A Plague of snails

fishoutawater

fishoutawater

New member
I have an outbreak of small snails in my tank. They are everywhere. I have pulled them out of my scwd that they jammed, I can see them inside my skimmer, and there countless hundreds of them in the display. Can someone point me in the best direction to get them out? I am guessing these are the vermetid? snail. Is there a predator to control them?
 
I'm interested in this too - I have a similar problem. Mine aren't quite up to plague level yet, but they're getting close.
 
I'm in the same boat as Jenjen. I think the issue for me is lack of predetors. At the moment I only have a couple very small gobies for fish and the rest is CUC. My strombus grazers were also breeding like mad before the gobies, so I think they eat those while they are still very small. But not the vermetids! :P
 
Are these snails mobile? Vermetids are not, but can reach plaque proportions (like in my tank) :rolleyes: They send out mucus threads to trap things floating in the water column. Collonista snails breed like crazy and come out in full force at night to graze. Then there's always the good old stomatellas that also breed, but dont seem to be as prolific as the little collonistas. AFAIK there are no natural predators of vermetids. When I do routine maintenece on my pumps and intakes I scrape them off. If I'm feeling ambitious, I'll pull a rock or two and inject the little $#^& with boiling water. :)
 
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Not that I know of. I used to have what seemed like thousands of collonistas in my tank years ago, but the population seems to have balanced itself out. I suppose you could always go hunting at night when they are out and just manually remove them, but they are beneficial grazers.
 
They love to get caught between my magnetic algae scrapper and the glass. Sounds wonderful, like nails on a chalkboard. Remember chalkboards? Anyway, it's a custom bent glass tank, not cheap, and tho the snails haven't scratched it yet, it's probably only a matter of time.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14843145#post14843145 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PRDubois
Is this a bad time to mention you should dip your Corals when you get them.
Click to expand...

Dip in what? I've never gotten a clear answer on this, and the LFS thinks I'm crazy when I bring it up.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14846260#post14846260 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jenjen
Dip in what? I've never gotten a clear answer on this, and the LFS thinks I'm crazy when I bring it up.
Click to expand...
I use Seachem's Reef Dip. Kent also makes some, Tech D Coral Dip.
 
Mine also come out mostly at night, so I guess they are the collonista? type. So options are limited to picking them out by hand? What do they come out and graze on? Could I lure a bunch of them onto a small dish at night and remove in the morning?
 
I have a ridiculous amount of these small snails...they are maybe 2-3 times as big as a pin head but they ONLY come out at night so I really couldn't care about them. When the lights turn on in the morning they disappear so I have never had a problem with them on my glass.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14848145#post14848145 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Whys
They almost ALWAYS travel in pairs. It's actually kind of strange.
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it's courtin' season. or maybe you cought them on their way to the prom.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14848740#post14848740 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Whys
Hmmm... makes one wonder when I see them traveling in 3's. :D
Click to expand...

hahaha that was a good one....
 
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