Vermetid Snail Removal

S

skinsncanes

New member
I've spent the last six months trying to get rid of these a$$holes. I had a pest free tank with all dry rock, and literally got one tiny piece of live rock to see coralline and they overran my tank

I spent 30 hours manually breaking off every single one I could find and in weeks they were back everywhere. I spent the 30 hours again once I realized my sump and skimmer were filled with egg sacks

Eventually I just removed every single piece of rock I had, and threw in a couple new prices for bio filtration and just watched my tank for months. They eventually go all in the three new pieces of rock

I wish I understood how they reproduced. If you look at this pic sometimes the egg sack thing is five times the size of any of the snails.

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I've cleaned all my equipment multiple times but they still are around. I have a frag rack and they'll show up on the plugs. Two original pieces that were in there, a acro and green star polyp seem to always have a ton of eggs in them. Like somehow the spores or something is in the rocks.

I'm dying to reaquascape my tank and put the 20 frags I got in place. But I don't want to just come home one day and all the rocks be covered again.

My tanks 300 gallons, bare bottom, with just a couple fish. I can't believe how hard these things are to get rid of and how fast they grow and spread with very clean water with minimal food.



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Vermetid Snail Removal

If you look in the center of the pics you'll see how big that one sac is compared to the snails below and to the left of it. There's also some smaller sacs on there, which is more the normal size. I have three trochus snails and every few weeks I have To scrape a dozen eggs or snails off

Also if you know more about how they reproduce please tell me. I'll get thousands of hard white spirals all over my glass that looks like tiny vermetid fossils. They don't turn into the snails but it's a really hard material and annoying to scrape off

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I've read hundreds of threads on these things. You can't glue them, they're tiny and usually thousands. And as someone that's taken all his rock out several times I can say they're so deep and everywhere in the rock you can never get them all. Here's all my rock in acid making sure they're dead but I can't get them out of my tank.

Also I tried dr Tims refresh or renew. I spoke with him at a conference and he said in high doses his product kills snails. I tried that and didn't do anything.

Trying to get a copper band or six line or puffer is always hit or miss and at best just eats some of the surface ones.

I know they aren't the end of the world but I'm trying to have a nice sps tank. They keep the corals for growing. They're just annoying.

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Following. Mine are not plague proportions but I definitely have a few and they're super annoying. I do have lots of the spirals too but I'm pretty sure they're just harmless filter feeders and I was under the impression they will go away in time when nutrients get really low.

Edit - I do have a six line and he doesn't touch them.
 
Vermetid Snail Removal

It did seem bigger than normal. But looked the same as the smaller ones. I'd be happy I guess if It's a sponge. It also explains why there would be hundreds of them in my sump and skimmer but no adult vermetid snails

But with that being said they're always next to snails in the tank. A regular snail will have two of the brown/purple vermetid and the. Ten of these with it.

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The first photo is just better contrast to see all the white fossils that I said show up everywhere. The last two you can see the normal things that I said are I thought were egg sacks.

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jayball said:
Those are spiorbord(spelling?) worms. They are not a problem.


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And you think the white egg sack thing on the bottom two is a sponge? I'd feel a lot better about my snail removal if those aren't the snails reproducing. But they def reproduce fast either way.


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skinsncanes said:
And you think the white egg sack thing on the bottom two is a sponge? I'd feel a lot better about my snail removal if those aren't the snails reproducing. But they def reproduce fast either way.


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Google pineapple sponge. A high resolution picture and you eyes will be able to tell better than I can with your pics.

Honestly, you have not posted a picture with vermited snails yet. Have you seen them casting their mucous nets?


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The very first picture definitely has several of them but it's hard to see. I had just crushed and broken off most of them. But yes they had the nets, spiral shape, def vermetid snails. Though I've apparently been trying to eradicate two other things in the process.


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Although I have yet to see an vermetid snails in any of your pics, you do know you have to crush/remove the base to eradicate them, and not just crush the tube structure?
 
jayball said:
Google pineapple sponge. A high resolution picture and you eyes will be able to tell better than I can with your pics.

Honestly, you have not posted a picture with vermited snails yet. Have you seen them casting their mucous nets?


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+1 the small white circles you have a spirobid worms. Extremely common and completely harmless. There is no evidence of vermited snails which are normally much larger in comparison.
 
I also don't think those are vermentid snails, though still annoying as they don't look good. I did notice that after adding a sea urchin he did happen to eat a lot of the easy to reach vermentid snails I had in my tank. I'm guessing just luck as he was eating other algea on the rocks, but I'll take it.
 
I've had and still have vermetid snails pop up once in a while. I make a kalkwasser solution to eradicate them. I make the solution thin enough to suck up into a syringe and then simply inject the solution down into their tube. Works like a charm and has never failed me yet. This is what the little pests look like in case you're not sure.
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Last edited:
I have to agree with the others in that I don't see any vermetid snails in your pictures... Vermemids are MUCH larger than what you show in your pictures (which are actually spirorbid worms).

If you say you've seen them with their nets out, then I guess you are probably right, but nothing in the pictures suggests vermetids...

I think those white things are actually just harmless pineapple sponges, but it is a little difficult to see.
 
ssick92 said:
I have to agree with the others in that I don't see any vermetid snails in your pictures... Vermemids are MUCH larger than what you show in your pictures (which are actually spirorbid worms).

If you say you've seen them with their nets out, then I guess you are probably right, but nothing in the pictures suggests vermetids...

I think those white things are actually just harmless pineapple sponges, but it is a little difficult to see.
Click to expand...

Agree with this ^^^.

How exactly do you inject the vermetid snails? Their tube diameters are very small.
 
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