How to reduce/wipe out vermetid snails?

[bsr2430]

I purchased six bumble bee snails and really not seeing anything yet.
I did put Vermetid snails in a cup with the snails for many hours before putting them in the tank.
Still waiting......

 

[Hincapiej4]

I purchased six bumble bee snails and really not seeing anything yet.
I did put Vermetid snails in a cup with the snails for many hours before putting them in the tank.
Still waiting......

Hmm, next test, put sand in, let the snails this nets out, coral snow hehe

 

[bsr2430]

Hmm, next test, put sand in, let the snails this nets out, coral snow hehe

They were attached to rocks?haha
I run a zero sand bed. Probably need to make my own sand at this point.haha

 

[Shooter6]

They were attached to rocks?haha
I run a zero sand bed. Probably need to make my own sand at this point.haha

Bumblebee snails are not an overnight fix. Took a couple months before i really saw a difference. But thst difference seemed to happen overnight. Like no ntable difference for the first couple months ,then a sudden huge difference. By about 6months i had zero left in my system.

 

[ScottB]

I think the vermetids ate my bumblebees lol.

Maybe they are out more at lights out or something. I put in 18 and I occasionally see one on the sand.

 

[eloser]

Any updates with oz coral snow as a solution?

 

[TheBiochemist]

In my tank, bumblebees definitely did their job. But I found out that they are somehow able to destroy only the smaller vermetids while leaving the larger ones alive (I dont know whether there is some kind of species specificity?). So from time to time I simply broke their shell and superglued them. Now my tank seems to be vermetid-free.
However, the best way of vermetids management is a prevention. So I inspect every rock or coral that is going to be placed in the tank and superglue them before introducing it to the tank.
By the way, I have never seen any detrimental effects of their presence on coral growth or polyp extension.

 

[Lowlandreef]

Any updates with oz coral snow as a solution?

I have tried coral snow for a while but it didn't work very well for me unfortunately. I think it did help with the smaller vermetids, but it didn't have any effect on the bigger ones. They just kept on growing and annoying corals with their large nets. For people who just have a couple of smaller ones it might work, but if you have a large population of vermetids it isn't a fix IME.

 

[Lowlandreef]

I almost forgot of this thread, so good thing it has gotten some new messages!
Luckily I got rid of my vermetids so I will share what helped for me.
Like I said in my previous post, I tried coral snow. It did clear up my tank, but didn't help much on the vermetids. After that I started my big offense against them, and luckily I succeeded.

1. Feeding
First thing I did, was trying to cut off their food source. I used to broadcast feed my tank with all the pumps on, and that's when all the vermetids went crazy with their nets. So I changed my feeding routine to all pumps off and feeding very little so only the fish were able to eat. I read once on R2R, you need to feed the fish and not the tank. If you ask me that is a very important one to remember (also in nutrient control).

2. Manual removal
The changed feeding routine helped a lot and the population was definitely not growing anymore. So second thing I did was trying to smash as many vermetids as I could. I used a small knife to remove them from corals and pro tip: some big tweezers can be your best friend in destroying vermetids on the rocks.

3. Introducing natural predators
Last thing I did was introducing natural predators. Other people in this thread already mentioned bumble bee snails and wrasses. I thing wrasses are a hit or miss. Not all wrasses will eat them, and some are just happy eating the food you give them and snacking on some copepods instead of eating a vermetid. My yellow wrasse got a taste of the vermetids when I was crushing them, and started eating them occasionally. I also added ~8 bumble bee snails to my tank. I'm very certain not all of them ate vermetids. But I feel that if you get enough of them, at least a couple will eat vermetids.

Future prevention
All the previous steps helped eradicate the vermetids. Now it's important to make sure they don't come back. The only real way to prevent them coming back, is probably dipping all corals and putting them in a coral QT for a couple of weeks. For me that's not really an option, so I just inspect all my corals very closely and scrape off any vermetids I see on the frag. I also stopped glueing them directly, so I can easily remove them to scrape off any possible vermetid.

Final words
Hopefully my experience helps for other people to control/eradicate their vermetid population. The most important thing if you ask me, is that you stay patient in looking for a solution and ask for help (on R2R or possibly your LFS). I was on a point where I thought I would never control them and I was even considering to remove all my rocks and start over my tank. I had vermetids in my overflow box, my sump, skimmer etc. But now everything is clear luckily. Try to figure the out the cause of the problem and address that first. After that things will get easier. Good luck everyone and let me know if you have any questions!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Anyone think protein skimmer will reduce the food source of vermetids? I imagine it must? I've stopped dosing phyto, and feeding reef roids because when I do I gget much more spirorbid worms and vermetid I think.

 

[Lowlandreef]

Anyone think protein skimmer will reduce the food source of vermetids? I imagine it must? I've stopped dosing phyto, and feeding reef roids because when I do I gget much more spirorbid worms and vermetid I think.

I think protein skimming helps reducing the food source of vermetids. They use their nets to get food and protein skimming should reduce the amount of particles (and thus food for vermetids) in the water.
Reef roids is probably also a food source for them, so cutting that out should help as well. I have to little knowledge about phytoplankton, so I can't tell you if that is a potential food source for vermetids.

As far as my experience goes, starving vermetids is the most effective method in completely eradicating them. I struggled quite a while and my tank was full of vermetids. Since starving them I haven't seen one in two years. I also started broadcast feeding again, so I'm quite sure they are all gone.