Vermetid snails... anyone know how to get rid of them???

[xokarmaxo]

I have a few of these little boogers/pests on my LR and while they aren't really a nuisance right now, I hear that they can be. Anyone know of a sure-fire way to get rid of them? I can try to take something to break them off, but I heard that they are also very, very sharp and can easily break the skin.

Any suggestions?

[Barbara]

I can't stand those nasty things! I simply break them off with my finger when I see them. It seems to help as I haven't had a problem with them in months. I used to have them all over, and I slowly got rid of them by breaking them off every time I saw them. I never got cut; I don't think their shells/tubes are all that hard.

[kwl1763]

They really aren't an issue. Most of my tanks have had tons over time. There is not really a good way to get rid of them except manual removal. Hermits and Copperbands "sometimes" help but are not surefire. I've never have issues with them though. I have thousands of them in my 450 and they don't cause any problems.

Good article on them

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rs/index.php

From it "It is unlikely that even a large number of vermetids is directly deleterious to any other aquarium life. The mucus they produce may be used as food by many other animals as well as by the producer. Large masses might produce enough mucus to cause some local disruption in water currents or they may foul some other animal, but the mucus is generally very diffuse and most animals can easily remove it"

[nova65chic]

so that is what those things are, i have them too and i dont like the cobb web stuff they spit out and suck back in >< it often gets wrapped around some of my corals and I have to go in manually and get it off. Well, just one of them is in the wrong spot, maybe I will leave the rest alone

[xokarmaxo]

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

Barbara, I think I only have 3 of them, so I'll try to break them off and see how that works. Or... I'll take the tweezers and break them off.

Thanks for the article link, kwl1763!~

[chauwall]

I had the same problem with the snails everywhere and irritating some of my coral. I bought a yellow wrasse and he's doing a great job at keep them at bay. I still have a couple but not nearly as much as before the wrasse. And I love the wrasse too! Always swimming around checking out every nook and cranny of each rock. He's really cool and reef safe.

[xokarmaxo]

Well, I removed the frags that had vermetid snails on them and good thing I used tweezers to break them off instead of trying with my fingers first because when I broke a piece off, it ricochet (I know I killed the spelling on that word! ) anyway, it BOUNCED off onto my arm and when I picked up the piece, it was like glass!

I manually removed all 3 of them... hopefully they won't come back!

[FutureInterest]

I let mine proliferate for the time being. If any of them become overly annoying I simply plug the hole with crazy glue.

[Rhodan]

Does SuperGlue work? I have a few of these things in my tank and the webs are getting crazy....

[nova65chic]

I used superglue, havent seen him pop up since!