Snail Plague - What do I do?-Inverts-3reef Forums

Matt Rogers · 05-10-2005, 11:12 PM

I'll never forget the day Gresham gave me these 4 little black snails, because that was the day I only had 4.

Now I have hundreds of these little buggers. I siphon out probably 50 with every water change. (see attached) Crazy thing is this is only from the front of the glass, I see more in back. And when I fill the tank back up, many have moved to the front already. It's insane.

I can't tell you what kind they are, I can just tell you they are nocturnal. I don't see many during the day, but a few hours after lights out, they are out in force going across the sand, on the rocks and glass.

I am pretty bummed. I am even considering, shutting this tank down or at least a complete break down and clean up.

You see I have this theory that these prolific little bastards are sucking up my calcium to make their shells faster than my corals.

What the heck can I do?

Birdlady · 05-11-2005, 04:19 AM

They look like little Cerith snails?

Why not "borrow" from a buddy or the lfs if possible, a green serpent star or any star that is predatory.
They may eat all those little snails! I bet your sand is really clean! LOL!

mmakay · 05-11-2005, 07:19 AM

Sounds like a good oportunity to house a mantis shrimp!

Matt Rogers · 05-11-2005, 09:26 AM

I'm a little afraid a mantis would eat my sixline wrasse... but a green serpent star eh? Would that really do it? Could it possibly wipe out an army of these snails? WOuld it harm anything else?

amcarrig · 05-11-2005, 10:51 AM

I think BL means a green brittle star, please do correct me if I'm wrong. If she did mean a green brittle than it would harm/eat everything and anything that it could catch, snails, shrimp, fish, crabs, etc.

amcarrig · 05-11-2005, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Rogers

I'll never forget the day Gresham gave me these 4 little black snails, because that was the day I only had 4.

Can you take a close up picture of the snails? I'm hoping that they're not pyramid snails?

Matt Rogers · 05-11-2005, 02:24 PM

Sure. I'll try to take one tonight. Doing some searching on Yahoo images, they sure look like cerith snails.

Do you have a good pic of pyramid snails? I couldn't find any.

I'm tempted to tear my whole tank apart over these things. It sure is frustrating. No matter how many I take out, they come back in force. I could deal with a dozen, but hundreds is out of control.

Birdlady · 05-11-2005, 02:55 PM

hehe...Yes, I meant green brittle star....

and yup, they will eat everything they can catch! Maybe not so good an idea then....

Have you tried trapping them? There was a trap with an old food storage container that had "X"'s slitted into the top (I think it was a bristle worm trap) but since the snails are small, perhaps????