Read also superglueing them. Cant see any of them, except one. Where all these trails are coming from, or where the animal is that extends them are is a mystery. They must be really small. Read as well to use pellets, carefully feeding so vermited snails starve. Imagine it will take an eternity to starve them, especially with constant debris floating. Have 1 bumblebee snail. See occassionally, but never seems to climb the rock. Have I missed any supposed techniques to erradicate them, besides starting with new dry rock, sand, snails, shells?

Thanks for any new information,
Jeremy

 

[lapin]

I have the vermitid snails. The bumble bees will work. They have been known to eat corals. I usually get 5 snails at a time. They seem to last about a year. I also have a pencil urchin that will eat anything in its way. I saw 5 or 6 snail nets. A week later the urchin was sleeping close to the snails. The next morning it had cleared a path on the rock and had a few snails for dessert.

 

[Snoopy 67]

Hit & miss on these guys, many have taken tank down to get rid of them.
GL

 

[CindyKz]

If you don't intend to keep corals, why are you worried about them? They don't bother fish (that I've ever experienced or heard).

Keep your nutrients down and after a while the numbers will dwindle. Also bumblebee snails, as mentioned above, are helpful.

ETA: supergluing over the very large, obnoxious ones also works.

 

[acesfull44]

I had to replace my entire rock structure mine was so bad. After doing so, Bumble bee snails keep them in check for me at this point, but I still have them. Manual removal of as many as possible (seems like an every day thing for me), but its been mitigated at this point until I can basically start completely from scratch.

 

[vetteguy53081]

As Cindy K mentioned, no harm if no coral However if you plan in the future to have coral- remove now.
These snails spend most of their life in the same place. This raises question as to how they manage to feed? The answer is simple. They release mucus type nets out of their shells to catch nearby detritus. Vermetids can harm corals and impede coral growth thereby damaging the corals’ skeletal structure. With that, may be cause to take immediate action.
The most popular methods for removal are :
- To use an ice pick and stab the base structure of the snail. This method is great to use if the snail is lodged in an area that is hard to get to .
- By using bone cutters for fragging. Make sure when you use the bone cutters that you cut off the base. The base is where the snail lives so cutting off the base ensures a complete removal. THIS IS THE SAFEST METHOD.
- Wearing gloves, wash them thoroughly with a 10% to 20% solution of hydrochloric acid. Although this solution works, it can be drastic and can kill beneficial bacteria.
- The superglue method which involves sealing their exit from the tubes using GEL superglue. This prevents the snail from exiting and starves it out but also realize that this method will cause nutrient spikes from the dead snail decaying leading to algae blooms. .

 

[mitch91175]

I've had vermetid snails for as long as I can remember. I personally do not do anything to get rid of them. Most eventually starve and leave the shell behind. I have a tank with a lot of SPS and other coral and not an issue as it might seem (at least that's how I see it).

In large quantities (which I've had) they can become a nuisance, but not to the point of tearing down a tank because of them.

If you only have a few get rid of those, but more than likely they are already in areas in the tank that you might not see easily.

I found that feeding less frozen food and more nori/pellets tends to starve them easily.