Vermetids.... VERMETIDS EVERYWHERE

Title pretty much sums it up. I've got vermetids like it's going out of style. I need to get rid of them. I've seen a bunch of people talking about removing the rock, cutting them off with a dremel. I see talk about 1-2W lasers destroying them. I see a lot about free nutrients available being the cause, so doing water changes while physically removing their tubes. I'm not really sure which to choose.



Anyone have any experience?

 

I saw that, too. I'm just afraid of terrorizing/losing my feather duster hitch hikers which have sprouted up all over the place. I like those little guys, but these vermetid mucus nets are awful. I'll look more into this, though. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

The super glue smothers them, as you put it into the tip of the tube. As for the towel, the snails are encrusted on the rocks, but not too hard to break off, but they are tricky to get the whole thing including the snail if you just snap off in the water with your fingers or tweezers. The towel pulls the whole shell off the rock, probably with the snail inside? People seem to be reporting that this works well.



As for fish, my tank is 12g, hardly large enough to have anything that would really go for vermetids. As for crabs, I'm not chancing anything with them. I have had 2 blue legged hermits that came with my CUC and they killed a large number of snails looking for shells. I suppose I could get a larger crab type, but to be honest, I'm perfectly happy to never have any more hermits.



I bought some super glue gel today, I'm going to give that a try. I used a laser pointer that a lab mate uses and happens to be pretty powerful. It's just not powerful enough, though the vermetids HATED the light. The mucus nets almost vanished instantly.