Help identifying

[LandlockedZissou816]

These things have been slowly growing and spreading for a little while now. Any help identifying would be much appreciated.

 

[Gtinnel]

Looks like vermetid snails.

 

[LandlockedZissou816]

Thank you
Should I be trying to rid my tank of them or no?

 

[AFHokie]

Thank you
Should I be trying to rid my tank of them or no?

Yes. Some coral are unaffected but others will be irritated by the threads of slime junk they put out.

They can be manually removed but be sure to scrape the base where the snail is. If you just break the tube they will rebuild it.

 

[Double monti 61]

No

 

[Gtinnel]

I have a ton of them in my tank and it’s never caused an issue for me but they are an eyesore. I have heard of some corals being pestered by the mucus webs they put out to catch food though.

 

[jabberwock]

Vermetid snails, opinions differ. I would not freak out, but I would crush them with tweezers when the opportunity was there. They can over populate and become a nuisance.

 

[kevgib67]

I noticed my fruit loops zoas had been closed for a few weeks. One night I noticed the webbing of the vermatid snail which had been camouflaged by coralline algae. I removed it but the zoas melted. I now keep bumble bee snails ( they eat vermatid snails) in my tank at all times.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

There seem to be several types of vermetids... I have a few that send out the mucus web and if a coral is downstream, it can get irritated.
But then I have other tubes in the tank that don't seem to send out anything past an inch or so and it's more of a thread. These are usually smaller, but still have the spiral "dog turd" shell, and seem to multiply more quickly.

 

[LandlockedZissou816]

I appreciate all the feed back.