vermetid vs bumble bee snails?

[OceanJack]

Been slowly cleaning up my little FOWLR tank, got a lot under control since I started it up back in August. Right now, my current battle is with vermetid snails. For some reason, I didn't really anything when I first initially started the tank and now they've kinda grown in numbers. Over the past few months, I have culled the numbers from picking the rocks with a dental pick. That didn't seem to do much, even though I was removing the base altogether, just seemed to spread them even faster!

So I started pulling rocks out once every two weeks, first I'll feed like I normally do during the week and watch for any of their webs. Then make a note of where I am seeing the current ones and to watch for any new ones popping up. Then during my bi weekly water change, i will pull the rocks and hit them with my torch lighter until they explode out of their shells.

Been doing this for about a month now, I am seeing fewer but they're so hard to see and no matter how much I go over the rocks with a flashlight, I will always seem to find a few that I can see perfectly fine under the lights in the tank. So now that it's somewhat manageable, would Bumblebee snails be able to help me eradicate them completely?

It's just a 20 gallon nuvo tank, so I figured I wouldn't need that many snails. But the live rock I have is super porous from Australia and they hide in the nooks and crannies.

 

[Rocks reef]

Bumblebee snails will help, yes, since they are a natural food item of the snails.
Are you feeding a lot of particulate foods? ie.. reef roids, liquid foods?

 

[Fish Fan]

These can be very difficult to completely eradicate. Bumblebee snails can help, but will also go after any other snails you may have. The following article and video may be of some help here:

Getting Rid of Vermetid Snails - Tidal Gardens

Vermetid snails are a family of sessile gastropods that are very frequently found in our saltwater aquariums. They are often mistaken for worms but they are in fact snails that spend their adult life in one location and filter feeds by sending out a mucus web to catch organic debris. In this...

tidalgardens.com

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The bumblebee snails can get the small ones, but you'll still need to break the tubes of the larger ones, the snails won't be able to get the large ones on their own.

 

[OceanJack]

Bumblebee snails will help, yes, since they are a natural food item of the snails.
Are you feeding a lot of particulate foods? ie.. reef roids, liquid foods?

I'm feeding flakes/pellets during the day, I usually alternate and then mysis/reef roids at night. I don't overfeed or broadcast feed, but some times I see the webs cast

 

[OceanJack]

The bumblebee snails can get the small ones, but you'll still need to break the tubes of the larger ones, the snails won't be able to get the large ones on their own.

I don't really have any "Large" ones per say, I usually can spot the larger ones easily and hit them with the lighter. But it's the smaller ones I must seem to miss, can they grow that quickly though? or my eyes just that bad with a flashlight vs the tank lights?

 

[OceanJack]

These can be very difficult to completely eradicate. Bumblebee snails can help, but will also go after any other snails you may have. The following article and video may be of some help here:

Getting Rid of Vermetid Snails - Tidal Gardens

Vermetid snails are a family of sessile gastropods that are very frequently found in our saltwater aquariums. They are often mistaken for worms but they are in fact snails that spend their adult life in one location and filter feeds by sending out a mucus web to catch organic debris. In this...

tidalgardens.com

that's what I'm worried about, I just bought a bunch of trocus snails and would hate for them to get eaten with these guys.

 

[Fish Fan]

that's what I'm worried about, I just bought a bunch of trocus snails and would hate for them to get eaten with these guys.

I think that’s definitely possible, unfortunately.

 

[OceanJack]

I think that’s definitely possible, unfortunately.

Appreciate your insight, I'll just continue to pull rocks out and just torch them at this point. Watch out for any new ones, it isn't too big of a deal to do.

 

[RichReef]

Coral Snow wiped them out in my tank. They are even gone from the plumbing. I also have a Yellow Coris Wrasse and had a ton of BB snails but it was the snow that did it. I have since removed most of the snails. I only kept 3 or 4.

You have to pull your mechanical filtration and turn off your skimmer. Stir up some sand and blow off some rocks to get their webs out. Then snow the tank. It clogs their tubes and starves them. Eventually the shells fall off or just get broken up. Most of the shells are gone from my tank.

Don't slack.

 

[OceanJack]

Coral Snow wiped them out in my tank. They are even gone from the plumbing. I also have a Yellow Coris Wrasse and had a ton of BB snails but it was the snow that did it. I have since removed most of the snails. I only kept 3 or 4.

You have to pull your mechanical filtration and turn off your skimmer. Stir up some sand and blow off some rocks to get their webs out. Then snow the tank. It clogs their tubes and starves them. Eventually the shells fall off or just get broken up. Most of the shells are gone from my tank.

Don't slack.

Hmm.... I'll give this a go!
I've been stirring up detritus, so I can record where they are and when I pull rocks. I can locate them immediately, I'll try this next coupled with torching the things. Thanks!

 

[OceanJack]

Just giving an update.
My favorite LFS had bumblebee snails in stock, so I grabbed 5 of them. Also will be dosing some calcium carbonate as well to hopefully slow them down or completely get rid of them.

Yesterday I pulled the rocks and picked off/torched any that I could find to give the snails a head start to hopefully eradicating them.

 

[MYACROS.WONTGROW.504]

Coral Snow wiped them out in my tank. They are even gone from the plumbing. I also have a Yellow Coris Wrasse and had a ton of BB snails but it was the snow that did it. I have since removed most of the snails. I only kept 3 or 4.

You have to pull your mechanical filtration and turn off your skimmer. Stir up some sand and blow off some rocks to get their webs out. Then snow the tank. It clogs their tubes and starves them. Eventually the shells fall off or just get broken up. Most of the shells are gone from my tank.

Don't slack.

Did you dose coral snow daily?

 

[BonnieB]

I have only 4 bumblebee snails in my 32g and they’ve been keeping the “Vermicious Knids” as I call them under control for sure!

 

[RichReef]

Did you dose coral snow daily?

Every other day.