Vermetid Snails- The undefeatable pest

[Drewbacca]

I've given up on my Biocube 29. I removed all rock one piece at a time, chiseled every snail off, replaced. 6 months later I'm back to pin cushion rock. Tubes on my hammers, duncan, mushroom frag plugs, zoa plugs. I was already planning on an upgrade to a 40 breeder, but now I don't trust transferring anything to the new tank.
From now on I'm doing a quarantine on everything that goes in the display. Even inverts.

It's tough beacause the start as tiny hard flat dark dots stuck on rock. Some started appearing on my new aquascape this year and took it all apart & out and carefully inspected each rock and dug out every last dot.
... unfortunately, my tank slowly began being overtaken to where it is now overrun & bothering every hard coral.
They either came on a frag or possibly
.. well.. Actually Likely in the ocean direct sand as that's where i saw the dots first start to appear. I wonder if they do come from sand that never dried out..( as most wet live sands were dried first) and you want the bacterial bennefits of it.. how effective it would be to dark cure your sand in a bin and put sacrificial stalagmite-esque rocks or ceramic media in to draw them all out since they all seem to migrate up on & attach... to live & catch food.
Gonna go buy that laser.
..Then a Shark!
...and Then... obviously,
A Shark . . with . ."Lasers"

 

[kweigum]

I have 2 Halloween hermits that crunch and eat vermetid all day long! Just bought them because I thought they were cool. Have watched them mow down a bunch and barely have any left in the tank. maybe just got lucky with them

 

[MartinM]

I know this isn’t an answer for most reefers, but if you’re willing to give up some coral (mostly meaty LPS & Zoas, some w/ acros) angels will keep your display rock vermetid free. Not sure about most dwarf angelfish species though as they are heavy algae eaters.

I have a medium size queen angel that doesn’t touch them

 

[KoiTang]

Have you read this article? https://modernreefer.com/getting-rid-of-vermetid-snails-in-a-reef-tank-complete-guide/
Maybe a trigger, harlequin tusk, or toby puffer might work. I might give it a try as I have vermetid snails as well.

 

[deplinger]

Does anyone know the size of the vermetid embryos? I read somewhere that when you crush the v-snails in your tank, they release eggs with many embryos inside. I am wondering if adding a canister filter or 10 micron filter socks would catch the embryos before they could attach somewhere else in the tank or sump.

 

[Reefahholic]

Here’s the video PROOF!

 

[SoggyNW]

Just to throw onto the heap what is working for me. My 40b was pretty infested with the tiny red vermetid snails.

A year ago I threw in a dozen bumblebee snails and observed then appearing to be interested in the vermetid but the numbers didn't seem to go down. I manually scrapped off tons of them and they would grow right back.

A few months ago I got a few emerald crabs and forgot about them. Then I started noticing that the vermetids were thinning out. Last week I spotted one of the emeralds and he has grown HUGE. Started out total size of a nickel and now his body is bigger.than a quarter and his claws are big. I sat and watched him pick snail after snail off the rock. He grabs it at the base and twists it off and eats the soft insides.

I'm not saying that all emeralds will eat vermetids but mine has grown big and seems to love them. Did he grow big because he eats snails? or does he eat snails because he is big? Who knows.

 

[DeputyDog95]

How about mystic sunset vermitid...

That's wild! I'm seeing that in my tank too. I was like, that's some funny growth around the base of the corals... I knew I had them in my tank, but never thought they would grow up out of the SPS coral and that tube would become part of the coral.

I have 30 bumblebees coming tomorrow. We'll see if that helps.

 

[Cheezle]

I thought these were sponges at first but they're vermetids. Little devils have taken over this little blasto rock

 

[PeterErc]

I thought these were sponges at first but they're vermetids. Little devils have taken over this little blasto rock

Those are easy, inject kalkwasser into the tube with a syringe.

I did not read this whole thread. I saw someone posted about Valentini puffer eating them. I had a blue spot and Valentini that kept them in check. They also like to sharpen their beak on an acropora every once in a while.

Orange claw hermit Crab, Calcinus tibicen, knocks them down.

Have to train some to go into the overflow drain and clean out the inside of the pipe

 

[DeputyDog95]

It's odd... Mine seem to be having some symbiotic thing going with my SPS. The more I look, the more they're mostly only growing out of the base of the SPS and not on the rocks. The tubes seem to meld with the coral and become the same color as the coral, even having coral polyps on the outside of the tubes. Weird.

 

[Koty]

I think Cannary wrasse eats them. I had thousands at some point and they are all gone

 

[snipersps]

Any update ?

 

[DeputyDog95]

I think Cannary wrasse eats them. I had thousands at some point and they are all gone

Is a canary wrasse different from a coris wrasse? I have a coris and he or she doesn't show much interest.

 

[Koty]

Halichoeres chrysus. I think it's not his 1st priority, and I did not see him in action apart from a few times I saw him bite them. The fact is that Vermatide snails were all over my tank and in a few months are all gone

 

[MartinM]

Those are easy, inject kalkwasser into the tube with a syringe.

I did not read this whole thread. I saw someone posted about Valentini puffer eating them. I had a blue spot and Valentini that kept them in check. They also like to sharpen their beak on an acropora every once in a while.

Orange claw hermit Crab, Calcinus tibicen, knocks them down.

Have to train some to go into the overflow drain and clean out the inside of the pipe

I tried this but they nip my clams too much! Bumblebees are keeping them in check, mostly.

 

[DeputyDog95]

I put 30 bumblebees in the tank yesterday. And went on a "snapping" spree breaking off as many tubes as I could find. Little B's!