vermetid gastropod in my sps..

[MammothReefer]

A while ago I picked up a browned out bali plug, over the past 2 months or so it has really started to come into it's own and turn a nice purple. With it however has grown a vermetid gastropod. Lately acro seems to be loosing some of the colour it had worked so hard to gain back. With that I've noticed that the vermetid gastropod has been covering half the acro in a mucas. Now it has been doing this from day one however I don't recall if it's been to the same extent as the snail gets bigger so does the mucas. Any of you have issues with these things ticking off your sps, or could the mucas, and food capturing abilities of it actually be helping to feed the coral as (I've seen suggested in one place).

What are you guys experiences? Should I be looking else where to issues with said acro, or pop that sucker off?

 

[dudley moray]

i've got one growing in a pocci with no issues

 

[NewSchool04]

The mucus will irritate the acro, kill the vermitid. Just take a knife of something sharp and poke it till you know it's dead, your acro will grow over the hole in a week or so.

 

[reefsurfing]

Dont do anything inside of the aquarium as it can allow the 1 to multiply into many many more. Remove the acro and place it in a small container like you were going to frag it. Next use a narrow pointed or sharp object (scalpel) and remove the tissue covering the vermetid and take the vertmetid out. Make sure to get all of the vermetid out and make sure no piece of the vermetid makes it back into the aquarium. Check your overflows and make sure you dont have anymore anywhere else. They are an irritant in an aquarium and can bloom to large uncontrollable populations in some conditions. Get rid of them now before you regret it later.

 

[NewSchool04]

Dont do anything inside of the aquarium as it can allow the 1 to multiply into many many more. Remove the acro and place it in a small container like you were going to frag it. Next use a narrow pointed or sharp object (scalpel) and remove the tissue covering the vermetid and take the vertmetid out. Make sure to get all of the vermetid out and make sure no piece of the vermetid makes it back into the aquarium. Check your overflows and make sure you dont have anymore anywhere else. They are an irritant in an aquarium and can bloom to large uncontrollable populations in some conditions. Get rid of them now before you regret it later.

I've never heard this. The vermetid is basically a snail, if you stab it and kill it, how is it going to multiply in your tank with pieces of meat floating around?

 

[dudley moray]

Dont do anything inside of the aquarium as it can allow the 1 to multiply into many many more. Remove the acro and place it in a small container like you were going to frag it. Next use a narrow pointed or sharp object (scalpel) and remove the tissue covering the vermetid and take the vertmetid out. Make sure to get all of the vermetid out and make sure no piece of the vermetid makes it back into the aquarium. Check your overflows and make sure you dont have anymore anywhere else. They are an irritant in an aquarium and can bloom to large uncontrollable populations in some conditions. Get rid of them now before you regret it later.

seriously:worried:

 

[reefsurfing]

I've never heard this. The vermetid is basically a snail, if you stab it and kill it, how is it going to multiply in your tank with pieces of meat floating around?

Each peice of the worm can regenrate into another worm. I assume you posted your question here b/c you wanted an answer from someone who had a similar experience. Well, i started with a single vermetid on an incoming frag. I grabbed the frag and minced the worm to peices and I ended up with tons of vermetids in my systems plumbing. I had to tear down my tank to get rid of all them.

Enjoy the reading
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rs/index.php
http://www.amscopub.com/images/file/File_145.pdf

"Ribbon worms can reproduce asexually by breaking into pieces;
each piece is capable of regenerating into a whole new worm"

Ya, seriously!

 

[reefsurfing]

It's actually a snail and I'm pretty sure, about 99% sure that if you mince him up, he's not coming back anywhere except some lucky fishes poop

I got this info from the reef keepers article and then checked into the worms after RK's article described them as similar to tube worms in a few areas of the article.

Actually, go ahead mince em up and let us know if anymore pop up in about a month.

 

[NewSchool04]

It's actually a snail, not a worm and I'm pretty sure, about 99% sure that if you mince him up, he's not coming back anywhere except some lucky fishes poop.

