HELP Vermetidae hard tube worms

[Chloe1]

I finally identified the hard tube worms as vermetids. How do I get rid of them?
Thanks

[hyperfocal]

Six-line wrasse?

[cougercruiser]

why are they bad?

[papagimp]

Not bad at all, why would you want to rid the tank of em? They'll only help clean the tank....if only on a really small scale.

[hyperfocal]

They can overpopulate and cause problems. I'm not saying they *will* or that it is very likely, just that it has happened to others.

[DrBegalke]

copper banded butterfly or hermit crabs...
neither are guaranteed to eat them though...

[jokeloma]

Are these the worms that put out the long streamer? if so than I just put putty in the end of the tube. I don't care for them and yes they got out of control in my tank. :)

[DrBDC]

I seem to get them near my sps where the mucous string irritates the corals. I had tried epoxy in the end and breaking them off w/no luck. I found that if I broke them off, it only broke the shell. But if I take my frag cutters and went as low on the tube as possible, it cut it under the little worm and the body of the worm ended up floating around and a fish would eat it.

Actually they are classified as snails I believe.

[DrBDC]

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/worms/faq_vermetid.jpg/variant/xlarge

cut/paste of the description:
looks like a Serpulid feather duster, except it doesn't have a crown of feathers. Instead, there are two short antennae. protruding from the tube's opening and it sends out strands of mucus several inches long. What is this? ----- This is probably a Vermetid gastropod. It is a harmless, sessile snail that captures detritus and plankton with a mucus trap. They form calcareous tubes that project them out into the water column.

[jmicky41]

Take some kind of action now. My tank had a few, now I have easily a thousand! In some areas I might have 10-15 per square inch. I smashed several hundred of them last night - not sure if they will regrow or not. When my tank is done being fallow (all fish are in the q-tank for ich) I may try the copperband route. The worst part about these snails is that if I try to move a rock or work in the tank I get nasty cuts on my hands.

[woodycb]

I had them slime my whole tank up. My 6-line doesnt touch them. I break them off whenever I see one, I thought I lost my whole tank due to them sliming everything up. Nothing but a future problem.