Vermetid Snails killing my corals Help please!!

[Plantladykatie]

Great advice, I use epoxy or reef glue on them after I break off their tube-like extension. Many large wrasses will eat them too, but most wrasses that eat them will also eat shrimps & small inverts.

[Timfish]

Originally Posted by wzrdbear

vermetid snails are plankton eaters, not coralavores. These mesosnails secrete mucus that catch detritus and planktonic material that they then pull in to eat. If there are huge numbers of them, say several hundred within 2.5 inches or so, then a coral might get bugged, but by no means will the snails eat a coral. You have another culprit it sounds like. Those arent numerous enough to even slightly irritate a coral. I would watch your tank at night by spot checking it with a red lense flashlight. I would bet there is something in there you havent seen yet.

+1

[Isayso]

what have you seen?
I see just bristle worms...and the pesky snails webs

[soeminpaing]

I am also losing the battle with these snails.

[catman78]

BOIL THEM...
Syringe with boiling water from mircowave.
Blast it down tube, done.

To get and ID on their location kick up the bottom a little, so they throw their skank out.

In addition I stopped with Reef Chili at night. Cutting down on stuff in water column.

[Isayso]

Easy said than done.. I've got hundreds of them...
Really we need to find a biological controller
Or an additive / chemical that not hurt
The corals and fish

[SmokeyNite]

I cooked my rocks for 4 months total and crushed the snails every time I would switch the water. They were spread out on every single rock, billions of them!! And they hurt!! They killed several of my corals by spreading across them and or having their mucus web spread all over them. There were only a few left when I put the rocks back into my tank last month, but now they are spreading again!

I used to have a six line and I think he took care of the problem. But I had to get rid of him (and destroy my rock display in the meantime) because he was bullying and killing other fish in my tank. Tomorrow I'm going to see about getting a yellow wrasse and see if that helps any. Any other suggestions to get rid of these things??

[Isayso]

Two weeks ago bought a melanurus wrasse
Based on a few feedbacks
He is not bad or aggressive as other wrasses
Like the Christmas wrasse, ornate, ornatissimus.
Right now he is in the qt. Has been eating pellets, flakes,and frozen misys
This kind supposed take care of them..
I really hope so
Will see... I will post update in a couple of weeks after it goes in the display tank

[daquan44]

Wow! I just learned that these guys are a tank pest. I have thousands of them in my tank, and they do hurt. I cant pick up a piece of live-rock without their tubes scratching up my hands. However, my SPS and soft corals are thriving even with their presence. I have a six-line wrasse, but if he eats them it isn't fast enough.

[Isayso]

They're a pest
And I want to get rid of them

[daquan44]

Originally Posted by Isayso

Two weeks ago bought a melanurus wrasse
Based on a few feedbacks
He is not bad or aggressive as other wrasses
Like the Christmas wrasse, ornate, ornatissimus.
Right now he is in the qt. Has been eating pellets, flakes,and frozen misys
This kind supposed take care of them..
I really hope so
Will see... I will post update in a couple of weeks after it goes in the display tank

If you haven't added copper to your QT, you should put a piece of rock with the snails on it to see if he will consume them.

[Isayso]

That is a great idea, unfortunately there is copper unless I put a ruble with those pests

[Sk8r]

I had a purple tang once that had a thing for those little two-tentacle tube thingies that grow on the sandbed. Wiped 'em out. But I can't swear what any tang will take to.

[Isayso]

OK folks....
thanks to sk8er for the great idea ...
sometimes we dont think..LOL

I just grabbed a 2" rubble with tubesnails.. about 1" long
and I dropped in the QT..
after a couple of minutes the wrasse was going at it
the little tubesnails were gone fast the bigger ones are more resistant
because of the hard tube
unless I crash the tube...
here is a video of the wrasse, not a good quality ..was taken with the phone
but at 1.05 minutes you see clear the wrasse in action

VIDEO

[Isayso]

Sorry guys I ment to say.

"daquan44"....thanks for your idea buddy

[iced98lx]

not to be a total buzzkill, but as someone how has fought this battle, nipping at the end of the tube doesn't mean he's eating or killing them. Snap some photos of the base of the snail, if it's not crushed open, they're not dead. Wrasses like that do eat off rocks in the wild, so pecking at the rock isn't unusual, actually crushing the base of the snail to get to the actual snail would be unusual.

Generally there are a few fish (the wrasse you got) that are "suspected" of eating them, very little in the way of proof and certain individual fish specific.

[ClownFishGuy6]

Well if you don't have any invertebrate's or anything in your tank that can be killed by copper medicine then you should try putting in a ick treatment that kills all invertebrate's. They may be immune to this or may not be. I am not sure. I have never had anything like that before.

[Isayso]

well that was after a couple of minutes after the rock was dropped in the tank

I will keep an eye on the rock

[iced98lx]

Report back with pics, would be good to document a confirmed case of the wrasse eating them if he is.

[Isayso]

Originally Posted by iced98lx

Report back with pics, would be good to document a confirmed case of the wrasse eating them if he is.

see what I can do ..but definitely i will observe this one closer

[becon776]

Wrasse dont do jack.. bumblebee snails are a no.

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[2wheelsonly]

I can't seem to get rid of them by starving them myself. I stopped all feeding except for pellets every other day. No luck.

I dose prodibio which is a form of bacteria/carbon dosing.

Not sure if this is "feeding" them. I am literally putting nothing else in my tank other than water changes and my calcium reactor with ARM media. I probably have about 300 of them. My nutrients are very low and have no visible algae in the tank right now. My water is clear as can be and rocks are deep purple. No clue what the hell these things are eating!

I am not sure if nets are killed nearby corals but there are definitely bothering them, I see many SPS frags with no PE covered in webs daily.

[Retzius]

I have had them in all my tanks and they take over. They soon will be found inside your return pump tubes etc.

People say feed less, but I have not been able to get rid of them. I am starting a 200 gallon and I did not use my old real reef rock because they took over. Had to use new dry rock. Also, they grow on all your equipment. I have really good old real reef rock full of pods that I sadly have to get rid of.

I think these guys are underrated and worse than aiptasia. At least Aiptasia has a predator. I don't think these little shits do. The whole glueing is pointless because they reproduce at an alarming rate, at least from what I have observed.

[pisanoal]

There are different "varieties" of them it would seem. Some are quite large and others much smaller, with their tubes being only a mm or so wide. I have a smaller version, but they never "took over" I maybe had a couple hundred between my sump and underneath my live rock. A few here and there on top. Had a melanarus in the tank, and he didn't touch them. Gluing works if you only have a few and stay on top of new ones, but it is not an effective long term solution to get rid of them, there will always be some in places you cant get to.

I upgraded recently and tried to not introduce them into the new tank. I tried dipping everything in bayer and some things in iodine. Also manually removed all I could see. Neither dip seemed to kill them as I still had some come back. They are few enough that I manually remove them every time I seem them. They are only on my coral frag rocks/lps bases, so I can take them out, inspect, remove. I had some get on a rock, but I gave it an acid bath, and put it back in. So far, I seem to be winning the battle, but only a full system reboot with meticulous care afterwards will beat them.

[becon776]

That is where i am at...however trying to walk that path with a fully stocked tank is precarious

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