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Unread 07/16/2007, 01:52 PM   #1
barbra
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Vermetid Snails Harm Coral

Hey all,

I just came across this. According to a conference being held by the Ecological Society of America on reef restoration:

Vermetid snails reduce growth and survival of corals and shift coral species composition. Affected species include Pocillopora, Montipora, and some Porites species primarily.

More info here:
http://eco.confex.com/eco/2007/techprogram/P7313.HTM


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Unread 07/16/2007, 01:58 PM   #2
HBtank
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Interesting.

Wish there was more detail on the species of snail and how they removed them.


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Current Tank Info: 80g tank, re-starting a reef after a zoanthid nudibranch plauge, followed by months of steady and unstoppable STN/RTN, crashed; stayed FOWLR for a couple years, currently an aiptasia dominated reef tank with fishies and BERGHIA
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Unread 07/16/2007, 02:00 PM   #3
HBtank
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Bad news for my tank..lol I am full of them.

Though despite the HUGE numbers, I have only seen them use their nets once or twice, which I find to be odd.


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Unread 07/16/2007, 02:04 PM   #4
barbra
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I have quite a few myself. I have seen posts in the past in which people swear they are harmful to Zoos, which is why I started looking at the problem. I have a colony of Zoos that is suffering and the only thing I can think of is vermetids. It's the only colony suffering and the only colony with vermetids.


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Unread 07/16/2007, 02:24 PM   #5
HBtank
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I have been aware of the problems that people have had but have yet to see it myself. To date, my only problem coral are certian Ricordia Yumas I have, and it is a flow/lighting issue IMO.

When I first became aware of vermitids being "bad" I concluded that there must be different species that look very similar. Because my rocks are literally covered in the small ones that are reported to be bad, yet no problems.

But like I said, I have not even dealt with much mucous at all.. which is odd because it seemed this was reported even in cases where they did no harm. The two or three times I have seen them all throw out the nets was on random times when I was blowing of rocks etc.. I have not seen it at night either..

In fact, I have watched corals grow over them (some montis), not receed from them as I have also seen reported.


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80g Aiptasia dominated reef tank.. with fish and now a bunch of berghia!

Current Tank Info: 80g tank, re-starting a reef after a zoanthid nudibranch plauge, followed by months of steady and unstoppable STN/RTN, crashed; stayed FOWLR for a couple years, currently an aiptasia dominated reef tank with fishies and BERGHIA
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Unread 07/16/2007, 02:29 PM   #6
drummereef
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I haven't had much of a problem with this even though my tank is riddled with them. Vermetids are at the very least an annoyance, that's for sure.


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Unread 07/16/2007, 03:04 PM   #7
dzhuo
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Quote:
Originally posted by barbra
I have quite a few myself. I have seen posts in the past in which people swear they are harmful to Zoos, which is why I started looking at the problem. I have a colony of Zoos that is suffering and the only thing I can think of is vermetids. It's the only colony suffering and the only colony with vermetids.
i have had similar problem. the net this snail produce appears to be very irritated to zoas. zoas that come to contact with the net these snails produce are almost always half close. upon removing the snail, they will open right up almost immediately. i also notice that the net appears to affect zoas with shorter skirt the most, those with longer skirt are less irritated by it.

the sad part is that it's pretty hard to completely remove the whole snail without taking the rock out and they grow right back if you just destroy the portion that shot out.


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Unread 07/16/2007, 06:19 PM   #8
greenbean36191
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That's not really shocking news at all. I've seen many a coral grow away from vermetid tubes, if not recede. Also, keep in mind they're talking reduced growth in general, not necessarily recession. Snails catching all of that food before it gets to the coral doesn't help growth. That effect won't be nearly as noticeable in our tanks though since there is so little food for the corals in the first place.


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Unread 07/16/2007, 06:38 PM   #9
dzhuo
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is there a natural predator?


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Unread 07/16/2007, 07:39 PM   #10
1F2FRFBF
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Quote:
Originally posted by dzhuo
is there a natural predator?
I saw one of my nassarius go after a vermetid once. Stuck his little siphon down the tube and SLURRP.

Yup. Critter with a built-in straw. Gotta love it.


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Unread 07/16/2007, 07:42 PM   #11
shag26272
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I crush them every few days with my Gerber multitool, I know for a fact they were making my clam angry with their nets I know it must irritate corals someone had mentioned hermits before but im not sure how likely it is


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Unread 07/16/2007, 08:13 PM   #12
conefree
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Interesting info. Kind of makes sense though. I had a vermetid on the side of my frogspawn that was constantly irritating it. After I made the snail go bye-bye, the frogspawn has been growing much faster and is more full.


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