Assassin Snail-Submitted by GodFan

[GodFan]

Submitted by: Godfan

Scientific Name: Clea helena

Common Name: Assassin Snail

Category: Snail, invert

Ph: 7.2-8

Hardness: Must be hard enough to provide calcium.

Assassin snails are perfect for taking care of a snail overpopulation. They eat pest snails by "slurping" them out of their shells. They are hardy and eat faster than most sites claim. They are very attractive as well. They have been reported to eat fish food if no live food is present. They do not eat fish or shrimp.

Breeding: They are not able to reproduce without a male and female present but there is no way to sex them. They lay eggs with one egg per egg sack. They lay several eggs at once stuck onto hard surfaces.

 

[Hholly]

Thanks, very informative!

 

[GodFan]

Thanks! I have heard and seen alot of misinformation on them so I thought I would provide some info on my experience. Im not saying it is perfect though. Especially the ph because that is like the only thing I took from another sight

 

[HN1]

Very nice start! A couple of points from our experience would be...

Water hardness seems to be irrelevant as long as there is a source of carbonate (i.e. aragonite, CC, cuttlebone) in the tank. We keep and breed ours with a source pH of 6.0 - 6.2 and do nothing to the water. We do have aragonite sand and rock pieces in the tank though. Our end pH after a week is 7 max. They definitely eat fish food and adore sinking pellets and wafers only slightly less than they do snails. If the cause of a snail infestation isn't found and dealt with to some degree, assassins will not be a "fix". They breed slowly, delivering only a few at most baby snails per month, per female and prefer to lay their eggs under the substrate.

 

[GodFan]

Thanks HN1! I had 2 lay 20 eggs in a very short time (food was in massive abundance as I had a snail infestation) But I ended up cleaning my tank to be rid of the baby ramshorns and pond snails. The eggs were on decor that was rinsed in HOT water. However they stioll seem fine! I am wondering if they are dead or if they will hatch!

 

[Hholly]

Today at LFS I was told they are brackish. Is this true?

 

[GodFan]

Today at LFS I was told they are brackish. Is this true?

Absolutly not. I have NO salt in my water and they have bred in the tank.

 

[Hholly]

Good to know.

 

[joejeff]

Do these guys eat any algea

 

[GodFan]

I dont think so. My tabk has algae that is still increasing and I havent noticed them eating it.

 

[HN1]

They won't touch algae IME. They do co-exist well with nerites though.

 

[Bschowa]

They won't touch algae IME. They do co-exist well with nerites though.

i agree with this. i have had my assassins and nerites in the same tank for over a year and the only time i had a problem was i had a nerite i recieved in the mail with a cracked shell and it took 5 assassins to take it down, i think that they are large enough to hard to eat which deters the assassins

 

[GodFan]

Just to give everyone an update. My baby snails must have hatched because now I am seeing baby assassins crawling around! It didnt take as long as I thought either!

 

[snickeson]

Will an assassin kill a snail larger than itself? Can I keep an assassin with my mystery snail?

 

[GodFan]

Will an assassin kill a snail larger than itself? Can I keep an assassin with my mystery snail?

Should be fine. In most cases assassins attack snails smaller than themselves.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

In my experience, they are NOT ok with horned nerites. I had a huge bladder and ramshorn snail infestation in my tank and thought the 3 assassins I had would have plenty of food and not bother my nerites. One was eaten within the first week. I didn't give them the chance to try to get the bigger non-horned ones!

How long does it take for babies to get big enough to be seen? As I understood, they hang out in the substrate for a while when they're tiny...

 

[BettaPonic]

I have been breeding them for years. They have bred pretty fast fir me. Mine survive on dead fish and the food I freeze my fish. They lay eggs everywhere. I put a few in my ten gallon. They killed hundreds in a few weeks. They started paying eggs too. I keep mine in the mid eighties.