Vermetid Snails!!? How do you eliminate them!!!???

[EakTheFreak]

Good Evening Reefers,

I have recently realized I have a major outbreak of vermetid snails. Does anyone have experience killing these or finding a predator that eliminates them. I’ve noticed them on bases of torches, frogspawns and stopping growth on zoanthids. Finally noticed the spider web type thing they put out and I will crush them by hand if need be.

Just looking for any advice!?

Stay Safe ALL!

#reefsquad
@ReefSquad

 

[SaltISlife]

You get this star fish.

Its called a Friant Nardoa.. now there are many species of this.. but mine i got by accident in petco. They were selling it as a red fromia for 10$.. its deff not a fromia or red.

Closest i can find is a Nardoa friants species starfish. Mine eats sponges.. vermitids and unfortunstly he lives clove polyps and purple cepitulars. And xenia. But he touches nothing else.

Only vermitids i have in the tank are inside ny pump inlets where he cant get too. Ive had him for 2 years now. All he eats is what i mentioned

 

[ScottR]

Bumble bee snails will help to eat them. For any that are easy to reach in the tank, super glue over their opening so they can’t cast out the mucous net that they use for feeding. And they’ll starve.

 

[EakTheFreak]

Bumble bee snails will help to eat them. For any that are easy to reach in the tank, super glue over their opening so they can’t cast out the mucous net that they use for feeding. And they’ll starve.

Appreciate it, any particular super glue you would recommend for this if I wanted to complete it underwater?

 

[EakTheFreak]

You get this star fish.

Its called a Friant Nardoa.. now there are many species of this.. but mine i got by accident in petco. They were selling it as a red fromia for 10$.. its deff not a fromia or red.

Closest i can find is a Nardoa friants species starfish. Mine eats sponges.. vermitids and unfortunstly he lives clove polyps and purple cepitulars. And xenia. But he touches nothing else.

Only vermitids i have in the tank are inside ny pump inlets where he cant get too. Ive had him for 2 years now. All he eats is what i mentioned

I have some pretty nice clove polyp colony’s that I didn’t want to lose.

 

[JGT]

Pair of needle nose pliers work great. Very rewarding too as you break off each little bugger.

 

[ScottR]

Appreciate it, any particular super glue you would recommend for this if I wanted to complete it underwater?

Use cyanoacrylate glue (same glue used for corals). Once the glue touches water, it immediately starts to harden.

 

[ThePurple12]

Bumble bee snails will help to eat them. For any that are easy to reach in the tank, super glue over their opening so they can’t cast out the mucous net that they use for feeding. And they’ll starve.

Seems a bit more cruel than necessary...

Last year I also had a major vermetid outbreak. I waited it out, doing nothing to remove them, and now they're gone! It must be like the ugly stages in a new tank, except the tank doesn't have to be very new.

I never noticed them causing any harm to my corals.

 

[king aiptasia]

vermetids only bother a few types of coral, for the most part they don't hold a strong competitive advantage towards modern corals, which is why you don't see much vermetid reefs in the wild anymore,

Seems a bit more cruel than necessary...

Last year I also had a major vermetid outbreak. I waited it out, doing nothing to remove them, and now they're gone! It must be like the ugly stages in a new tank, except the tank doesn't have to be very new.

I never noticed them causing any harm to my corals.

vs the fossil record holds much more examples

 

[Biologic]

I never noticed them causing any harm to my corals.

They harm Acropora and SPS for sure. If you find them on a frag plugs, you’ll see that part where they encrusted, has no coral encrusting around it. There’s a study they harm polyp expansion. They are not good at all.

How to get rid of them:

—biological methods, predators, as the others mentioned above
—superglue their traps
—two part epoxy their traps
—kalkwasser is ok but messy, so aptasiaX is better
—mechanically removing them. Scrape them off with a butter knife. Really scrape them off to nothing.
—starve them, stop feeding your tank with broadcast feedings for corals, only spot feed your fish for what they can eat
—filter sock, remove as much particulates from the water. Don’t give these guys food. Starve them.
—KZ Coral Snow, is said to clog their mucus nets
—inspecting tank nightly for them with a flash light
—QT snails, rocks with corals on them, LPS, SPS, clams before putting them into your tank.
—start with dry rock
—doing everything above religiously everyday and night

These pests are vastly under estimated and can be as difficult to take care of as aptasia. Not as bad as aptasia, but definitely very irritating to SPS.

 

[Reefahholic]

Vermetid...my favorites.

