Vermetid Snails!

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Finnster

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Feb 23, 2016
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I recently figured out I have some (only a few) of these guys in my 39g Biocube community tank. I have no corals in this tank (they are on my rock), and I am wondering how to get rid of these guys Coral Dip? Crabs (have heard they aggressively eat this stuff, I have 1 porcelain and 2 pom pom's now)? Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Finnster :fish2:
 
I had them on the rocks got them under control , then they took over the sand bed ,
I finally got tired of them replaced the sand bed about a year ago 6 months later they were back , my sand looks like a carpet again , I was told many times I over feed but I know for a fact I don't , every other day is my schedule along with weekly water changes ,
I would love to do another sand change but I have like another Eco system under the sand bed now , my lobster burrowed out a lot of the bottom now hermits snails pistol shrimps , along with a bunch of emerald crabs and porcelain crabs my gobies love it down there too , they sell something that will take out the vermid snails but it would also wipe out all my inverts ,
I just bought 3 abalone's they seem to be cleaning house I'll have to see how long they get things cleaned up , than I can remove them and put them in my predator tank . so they don't move on to my coral ,
 
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I have vermetid snails in my 112gal and when I say I have them I mean they are EVERYWHERE. They are all pretty small but when I look I definitely notice them. I've battled them for a few months now only to watch them grow in numbers. If you believe you actually only have a couple then completely crush them now or glue them shut. Otherwise you will get hundreds or more.

I can't really confirm or deny if they actually kill corals. I believe they irritate them which I've said in other posts. They definitely will grow on and around some corals but even my most recent problem with my zoas was easily resolved. I don't think they will come close to killing your corals unless you never do anything about the ones growing on them.

Ive searched high and low for an actual solution for infestations rather then crushing and or glueing. Because if you have hundreds that's just not going to work. I've heard of a couple potential predators but no real solid evidence. I believe my yellow Corris wrasse tries to eat the snails but the snails themselves are skittish and retreat very quickly. And the wrasse can't or won't break the shells.

Because the snails feed by sending out those sticky nets I've decided to slowly increase my water movement in the DT. I've noticed the snails don't hold on well in high current. So I've set my wave maker to be on for maybe 30 seconds and at high flow. Which causes major turbulence in the water. But then it's off for about the same amount of time and the water is calm. I like to think this is working because it makes it harder for them to feed. But again I can't confirm. I "believe" I'm seeing less.

Other then that I've reduced feeding from 2 times a day down to 1 again. Still a good amount of food compared to some others. Just a single cube of frozen mysis and some nori every couple days. all the defrosting liquid from the mysis put down the sink drain. Just trying to reduce nutrients as much as possible.

Unless you really do only have a couple that you can tackle right away...get used to them being in the tank.


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I looked at my tank today seems the abalone's got a good head start on these vermid snails in the sand bed , I have been wanting to try abalone's for a long while , as I heard they will eat them . but no one ever had any in stock , than I finally got lucky one of the local shops got some in definitely was a good investment as they are doing there job well.
 
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Nice! I want an abalone, but LA never has any in stock :( My LFS is bad at keeping fish (they always are diseased and only have FW) and my only other option is a Petco better than most their SW is decent (for a Petco) and their FW is crap, so I only try to buy hardy inverts from them (Hermits, Ceriths etc.). I could get a custom order form Petco, but I recently got an LTA from them and it is doing well (not the best), and I don't really like to buy from them; So I guess I am stuck with LA and saltwaterfish.com :/
 
There are different vermetid snails. It is the larger ones that are of larger concern. Took forever to break off and glue shut all of the ones in my reef...in fact I just found one this week after all this time past that'll need managed.


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Yeah mine are about 1/8-1/4 inch at best. I saw one my my "local" Petco that was 4-5 INCHES!!!!
 
Yeah I don't want to ever come across the big ones lol. I


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They can be controlled by not overfeeding your tank. When there is plenty of food laying around is when you see a lot of them.
 
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