 

[dudley moray]

It's actually a snail, not a worm and I'm pretty sure, about 99% sure that if you mince him up, he's not coming back anywhere except some lucky fishes poop.

+1 they are perfectly harmless ,unless of course you grab a rock and poke yourself

"In many reef tanks, some of the most abundant animals are these small snails that often appear to be calcareous tube worms. The larger species are rather rare in aquaria, but the abundance of the larger vermetids on some Indo-Pacific reef flats is truly striking, and gives an indication of the amount of the appropriate detrital or particulate food available. Similarly well-adapted for reef aquarium life, the smaller species are sometimes prolific to the point of being nuisances. However, in most tanks, they simply remain an example of a small, but highly successful, component of reef biodiversity."
from the article you provided reefsurfing
by the way the pdf was a very interesting read thank you !

 

[NewSchool04]

"Ribbon worms can reproduce asexually by breaking into pieces;
each piece is capable of regenerating into a whole new worm"

Ya, seriously!

I don't get the ribbon worm quote?

 

[MammothReefer]

Popped it off the plug. It was one of the bigger ones. Didn't take long after that for the polyps to come out on the piece. Guess that web was doing a number on it.

 

[reefsurfing]

I don't get the ribbon worm quote?
MAmmothreefer -Guess that web was doing a number on it.

I didnt explain that very well and I might have caused some confusion with the whole snail/worm bit, forgive me. The reef keeping article stated that in many ways the vermetid snail is similar to the tube worm but went on to clarify the differences. I studied the second link to learn more about their simlarities and found out that they can reproduce without needing a mate.
The worm can propagate from its individual segments. Stabbing a Snail will most likely indeed kill the snail but will release all the fertilized eggs in the shell and then you end up with a tank/overflow filled with the little pests, hence, my personal experience. Many reefers have reported reduced feeding/polyp extensions with large populations of vermetids. Vermetids can compete for space with your SPS and even though an sps can grow over a vermetid the vermetid will grow through the sps and continually annoy it.
I should have taken some more time to go back and find a clearer way to state my position but the bottom line is we want to grow sps and not anything that could potentially compete with our beloved sticks. So feel free to pick me apart but I still think they arent good for a reef system and should be removed, take care, let us know how it turns out.

 

[BeanMachine]

I got a browned out aquacultured acro from Capistrano Reef a couple months back.

Its got a couple of inverts like what you guys are describing but I haven't noticed them getting any bigger or irritating the coral at all.

Its developed a teal base, red body, and hot pink tips. I love it I hope there wont be a future problem. I'll keep my eye on them before I start chopping them up haha

 

[MammothReefer]

I got a browned out aquacultured acro from Capistrano Reef a couple months back.

Its got a couple of inverts like what you guys are describing but I haven't noticed them getting any bigger or irritating the coral at all.

Its developed a teal base, red body, and hot pink tips. I love it I hope there wont be a future problem. I'll keep my eye on them before I start chopping them up haha

Mine was fine for some time. The coral went from a brown out special to a nice purple. Then the mucas web started to get bigger and more apparent, to the point where it was covering most the coral. I started to see suffering PE, and the coral turning brown again.

 

[abrian]

I have been having good luck just covering the opening of the tube with a small dab of superglue gel while in the tank gluing down a new frag. I just use the left over gel in the tube to seal up snail tubes as I can find them. The snail starves, then a month or so later I will snap the snail's tube off where it was growing up out of the coral. I have some tubes that have gotten very long. As the acro tries to encrust the snail, the snail grows its tube longer and the race is on.

 

[richierich2000]

I have had them for a long time I tried super glue and they always came back.. I am starting a new tank with new rock because of it.

 

[Medicoles]

KILL IT NOW!!! I also had to tear down an entire tank and trash all of my LR because of those stinkin' things. They will multiply into out of control numbers and eventually everytime you feed you'll end up with a web of nasty over your entire rock scape. I've successfully killed them several time by just super gluing over the hatch. Just make sure you completely cover it or else it'll come back.