Vermetid Snails....What fish will eat them?

[italquam]

Hello everyone,

I have a FOWLR tank with a Foxface, Purple Tang, Royal Gramma, and Ocellarious Clown, and a few turbo snails.

My tank is overrun with Vermetid snails and I want to get a fish that will take these suckers out or at least limit them. The fish doesn't have to be reef safe because I don't have any corals, I just hate the way that the Vermetid snails look.

[aandfsoccr04]

none in my experience. You can try and put a dab of super glue on them. I ended up just taking all the rocks out with them on the rock and starting with dry rock.

[snorvich]

None that I am aware of. Most folks use superglue. If I were going to guess a fish that might it would be Halichoeres melanurus

[TruReef]

none in my experience. You can try and put a dab of super glue on them. I ended up just taking all the rocks out with them on the rock and starting with dry rock.

+1, or you can crush them....but if infested that would be a lot of work.

[Sugar Magnolia]

+1, or you can crush them....but if infested that would be a lot of work.

Crushing generally doesn't work because they can retract very far down into the spiral part of the tube. A dab of superglue over then end will kill them.

[slgcmg]

I am going to try the superglue as well. I actually will try and use the coral mounting glue I have. Any suggestions on what to use to put the glue on the snail since you can't place the super glue bottle in the tank itself?

[Sugar Magnolia]

I am going to try the superglue as well. I actually will try and use the coral mounting glue I have. Any suggestions on what to use to put the glue on the snail since you can't place the super glue bottle in the tank itself?

A toothpick should work.

[italquam]

I would have to take down my whole tank to super glue, so I wanted to find a fish or invert who would enjoy them for dinner.

[Chondro 5]

Yellow coris wrasse pretty much wiped vermetids out in my tank

[finsurgeon]

I have not found any animal that eats them, though I have not had a yellow coris wrasse while having vermetids. I have used a bone surgery instrument - a "rongeur" - that can bite/crush the spiral and grab the little bugger at the same time. My melanurus wrasse ignores them. Anytime that they form on a smooth surface, you can "chisel" under them and take out the whole spiral, which is the cleanest elimination. Get them before they multiply.

[italquam]

I have too many to chisel off, i may have to try corris wrasse

[captjab]

Reef safe epoxy like water weld. Make a small ball of it and mash it into the entrance of the tube. I haven't tried it yet, but I will be in the near future. Seems like it would be easier to do than the gel super glue.

Don't forget the epoxy can make the skimmer go a little crazy temporarily.

[italquam]

U would think that something out there would eat there guys up

[Spar]

Yellow coris wrasse pretty much wiped vermetids out in my tank

my yellow coris wrasse (had 2 for a long time as well, just 1 now though) never touched my vermatid's. my tank is infested with them so following along this thread!

Instead of super glue, could you put down that coral epoxy stuff over them for a while; long enough to suffocate/starve them? if so, how long would this take?

[italquam]

I think super glue or epoxy would be fine if you have just a few, but I have several hundred in my tank, I rather replace all the rock eventually then do that.


IS there any benefit to actually having these in your tank?

[troypt]

I have had success putting some kalk paste in their tube. I mix up a thick paste and use a syringe and inject it.

[italquam]

my next tank will definitely be dry rock for sure, and just seed it with a small piece of premium live rock

[Spyderturbo007]

I remember reading about a Nudibranch that would eat them, but I was never able to find that particular type of Nudibranch. I'll see if I can dig up the name.

[SGT_York]

You can't erradiacte them with a rock swap either, you'll need to get their eggs/larvae too which will be suspended in the water column and in the sandbed. periodic massive extermination via elbow grease, seems to keep the visible ones at bay. However they just keep coming back. I have not seen them bother coral or fish, they just look ugly. So I keep scraping them all of with a stick and add it to my periodic maintenance list. Short of a complete new tank setup, I dont' think there is any other way to kill them all.

[italquam]

Yea I will probably be doing a new tank setup in a few years , so I will just deal with them until then.

[vega77]

My Forcipiger flavissimus ate em all.
Unfortunatly it also started to eat corals when the vermetid snails were gone.

[IowaReefer]

Do less "broadcast" feeding and they will go away on their own. Less food=less vermatids.

[becon776]

Wrong. They are the endgame pest and are like cockroaches. They can live off nothing for months

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk