Vermetid snails

[Alfredomeinhardt]

I have a substantial amount of Vermetid snails in my 60 Gal tank. I have removed a few by hand, and I have 4 bumblebee snails to help, but they are so small that I can only see one around, and the rest, I guess, are in the crevices doing their job, but who knows...

Aside from manual removal, which is a pain, and the Bumblebee snails, is there anything else I can do??

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I have heard that you can glue the end of their tube shut.

 

[Jackal799]

I have heard that you can glue the end of their tube shut.

I have a substantial amount of Vermetid snails in my 60 Gal tank. I have removed a few by hand, and I have 4 bumblebee snails to help, but they are so small that I can only see one around, and the rest, I guess, are in the crevices doing their job, but who knows...

Aside from manual removal, which is a pain, and the Bumblebee snails, is there anything else I can do??

haven’t done it myself but I do know of some reports of ivermectin being effective. Might be worth researching. Downside would be it would probably kill desirable snails.

 

[TheDuude]

Diy reef snow and a half dozen bumblebees. Use the reef snow every other day for a couple weeks. Makes for super clear water as well.

 

[JTP424]

DIY reef snow (Calcium Carbonate) as @TheDuude notes, I dosed it whenever I saw their feeders...
You're gonna want to increase your bumblebee snail qty as well.... I had like 8 in my 15 gallon....

 

[BryanM]

I didn't even know bumblebee snails dealt with vermetids.... But I liked the way they look so I put a dozen in my tank.

I do not believe I've ever seen a vermetid, so either I'm very lucky, or they did their job well.

 

[JTP424]

I didn't even know bumblebee snails dealt with vermetids.... But I liked the way they look so I put a dozen in my tank.

I do not believe I've ever seen a vermetid, so either I'm very lucky, or they did their job well.

I had those and some of the baby tiny red hermits... one of them tool the bumbles shell!! It was a really cool looking hermit after that... BUT STILL!

 

[Alfredomeinhardt]

DIY reef snow (Calcium Carbonate) as @TheDuude notes, I dosed it whenever I saw their feeders...
You're gonna want to increase your bumblebee snail qty as well.... I had like 8 in my 15 gallon....

Is there a recipe for the reef snow?? How much should I dose?? My tank is a 60 gallon but taking all the rocks volume out is about 45.

 

[JTP424]

A couple different ways you can go about it. Any food grade Calcium Carbonate, it shouldn't change any water chemistry, since I believe it's not soluble? @Randy Holmes-Farley would have to confirm that.
This isn't an immediate fix, but it can potentially help and potentially starve them.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/extreme-water-clarity-and-cyano-eradication-made-easy.916381/#post-10283431

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-coral-snow-recipe.1117145/

Coral Snow to control Vermetids

So I've been battling vermetids lately and have been concerned I let it go too long and I'm on the loosing side now. I can imagine that once it gets too far along there'll be nothing I can do... I've gotten a bunch of Bumblebee snails and am hand-cracking all the stalks I see but I am still...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Tahoe61]

I have heard that you can glue the end of their tube shut.

It's not effective long term. You need to take pliers and snap off the shell as close you can to the base, and then glue.

 

[BriDroid]

You want to up that bumblebee snail number! I have 6 in my 11 cube and they barely make a dent. I'm getting ready to add 5 or 6 more soon!

 

[TheDuude]

Patience is what's really needed. Dose the coral snow often and the snails will do the rest. My 120 was completely covered in them. I'm talking every rock covered in them and now they are completely gone a year later with only 6 bees

 

[get-salty]

My tank started out w/out any vermetids, soon after one, two, 20 pops up.. I have a small isolated rock that i removed and manually picked them off with bone cutter, and the rock is still 99% vermetids free today.

Unfortunately, my main rock structure got taken over and i've given up. They spread too much and too fast and it is a major pain to remove them.

However, i do not find them to be a harmful pest of any kind (yet).
Yes, they are an eyesore and my tangs gets scratched up by their pointy ends.

I find that my trochus snails are more annoying, they do nothing but reproduce in this one spot in my tank - all day long... Eggs are everywhere including ones that are developed in the sump.

With that said, i do when im not too lazy, pick them off of my euphyllias during a WC.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Patience is what's really needed. Dose the coral snow often and the snails will do the rest. My 120 was completely covered in them. I'm talking every rock covered in them and now they are completely gone a year later with only 6 bees

This is interesting. I never heard of using coral snow for them. I use coral snow once a month. How often did you use it to rid your tank of them?

 

[TheDuude]

When my tank was over run with them I would stir up the sand to get some detritus in the water column and get them feeding them I would dose some coral snow. About a half cup every other day or so.. they will decline.

Now I use it once every couple weeks.

 

[mcarroll]

I have a substantial amount of Vermetid snails in my 60 Gal tank.

Make sure you aren't continuing to encourage them. Broadcast feeding is what makes them spread.

Make sure you are target feeding your fish and not feeding your corals (directly) at all. *Definitely* no broadcast feeding.

I have removed a few by hand, and I have 4 bumblebee snails to help, but they are so small that I can only see one around, and the rest, I guess, are in the crevices doing their job, but who knows...

They will catch up as long as you aren't spiking the population (see above).

Aside from manual removal, which is a pain, and the Bumblebee snails, is there anything else I can do??

They are 100% dependent on food in the water, so it is within y our power to starve them out.

I wouldn't get more elaborate in your approach than that.