Spiraled poop looking thing with a stick in the middle...

Like in the title... these things have suddenly popped all over my tank. They're dark brown-purple and looks like a spiraled poop with a stick shooting straight up from the center. It is hard to the touch and it also expels a spider web looking line (or several) that stays floating in the water column. I was doing some research and they could be vermetid (sp?) snails, but I don't know how big they're supposed to be. The base on these ones are not any bigger than the letter "oh" on your keyboard.

The problem is that they seem to be taking over, I don't care at all for the looks these webs give to my tank and some of them seem to irritate my corals.

What are they exactly and how do I get rid of them?

Thanks in advance for your help!!

- Mag.

 

bump

 

i think they are called vermentid snails? or something similar to that at least...

They have a silky web that they put out and then catch food with it, gets kinda annoying after a while.
You can kill them by putting glue on the tip to starve them out

 

Just Googled it, and it's actually Vermetid Snails. +1 for Dingo for the spelling attempt...

Lots of references on there about getting rid of them. Pretty interesting little critter the way it shoots out a web to catch food.

 

Until their web lands on your coral and closes them up, and they multiply quickly it won't take long for them to be next to all your favorite corals.

I have a ton of the blasted things all over my tank.

 

the other option is taking a few hours and cutting them off your rock with toenail clipers. i do this for frags i get in so they dont populate my tank

 

Thanks everyone!! I wasn't sure how to get rid of them. I've been smashing the crap out of them with a flat head screw driver. Not worried about the extra ammonia in there... plenty of good filtration and carbon going on there. The glue idea does appeal to me a great deal.I was even thinking to make a small ball of epoxy and just seal all of the little buggers. I don't like them!!!

+ K to everyone!!

 

smashing often does not kill the critter in the tube, you have to remove it from the base, though superglue works ok.

 

Oh... I see then... I will super glue them I suppose. I just didn't really want to take all the rock out at this time... or ever for that matter I guess I'm going to have to.

Thanks for the heads up, Ingtar_shinowa.

 

you don't HAVE to, with a population the size yours sounds I think you will be alot more successful limiting food. Alot of people have a hydriod explosion, a pod explosion, a feather duster explosion,x a vermetid snail explosion, and astrina star explosion that are like cycles as your tank matures but as available nutrients disappear so do the inverters associated with them. if your main colonies are localized smear 'em with glue or kalk paste, but if you can get to them removes them manualy, i learned the same thing with GHA