 

[SaltISlife]

vermetids only bother a few types of coral, for the most part they don't hold a strong competitive advantage towards modern corals, which is why you don't see much vermetid reefs in the wild anymore,


vs the fossil record holds much more examples

You sure about that ? I remember wqtching a video on the great barrier reef and one parr showed vermitids were a plague killing corals

 

[EakTheFreak]

They harm Acropora and SPS for sure. If you find them on a frag plugs, you’ll see that part where they encrusted, has no coral encrusting around it. There’s a study they harm polyp expansion. They are not good at all.

How to get rid of them:

—biological methods, predators, as the others mentioned above
—superglue their traps
—two part epoxy their traps
—kalkwasser is ok but messy, so aptasiaX is better
—mechanically removing them. Scrape them off with a butter knife. Really scrape them off to nothing.
—starve them, stop feeding your tank with broadcast feedings for corals, only spot feed your fish for what they can eat
—filter sock, remove as much particulates from the water. Don’t give these guys food. Starve them.
—KZ Coral Snow, is said to clog their mucus nets
—inspecting tank nightly for them with a flash light
—QT snails, rocks with corals on them, LPS, SPS, clams before putting them into your tank.
—start with dry rock
—doing everything above religiously everyday and night

These pests are vastly under estimated and can be as difficult to take care of as aptasia. Not as bad as aptasia, but definitely very irritating to SPS.

Appreciate this! This is now my GamePlan.

 

[ThePurple12]

They harm Acropora and SPS for sure. If you find them on a frag plugs, you’ll see that part where they encrusted, has no coral encrusting around it. There’s a study they harm polyp expansion. They are not good at all.

How to get rid of them:

—biological methods, predators, as the others mentioned above
—superglue their traps
—two part epoxy their traps
—kalkwasser is ok but messy, so aptasiaX is better
—mechanically removing them. Scrape them off with a butter knife. Really scrape them off to nothing.
—starve them, stop feeding your tank with broadcast feedings for corals, only spot feed your fish for what they can eat
—filter sock, remove as much particulates from the water. Don’t give these guys food. Starve them.
—KZ Coral Snow, is said to clog their mucus nets
—inspecting tank nightly for them with a flash light
—QT snails, rocks with corals on them, LPS, SPS, clams before putting them into your tank.
—start with dry rock
—doing everything above religiously everyday and night

These pests are vastly under estimated and can be as difficult to take care of as aptasia. Not as bad as aptasia, but definitely very irritating to SPS.

You sure about that ? I remember wqtching a video on the great barrier reef and one parr showed vermitids were a plague killing corals

There are different types of vermetids. The kind I had, at least, didn’t harm anything.

 

[Biologic]

There are different types of vermetids. The kind I had, at least, didn’t harm anything.

totally there’s different types, the ones I speak of, are brown, base is 2-4 mm wide, that curls into a tube, projecting from the rock, the projection is 4 mm, which casts mucus out of the tube which waves around on the rocks capturing food and irritating SPS. Google them and you find many pictures of them and threads of them being pests

 

[ThePurple12]

totally there’s different types, the ones I speak of, are brown, base is 2-4 mm wide, that curls into a tube, projecting from the rock, the projection is 4 mm, which casts mucus out of the tube which waves around on the rocks capturing food and irritating SPS. Google them and you find many pictures of them and threads of them being pests

Sounds just like the ones I had. I guess I just didn’t view the reduced polyp extension as being harmful.

 

[ajjw0828]

You get this star fish.

Its called a Friant Nardoa.. now there are many species of this.. but mine i got by accident in petco. They were selling it as a red fromia for 10$.. its deff not a fromia or red.

Closest i can find is a Nardoa friants species starfish. Mine eats sponges.. vermitids and unfortunstly he lives clove polyps and purple cepitulars. And xenia. But he touches nothing else.

Only vermitids i have in the tank are inside ny pump inlets where he cant get too. Ive had him for 2 years now. All he eats is what i mentioned

Is yours for sale?! jk, lol. I am definitely going to be asking if my LFS can get me one of these in!

 

[SaltISlife]

Good luck. I heard they are for sale in the hobby but very rareky. Mine was clearly mistakenedly sold by petco as another starfish species. I bet the supplier had it was like eh.. send it to petco.

But ya. Its a Friants Nardoa. Look it up. They have alot of em in that species

 

[woejillis]

I have a lot of vermetid snails and they do bother my hammers as they can almost encircle the base of a head.

I am trying bumblebee snails (currently have 18 in a 120 gal tank) and I do see the bumblebees staying on the base of the vermetids so I believe they are at least trying to eat them.

 

[Deschutes541]

Bumblebee snails may help. I bought some and while they haven't been eradicated, the spread has stopped. Truthfully, unless they're visibly irritating corals, I wouldn't worry too much.