Vermetid snail infestation...ready to throw in the towel

[ActualProof]

I have a serious vermetid snail infestation. Every inch of rock has that hard crust tube etc. …they just told me started over with their taint

That is the absolute worst place you could possibly get them

 

[Mikuchar]

Im new to saltwater at 6 months so by no way shape or form am i saying you dont know what you doing .
But seen a few people say their parameters are good but once shared them then another member here spotted something that the op missed as old saying goes 2 heads better than one.
Maybe share your parameters and test kit used,age of tank etc etc and someone may spot something you missed buddy.like 0 phospate and nitrate and this caused problems or just tank a young tank and got some kind of swing of one kind or another like alk not stable as every 0.1 in alk difference the difference is exponentially ( maybe this not the word but i know what im on about lol where 0.1 difference is 10 times different and 1.0 difference is 100 times etc)
Been here 6 months on this site and spending 3- 4 hours a day reading threads to equip me with knowledge if something goes wrong with my tanksl and seen pests eating corals/ brass fittings giving heavy metals in the water and nothing would grow not even algae/to much light/ not enough light/ to much nutrients/ not enough nutrients,some corals just wont grow in some peoples tanks etc etc ,basically so many factors that dictates how our tanks behave so goes back to that old saying " 2 heads better than one" but i wish you luck in trying to solve your problem off why your 2 acro's died,lots experienced helpfull guys and gals here to help you so good luck unless you 100% certain its the vermitted snails burying into base off your corals and starving the corals to death ( i thought vermitted snails live in the tube which sealed at one end and the other end they cast out a mucus net and filter feed and drag the net back into eat) but ignore above if you certain its vermitted killing your corals then all you can do is live with them or try eradicate / manage them.

 

[fishface NJ]

Have bumblebees worked for you? I haven’t tried them yet but have heard many different stories about bumblebee snails.

They worked for me to a point I forgot why I had them in the tank.

 

[tritonpower]

Don't give up. I had them really bad. I manually removed them with tweezers only when they irritated my corals. The rest I ignored. I got a dozen bumblebees and some emerald crabs. Not sure they helped to be honest. I still have a lot. I have not removed any for a while and my corals seem ok. Hang in there.

 

[Holst]

I have had vermatid snails in my DT.
Not that it was totally infected, but they were there and the numbers was rising.
I then got myself a Melanurus Wrasse. An real beauty ! And I got him because of his temper, his looks and his slow swimming. And after I got him I have not really seen the vermatid snails anymore. Only their empty shells rising from the rocks. But nothing alive anymore. I cannot see anywhere that they will eat these snails, and I don't know if there is any connection between the Melanurus and the decreasing amount of vermatids.
But I'm happy

Best of luck everyone !

 

[nathanm]

My Aqua Reef 400 DT would’ve had 10000+ Vermetid snails in it 9 months ago. I didn’t know what was going on until my LPS started dying off one by one and then I noticed them everywhere! It never seemed to really affect SPS as they seemed to grow over the snails as they popped up.
The problem was so bad I setup a QT tank and started moving the most affected SPS and scraping the vermetid snails off.
I also started a second 6 foot system in my basement with new rock, sand etc with the aim of taking down the current DT, cleaning it, drying it then transferring everything from the 6 foot to the Aqua Reef, I’d then use the 6 foot system for other purposes.
After months of cycling rock and finally getting the new system up, I was inspecting the Aqua Reef DT after cleaning the gravel and I noticed there were no more vermetid webs!
They had almost all died in that 9 months since I started the QT system.
I never tried bumblebee snails as I don’t think we have them in Australia, I didn’t scrape them off the rocks or glue them, I simply stopped feeding the LPS. I honestly think the lack of excess food floating around the tank and time (9 months) is what did the trick.
I’m not complaining though as I got a second system out of it

 

[McPuff]

There are a bunch of threads on those little jerks. Bumblebees WILL work to help in your fight against vermetids. BUT they will only attack the small ones. In my experience, the BBs ate the whole thing, shell and all. I put about 70-80 in my 300 gal and in about two months I was no longer seeing the small shell vermetids. The large shell vermetids are a different story though. The BBs are simply too small to successfully attack the eat those guys on their own. They need help. If you crush those bigger shells the BBs will absolutely cover them and eat them greedily. Wrasses and other fish will also eat the snail itself once it's exposed. The battle against the larger species will require your manual intervention for sure (unless you can find a source for the predatory snail or starfish that eats them). For me, it's an every-other-month activity to go in and crush, cut whatever I can get to.

Add more bumbles than you think is necessary and you'll have the best outcome. You can sell your excess bumbles later and just keep a smaller crew for ongoing maintenance. They are cool looking after all.

