Vermetid Snail Predator?

[Capitol Reef Corals]

I had an infestation in my tank as well. They were everywhere. I decided that I would crush everyone I saw for the next week every single day. This worked extremely well for me and I haven't seen many new ones pop up in my tank in a long time.

 

[TimR]

Don’t clingfish eat them? Or is it some other snail they eat.

 

[tastyfish]

AFAIK, there are no predators known that we can add to reef tanks. I was hoping there would be a vermatid eating wrasse of some sort, but sadly no one has found one yet.

 

[Rob Biederman]

I meant crazy “You say”. Never put those two together... looks like all tanks will have a mandatory flame now. That’s crazy. Never heard that before, but to me makes perfect sense.

Not sure if it is 100% but it is worth a shot and flames are beautiful fish so at least you get that.

 

[chrises08]

Bumblee snails have always worked for me. Just give them time. I put 5-6 of them in my 135.

 

[Saltyanimals]

I reported on another v snail post where I used kalk paste injected right into the hole with a reagent syringe. I thought it took care of it, but those eventually came back. I’ll try again another time with breaking the tubes then using the paste. Maybe the little jerks blocked the hole and didn’t get enough kalk deeper into the tubes.

 

[Triggreef]

wrasses cannot crush those shells nor pull them off the rock work.

Someone mentioned puffer at some point early on which could work but who knows what else it would eat.

I've tried bumblebees snails to no avail.

For now when one is bothering me I crush it and my cbb or a wrasse will come by and pluck the worm. But prior to smashing it nothing could get them.

 

[ZAB]

Try putting crazy glue over the hole..it has worked for me in the past...

 

[Ferrell]

Being a nine, I just found out what these were, not infested but starting. Never seen them before I had a velvet outbreak and have been fallow for 8 weeks. I don’t know if it was the other snails, the Blenny, the clowns, the flame or the reef chromis but something must’ve kept them in check. Pure speculation at this point. Fish coming soon hopefully

 

[chris85]

If you can get your hand on a thinstriped hermit crab... I have seen them crush the shell and pick off what is left on the little ones the bigger one they have a hard time crushing. The only problem with the hermits is they get big and tear the polyps on lps's when they cliff dive.

Mud crabs work better but I cant say if they are reef safe or not.

 

[Bowlopho]

I use bone cutters to either pop them off if possible or crush it. My cleaner shrimp usually goes after the worm if I break it.

However I have so many and some are in hard to reach spots. I’m interested in trying bumble bee or a yellow coris if it does work. I had a red coris but it kept going for my hermits and regular snails lol

 

[tastyfish]

Being a nine, I just found out what these were, not infested but starting. Never seen them before I had a velvet outbreak and have been fallow for 8 weeks. I don’t know if it was the other snails, the Blenny, the clowns, the flame or the reef chromis but something must’ve kept them in check. Pure speculation at this point. Fish coming soon hopefully

Their population can be regulated by the amount of food (inc fish poo). So I would expect their numbers to dwindle during a fallow.

PS: I know it’s painful, but I’d go for 12 weeks fallow, just in case you had Whitespot (C.itritans). At this point, it’s best to be sure and kill two birds with one stone by waiting a little longer

 

[West1]

I have some rocks that look like Darth Maul. I threw in the towel on trying to kill them. Just my luck, I also got asterina stars popping up. QT everything I got except a peppermint shrimp. Within 4 days I found a super small asterina, now I find one every few days.
I've always liked Flame Angels but always scared to try one with reef. Might consider one if they can put the vermetid snail in check.

 

[Jaag]

I have never heard of Flame Angels eating vermetid snails. That is cool.

 

[miyags]

I saw a video,about a year ago. Of some type of nudibranch eating them. but I could not find the nudibranch with that color pattern for sale.Similar but not the same.

 

[tastyfish]

I have never heard of Flame Angels eating vermetid snails. That is cool.

LOL none of my flame angels have ever even looked at a vermatid. I suspect they are not even equipped to deal with them.

 

[4sylvester]

So i decided to add a melenarus wrasse to my vermetid infested tank (reefer 525xl). He has been in the tank for over 2 weeks and he hasn't touched a single vermetid as far as i can tell. I have hundreds... maybe thousands of vermetids. I just added 5 indonesian bumble bee snails which from the first few hours seemed to start eating vermetids. Problem is i have so many vermetids it's hard to tell if they are truly eating them or its my imagination. My snails are very active and constantly on the move. they "appear" to be eating the vermetids an clearing a path in their wake but i am so skeptical to report they are really eating them. I took some pictures last night and captured one on a vermetid. Does this look like the bumble is eating the vermetid? I took the plunge and ordered 50.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So i decided to add a melenarus wrasse to my vermetid infested tank (reefer 525xl). He has been in the tank for over 2 weeks and he hasn't touched a single vermetid as far as i can tell. I have hundreds... maybe thousands of vermetids. I just added 5 indonesian bumble bee snails which from the first few hours seemed to start eating vermetids. Problem is i have so many vermetids it's hard to tell if they are truly eating them or its my imagination. My snails are very active and constantly on the move. they "appear" to be eating the vermetids an clearing a path in their wake but i am so skeptical to report they are really eating them. I took some pictures last night and captured one on a vermetid. Does this look like the bumble is eating the vermetid? I took the plunge and ordered 50.

Killing vermetid snails inside the tank with superglue is a fun way to have a nutrient spike. The superglue method involves sealing their exit from the tubes.This prevents the snail from exiting and starves it out. Once the worms die and start decaying, they create a nutrient imbalance in the water, which ups the water’s toxicity and creates a perfect environment for other fish tank nuisances like algae blooms. The best way to remove the snails are to pull out the rock or infested corals so you can remove them manually and not have them decay in the tank.
You can also use the more effective method without glue with use of 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. Make sure that you removal the infected coral or rock before attempting this as it is a messy process that will result in a cut up snail. Stab the middle of the base and wipe away from the rock to kill the snail. You may unearth the snail from the structure using this method. If that happens, pull it off the rock and finish it off to ensure it doesn't accidentally re-enter your aquarium.

 

[4sylvester]

I tried pulling each piece of rock and killing / piercing / scraping off snails. I pulled each rock and kept dipping in a bucket of tank water to rinse off dead snails. Regardless, i still had a nutrient spike because i clearly didn't get all the dead snails off the rock with rinsing. Even worse the snails came back in no time. I did more damage than good. I firmly agree with others who have posted in regard to having plague numbers (ie thousands). There is no way to effectively remove them by hand. I have a second 20 gallon tank where i have a larger variety of these vermetids. they pop up here and there and i kill them. it's clearly not the same type of vermetid because they are much larger and easy to kill / stay on top of.

 

[mcdrichj]

I also have a large number of these and they are driving me crazy. At this point it looks like I got my rocks from hellraiser.