Fish needed that will eat Vermetid Snails
- Thread starter hotelbravo
- Start date
McPuff
New member
Parrotfish may eat them accidentally as they chew on the rocks. But then you're introducing another problem in your tank. I have certainly noticed that rinsing the mysis (well) and feeding more pellets vs frozen (LRS), there are fewer webs extending into the water. It doesn't seem to take long to starve them.
ThRoewer
New member
In the other vermetid snail thread here someone reported that his bluespot puffer eliminated the vermetids. I'm assuming that the puffer only ate those he could reach which likely left plenty in obstructed areas where the fish couldn't get them. The fish also went after SPS corals which makes this a rather unsuitable solution for SPS systems where these pests actually cause damage.
I found a field report on observations on reefs that suggests that there are certain predatory snails which are specialized in feeding on vermetids and use their empty tubes as safe place to lay their eggs.
Another field report was about observations of total vermetid die-offs on certain visited reefs. This could indicate that there is a disease (viral or bacterial) or a parasite that has the potential to eliminate the snails completely from a system without the accessibility restrictions that apply to predatory fish and snails.
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I found a field report on observations on reefs that suggests that there are certain predatory snails which are specialized in feeding on vermetids and use their empty tubes as safe place to lay their eggs.
Another field report was about observations of total vermetid die-offs on certain visited reefs. This could indicate that there is a disease (viral or bacterial) or a parasite that has the potential to eliminate the snails completely from a system without the accessibility restrictions that apply to predatory fish and snails.
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ThRoewer
New member
It is very hard to spot the juvenile stages of these snails and many other pests and parasites. You would have to avoid bringing anything other than coral frags (no plugs and no bases, just freshly cut frags that have not a single piece of skeleton exposed aside from the fresh cut), shrimp and crabs (only after a mold), and well quarantined fish into the tank.
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McPuff
New member
Another consideration here is that the vermetids will grow up through coral, and their shells become encrusted with the coral itself. So if the vermetid is quite small it may be hard to know there's even one on the coral itself. In this case, removing from the plug will not help. This seems much more of a problem on monti species but could certainly happen on other sps types. And LPS are very susceptible... not sure how you could ensure that an LPS is completely free of this pest unless you kept it in a qt systems for several months.
ThRoewer
New member
If there is a chemical treatment that kills snails but doesn't harm corals, that would be the solution for the new coral quarantine.
Unfortunately, I only know of things that kill crustacean or worms but nothing that would specifically target snails. If there would be something like that it could also be used to rid all rocks, one by one or the entire system at once, of these pests. One would just have to make sure to remove all good snails before treatment...
ThRoewer
New member
Well, a quick search returned Niclosamide as a possible chemical countermeasure:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niclosamide
https://www.who.int/docstore/water_sanitation_health/vectcontrol/ch48.htm#b7-Chemical control
Though I would be extremely cautious to use this in a fully stocked reef tank without doing some prior research and small scale testing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niclosamide
https://www.who.int/docstore/water_sanitation_health/vectcontrol/ch48.htm#b7-Chemical control
Though I would be extremely cautious to use this in a fully stocked reef tank without doing some prior research and small scale testing.
