# Why I caution people about assassin snails



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

The assassin egg sacks come out square? Or is that just due to the indentations in the foam? I feel like with any snail in your tank, you'll run into this problem when trying to share plants.


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

yes, they are squareish, like little tents.


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## fresh.salty (Jul 2, 2010)

Nice pictures and a good warning. I only have them in a no-tech tank so nothing really grows fast enough to need trimming. lol

What seems strange to me is these snails always lay their eggs far away from the substrate. After they hatch they seem to prefer the substrate even when they mature. I rarely see mine on the glass or plants.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Whoa that's really cool! So how do you keep your assassin snail populations in check? Just taking them out and feeding them to fish?


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

I sell them, lol. For hobbyists, I don't know what people will do as they have even thicker shells than MTS. Its one of the reasons I just give people strong warnings. They are great, but bestif kept in their own tank so you can at least control where they end up/who they end up with. They are also extremely tolerant of a WIDE range of temps and with their aesthivative (is that a word??) tendencies (settling into the substrate), they could be a threat in more temperate areas.

tey are sex specific, so removing/separating obvious pairs would be one way to help keep them in check.


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## PC1 (May 21, 2010)

With my assassins if they dont have a ton to eat I get babies in the tank randomly. I have several pairs and they produce really slow. Now when there was a vast food supply they do fill the filter up with eggs


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

Yikes. Bad for folks that intentionally keep snails, like myself with my zebra nerites.

I think I also a pic somewhere here where someone found an assassin eating an adult RCS.


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## blacksheep998 (Jan 16, 2011)

zergling said:


> Yikes. Bad for folks that intentionally keep snails, like myself with my zebra nerites.
> 
> I think I also a pic somewhere here where someone found an assassin eating an adult RCS.


From what I've heard they don't go after nerites. And shrimp are generally safe as well, but if one is weakened or very freshly molted the assassin snails can sometimes catch it.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Wow! I hope mine breed faster than pond snails :hihi:


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## Speaker73 (May 1, 2010)

I will say that my assassins have learned to hunt my recently molted cherry shrimp and decimated my colony in one tank. Its crazy! 

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk


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## mscichlid (Jul 14, 2008)

That's cool, Rach. I wish I had the problem.


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

I would never recommedn keeping assassins with nerites, I have seen them eat them, its just more difficult for them because of the angle of the entrance to their shell.


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## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

Excellent pictures, Rachel!!!! I was recently looking for a good pic of assassin snail eggs to link to for another forum.

I do agree that it is probably best to have a dedicated tank for assassin snails, especially if you have a planted substrate and you are ONLY interested in using the assassins to eliminate your pest snail problem.

I started with a dozen assassins (thanks Rachel) for six tanks that were heavily infested with pond snails and within 1 year the pond snails were gone and replaced with hundreds of assassins.

I found an easy way to remove the assassins from my S-grade Colorquartz substrate is to use a small kitty litter scooper lined with window screening. I just scoop through the substrate and the sand falls through the screening and all I have left is assassins and empty pond snail shells. You won't get all the snails but this works great as long as you don't have a lot of rooted plants.


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