Help with ID

[dharmon]

I believe I have a pest that I cannot identify, any help would be appreciated

I ordered and received a CUC from oceans garden last week.... 4 emerald crabs, some turbo and cerith snails, a peppermint shrimp, a cucumber, and some hermit crabs and acclimated and introduced them last week.

Since adding these, I began to notice my torches losing tentacles, then one died, now another looks like he may not make it either......after this issue started I also noticed small black "things" (see attached pictures, I know they aren't great pics but) on the shell of some of the snails. I tried to see if they could be picked off but they cannot be....they are hard to the touch and feel like they are even part of the shell (which I'm sure they aren't)

I don't have my list of parameters handy but the only thing that looked a little off when I checked everything yesterday was phosphates. Phos were at .10 instead of where it had been running about .03. Nitrites 0, Ammonia 0, Alk, Cal, PH, Nitrates all within range.

Fairly new tank -
Has been cycled about 6 weeks, about and running about 12 weeks since set up....

Prior to adding the CUC the only inhabitants were, a pair of clowns, a few hammers, a Goni, some gsp, a couple of torches...all seemed fine prior to the add last week

Not sure now what to do but starting to think the black "things" and the torches dying are tied together - any thoughts would be appreciated!!

Thanks

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hard to tell, can you pull a snail out and get a pic under white lights? Initial impression is they're covered in vermetid snails

 

[DrkNMighty]

Those look like vermetid snails but hard to be sure based on the pictures.

 

[dharmon]

Hard to tell, can you pull a snail out and get a pic under white lights? Initial impression is they're covered in vermetid snails

Will do this afternoon, makes total sense, lol

 

[BryanM]

If you do ID these as vermetid snails, I would remove that vendor from the list of places you buy, assuming you think they came from that CUC order.

 

[dharmon]

Hard to tell, can you pull a snail out and get a pic under white lights? Initial impression is they're covered in vermetid snails

What do you think?

 

[dharmon]

Vermith, if so, could they be the culprit for killing my first torches?

 

[Goaway]

Vermetid snails have been linked to killing coral from irritation of their mucus nets.

Torches can die from all kinds of issues, unfortunately.

 

[DrkNMighty]

If you have a lot of vermetids it could irritate coral to the point of killing them. I feel like you would have to have a crazy amount of them to kill coral within a week though.

Have you seen your emerald crabs picking at any coral?

 

[dharmon]

If you have a lot of vermetids it could irritate coral to the point of killing them. I feel like you would have to have a crazy amount of them to kill coral within a week though.

Have you seen your emerald crabs picking at any coral?

no

 

[dharmon]

no

I still don't know if they are actually Vermiteds or not, I don't see any tubes ?

 

[BriDroid]

Yep, those are vermetids. They seem to be all over astrea snails that I’ve bought recently. During acclimation, I use a small pair of old side cutters and “cut” them off and that seems to be the end of them.

 

[dharmon]

no

Yes I have now, caught that bugger picking at the worst looking one

 

[dharmon]

Yep, those are vermetids. They seem to be all over astrea snails that I’ve bought recently. During acclimation, I use a small pair of old side cutters and “cut” them off and that seems to be the end of them.

yeah, tried that.....way too difficult. All the snails didn't have them so I just removed the ones that did......thanks for the help