Vermetid Snail Removal
- Thread starter skinsncanes
- Start date
I have vermetids in my 40b. I am planning on moving corals over to my new 125 and trying to not transfer vermetids. In my research I found their reproductive methods. The males cast sperm in their nets and close by females take it in to fertilize the eggs. The eggs mature in the females tube and then the larvae crawl out of the tube and crawl around on the rock until they find a suitable spot. My plan is to cut my coral from the rocks they are on and put them on clean frag plugs. In the process if I see any on the coral, I'll remove it. Either way, everything will be dipped in Bayer and rinsed several times before going into the new tank. Based on what I've read, Bayer should kill any I miss. The only concern was eggs, but since they develop in the tube, there shouldn't be concern for them being on the coral. Anything that might be too small to see the Bayer should kill.
tmc1313
Active member
I just use a 10ml syringe (I forget what gauge the needle is) and stick it right down the tube and squirt until it starts flowing out the opening. for snails in hard to reach places or that are growing in weird angles I use a curved needle syringe.
Scottedontknow
New member
i had them in my small tank, all you have to do is reduce nutrients in the tank so they are filter feeders. They reproduce under the right conditions IE... nutrient rich tank. at least this is what i have noticed i may be wrong but i just added an extra skimmer for a few weeks and they seemed to disappear and are no longer an issue for me.
skinsncanes
New member
Sorry for the delay but I definitely removed hundreds of vermetid snails. Pic attached. I just didn't know what the pineapple sponges were. I was worried those were the snail spreading. Which caused me to over react a little and nuke all my rock.
I've basically gotten rid of the snails. I just put all my rock back in a week ago and finally mounted 35 frags that were waiting for rocks. Ill occasionally see one or two of the snails so it's manageable enough to pop them off when I see them. Hopefully they don't have enough presence to take over my rocks again
bill120reef
New member
I just fill them with superglue.. never see them again.
skinsncanes
New member
I had the small kind. You wouldn't have been able to find a thousand pin hold sized holes and fill them. I just wanted them out before I got all my sps frags because they were already irritating what I had
Mr. Brooks
MASVC Member
Vermetid Snail Removal
Most of the guys posting on your thread have zero experience with this species of vermetid snail.
You cannot eradicate them with reduced feeding or superglue.
Manual removal will not work. They will always come back to plague proportions.
I know because it happened to me.
The only thing that worked was tearing my whole tank down, sterilizing everything and starting over. If you want them gone for good, that's what you have to do.
Then moving forward, inspect, Bayer dip and QT EVERYTHING. Oh and obviously start with dead rock.
If you're unwilling to go that route, be prepared to manually remove them forever.
The problem with manual removal is you'll never get all of them. If you miss one, it'll reproduce. But even if you do get all of them, you can bet your butt there's larva crawling around somewhere. They'll show up soon enough. And as you know, they don't just live on rock. They live in the overflow, on pumps, sumps, heaters, skimmers, cables, everything.
EVERYTHING has to be sterilized.
Most of the guys posting on your thread have zero experience with this species of vermetid snail.
You cannot eradicate them with reduced feeding or superglue.
Manual removal will not work. They will always come back to plague proportions.
I know because it happened to me.
The only thing that worked was tearing my whole tank down, sterilizing everything and starting over. If you want them gone for good, that's what you have to do.
Then moving forward, inspect, Bayer dip and QT EVERYTHING. Oh and obviously start with dead rock.
If you're unwilling to go that route, be prepared to manually remove them forever.
The problem with manual removal is you'll never get all of them. If you miss one, it'll reproduce. But even if you do get all of them, you can bet your butt there's larva crawling around somewhere. They'll show up soon enough. And as you know, they don't just live on rock. They live in the overflow, on pumps, sumps, heaters, skimmers, cables, everything.
EVERYTHING has to be sterilized.
There is some promising information on fenbendazole, an animal dewormer. Seems its an effective treatment for hydroids, but a great side effect of killing vermetid snails. There is a decent thread on it on another reefing site. I'm considering treatment, even though I only have a few, they are starting to reproduce faster.
Google fenbendazole for killing hydroids. If you use it, you will have to take all snails and starfish out of your tank or risk then dying. Some worms may be affected too, and some gorgs and things like gsp, xenia will die. Fish are unaffected, shrimp are fine, zoas,lps, leathers, sps all fine. Looks like a really good option.
I used fenbendazole to kill off blue clove polyps in my tank a few months ago. The treatment killed blue clove, xenia, waving hand and a couple turbo snails. However, it had no effect on vermetid snails. I would personally not use fenbenazole if you trying to kill these snails.
DarkSkyForever
New member
I had a bunch of vermetid snails in my SPS tank and had just manually removed/glued shells where I saw them. I eventually added a blue spot puffer and it turns out he loves munching them when they pop up. My snails hide during the day, but I don't really mind that too much.
JonCubb
New member
I've resorted to just living with the stupid things, simply because I let them get to epic proportions before I realized they were even a pest long ago...Live and learn.
Anyways, if you do manual removal, make sure you go all the way to the rock when you remove them. When they feel threatened they retreat all the way to the bottom of their shell, and will rebuild the shell after you removed a portion of it. You could do the kalk paste trick, or super glue, but that would only be worth it to me if you have only a few to deal with. If you have as many as I do, you'll be at it for days, and even then your bound to miss one and have to do it all over again once they reproduce.
Best tip I can give other than that, is keep your tank clean. The more detritus in your tank, the more they have to eat. Essentially, starve them out by keeping your tank as clean as possible.
Anyways, if you do manual removal, make sure you go all the way to the rock when you remove them. When they feel threatened they retreat all the way to the bottom of their shell, and will rebuild the shell after you removed a portion of it. You could do the kalk paste trick, or super glue, but that would only be worth it to me if you have only a few to deal with. If you have as many as I do, you'll be at it for days, and even then your bound to miss one and have to do it all over again once they reproduce.
Best tip I can give other than that, is keep your tank clean. The more detritus in your tank, the more they have to eat. Essentially, starve them out by keeping your tank as clean as possible.
CindyK
New member
Well I wish my melanarus would get busy! I tried supergluing them early on but there were always more.
I have tons of these stupid things in my tank, they came in a frag of zoas I bought at a swap. Any time the sand gets kicked up (which is usually only during my water changes) they cast their little spiderwebs everywhere, but otherwise they don't seem to bother my corals much.
Scouring the internet, I don't think I have seen any people confirm that any species eats these (reef safe). Some people say yellow coris, others say melanarus etc, but these seem to be isolated cases. Fish also may pick at the tubes, but not actually do any damage.
For those interested, I will start a new thread on some tests I will be doing with chemicals used to treat fully stocked sps display tanks for other ailments (ie. redbugs, flatworms, etc)
For those interested, I will start a new thread on some tests I will be doing with chemicals used to treat fully stocked sps display tanks for other ailments (ie. redbugs, flatworms, etc)
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