 

[JAIME_MTY]

I been in the hobby for a bit more that 10 years, 400 gal got infesteted to the point were I quit and left the hobby for a few years, cameback 3 years ago decided to build a waterbox 200 gal peninsula with acros only. Everything was ok until two months ago I noticed vermitids on back of a snail , they had boomed everywhere in tank, determine to no loose the battle i reseached as much as I could.I wanted to try more natural aproach not to dose any chemicals or glue them shut(waist of time), All info I gathered was mix opinions on possible solutions that was not a guarantee but a possibility. So I try all the things people had been successful and so far I can say it has worked. The vertimid population deminished within a few weeks. I put in my aquarium 100 bumble bees, 1 melanurus wrasse, 1 six line wrassse , 1 copper band butterfly fish. I want to say the bbs are lifting the heavy load on the and the more you have the better ,increases your odds and exterminates vertimids quicker than they can reproduce, the wrasses and cbb get the rest in tight crevices. Overall is teamwork trying to beat the odds.

 

[JAIME_MTY]

There are a bunch of threads on those little jerks. Bumblebees WILL work to help in your fight against vermetids. BUT they will only attack the small ones. In my experience, the BBs ate the whole thing, shell and all. I put about 70-80 in my 300 gal and in about two months I was no longer seeing the small shell vermetids. The large shell vermetids are a different story though. The BBs are simply too small to successfully attack the eat those guys on their own. They need help. If you crush those bigger shells the BBs will absolutely cover them and eat them greedily. Wrasses and other fish will also eat the snail itself once it's exposed. The battle against the larger species will require your manual intervention for sure (unless you can find a source for the predatory snail or starfish that eats them). For me, it's an every-other-month activity to go in and crush, cut whatever I can get to.

Add more bumbles than you think is necessary and you'll have the best outcome. You can sell your excess bumbles later and just keep a smaller crew for ongoing maintenance. They are cool looking after all.

Totally agree with you!

 

[JAIME_MTY]

My Aqua Reef 400 DT would’ve had 10000+ Vermetid snails in it 9 months ago. I didn’t know what was going on until my LPS started dying off one by one and then I noticed them everywhere! It never seemed to really affect SPS as they seemed to grow over the snails as they popped up.
The problem was so bad I setup a QT tank and started moving the most affected SPS and scraping the vermetid snails off.
I also started a second 6 foot system in my basement with new rock, sand etc with the aim of taking down the current DT, cleaning it, drying it then transferring everything from the 6 foot to the Aqua Reef, I’d then use the 6 foot system for other purposes.
After months of cycling rock and finally getting the new system up, I was inspecting the Aqua Reef DT after cleaning the gravel and I noticed there were no more vermetid webs!
They had almost all died in that 9 months since I started the QT system.
I never tried bumblebee snails as I don’t think we have them in Australia, I didn’t scrape them off the rocks or glue them, I simply stopped feeding the LPS. I honestly think the lack of excess food floating around the tank and time (9 months) is what did the trick.
I’m not complaining though as I got a second system out of it

This is true, I have move infested colonies of coral to isolated frags tanks with out fish .And the lack of floating nutrients end up staving and killing the vertimids.

 

[Hokuan]

Where are you guys getting dozens of Bumblebee snails? Everywhere I see them they're rather expensive.

 

[JAIME_MTY]

Where are you guys getting dozens of Bumblebee snails? Everywhere I see them they're rather expensive.

yes there is a high demand for them, I bough mine at reefcleaners.org , you can get them cheaper if you buy bulk, also keep an eye on them cause they go fast.

 

[Trouble1375]

I have had vermatid snails in my DT.
Not that it was totally infected, but they were there and the numbers was rising.
I then got myself a Melanurus Wrasse. An real beauty ! And I got him because of his temper, his looks and his slow swimming. And after I got him I have not really seen the vermatid snails anymore. Only their empty shells rising from the rocks. But nothing alive anymore. I cannot see anywhere that they will eat these snails, and I don't know if there is any connection between the Melanurus and the decreasing amount of vermatids.
But I'm happy

Best of luck everyone !

I'll 2nd the Melanurus Wrasse. I have a terminal phase male who is about 4" and a female that is about 3'. The male with 5 bumblebees knocked out the infestation in my 125 in about 2 months. The female was added after the issue was already resolved so I can't speak to her abilities. I went through slowly and broke off the shells of them that remained. Every once in awhile I see a web but it disappears fairly quickly. The only downfall is my pair of Melanurus have found that freshly molted shrimp are very tasty snacks so we don't keep shrimp in our DT. We have peppermints in our sump with our Mollies and some hermits. The Melaurus also love feather dusters and anything new that is added to the tank gets a through inspection by both of them followed by the 6-line. I love my wrasses.