Yet another vermetid snail thread

[sixline]

To be honest, I do find vermetid snails fascinating. It is interesting how they start more like regular snails when they are young, but then plant themselves and become stationary and extrude their tubes and start casting their webs. I'm currently fighting them in my tank, epoxy and long nose pliers in hand. Please answer me here questions three:

1) I've heard that bumblebee snails might reduce them. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this and if the bumblebees just kill the babies, or do they also somehow kill the sessile adults after they've affixed themselves to their permanent location?

2) I remember reading here or elsewhere about a unique method of eradicating vermetids. It had to do with starving the tank for a few days, and then feeding, but also adding a mystery substance to the tank. Unfortunately, I do not recall what the mystery substance was, but it was some sort of powder that the vermetids would draw into their tubes as food that would then kill them. Is anyone here familiar with this method and if so, can you provide more details? I have concerns that whatever the substance is may affect other life in the aquarium, and also that if the method were successful - we'd all know about it! But still, it does sound like there may be potential there.

3) Does anyone know what the young motel for look like? Are they visible with the naked eye?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

1 ) Yes, bumblebee snails can prey on some vermetids (though they may not prey on all of them - it may be species/size dependent). They prey on the sessile adults, but sometimes need help to get to the vermetids in the tubes (see the second quote below).

2 ) You're probably thinking of coral snow.

3 ) The young snails of some Vermetid species would technically be visible with the naked eye (these hatch as tiny, fully formed, benthic snails; the largest I've heard of at the moment is 0.9mm at hatching, most seem to be closer to 0.45-0.5mm), but others (the planktonic, veliger larvae) would not be.

manual removal, bumblebee snails, glue, injecting vinegar/lemon juice/kalkpaste, coral snow, etc. If you only have a few, then manual removal should work fine, otherwise I’d say to look at some of the methods used on the forum here and try out the ones you think would work best.

I’ve heard mixed reviews on the super glue method (but, most methods get mixed reviews with Vermetids).

For the vermetids, some people report success with emerald crabs, bumblebee snails, coral snow (there's a DIY recipe on here somewhere for this that's super cheap - I believe it's made from chalk), etc.

Probably the best results I’ve seen with small numbers of vermetids come from crushing the tube and setting a predator (like an emerald crab or a bumblebee snail) by the crushed tube immediately after.

The following may be helpful too:

Some people swear by bumblebee snails for vermetids, others say they’re useless, and still more say they’re effective but only over long periods of time (like 8+ months long). It may depend of the species of vermetid you have.

 

[penguinexdeus]

how does coral snow help get rid of vermitids? just by removing some of the partculates from water afterwards? The number i have in my tank are bugging me also. I remove what I can access easily but there are a lot in nooks/ crannies that i can't access.. short of dumping a handful of bumblebees in i'm not sure. Definitiely looking for other ideas also...

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

how does coral snow help get rid of vermitids?

The main speculation seems to be that it clogs up their tube and prevents the snails from casting their feeding nets; other speculation includes thinking it cleans the detritus particles they feed on out of the water column so there's no food for them to catch.

Honestly, neither of those sound particularly likely to me, but I've seen several reports that it works. Some people report it eliminating their vermetid infestations while others report that it just cuts the numbers down drastically for a while.

 

[bearman88]

I am battling vermitids for 2-3 years now. I did 2 rounds of coral snow recently and it didn't seem to phase them, FWIW.

I am going to get a bumble bee army, and stop any broadcast feeding like reef roids.

Also, i think my problem is I never turn off all flow to feed. so yeah I've been feeding them and their nets run wild.