# How long does it take for assassin snails to actually do their job?



## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

When I added my assassins as I was dropping them in the tank, one landing on a pond snail and literally latched on and started doing whatever it is they do. Assassin was in the tank 3 seconds and it was eating. Took about 6 weeks total for them to do their job to completion. That was 10 assassins in a 75g tank.


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## DesmondTheMoonBear (Dec 19, 2011)

Hm, I'll keep an eye out for empty snails shells. Hopefully these guys weren't raised on a diet of ramshorn snails, I got plenty of pond and MTS, but no ramshorns. (Well I do have blue rams in anoher tank but those are not food )


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

Yeah, mine ate MTS, ramhorn, and pond snails. Not sure what they were on before I got them but they certainly aren't picky eaters in my case. I'm sure they'll come around for you soon.


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## antbug (May 28, 2010)

They don't touch the ramshorn in my tank, but they do eat the MTS. I've had 10 in my 65g for months and I don't see much of a difference. I think they wait for the bloodworms I feed my fish.


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## RandomMan (May 31, 2011)

They're like snakes. They can go a long time in-between meals.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

They've eating my ramshorns. Saw one with his little sucker halfway into the shell and sucked out half a ramshorn and couldn't get the rest out, but you could tell the shell was half white and empty, the other half still had meat in it.


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## thefisherman (Oct 15, 2011)

i have peace loving PETA assassin snails... i think they are currently lobbying to legally change their name to... "freedom snail" 


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## DesmondTheMoonBear (Dec 19, 2011)

thefisherman said:


> i have peace loving PETA assassin snails... i think they are currently lobbying to legally change their name to... "freedom snail"
> 
> 
> ---
> ...


 
lol, mine better get their act together. I intentionally added the pond snails for the assassins in hopes they wouldn't completely wipe out the somewhat beneficial MTS. I've already spotted a dozen pond egg sacks so I'm not sure whether I'm feeding the snails or screwing myself over. :O


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## garfieldnfish (Sep 25, 2010)

5 assassin snails will most likely never wipe out your pest snails. I am breeding assassin snails and always have tons of them. Sometime I think they killed off all the MTSs in one tank and then when I take out all the assassins in that tank, the next day all the MTSs feel free to show themselves and I realize there are still a ton of them in the tank. An assassin eats about 1 pest snail a day and they tend to eat snails their own size. So you need assassins to breed to take on baby pest snails in order to get the pest snails under control as pest snails re-produce faster then the assassins do.


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## inkslinger (Dec 28, 2003)

I added 6 assassin snails to my 110g tank and they had it clean in 1 week now I see a lot of empty shells I have to clean.


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## thefisherman (Oct 15, 2011)

inkslinger said:


> I added 6 assassin snails to my 110g tank and they had it clean in 1 week now I see a lot of empty shells I have to clean.


you mean they don't give your pest snails daisies and sing "krishna, krishna krishna!"?


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## Dave10910 (Nov 8, 2011)

My assassins started out strong, but then seemed to go into a dormant period. At first I thought they were dead because I didn't see them for a few weeks, but sure enough they've all reared their heads again. I agree that they seem to go in phases or long periods without food like a snake would. At least that's my experience.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

my two assassins are on a union strike, they have been ever since I hired them...


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## Plantedshrimptank (Jan 18, 2011)

I guess it would depend on 3 things more or less.
1. How many pest snails you have.
2. How many assassins snail you have.
3. How much you feed them.
My assassins do their job and they do a great job at it. I don't have a pond/mts snail problem anymore. It's fun to drop a snail in the tank and to see them search for the snail. The snail chase will take a while, but it's amazing how they know that a dinner snail is in the tank with them and where it is as they go right for it. It sounds like there are some lazy assassins snail out there too. Maybe some have gone vegan. Tiny baby assassins IMHO are so cute.


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## DesmondTheMoonBear (Dec 19, 2011)

Crushed some pond snails and they went straight for them. Lazy bastards :/


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## thefisherman (Oct 15, 2011)

lol this is a fun thread... besides hiring living snail hunters and the use of deadly chemicals... what IS a proven method for getting rid of pest snails?

150 pest snails may be ok in a large tank, but in my Nano it is plain unsightly. I hear cork is a magnet for those suckers.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I'd say a 100% fool pool method is to use dwarf puffers. But the reason many of us don't is that the puffers will also target shrimp.


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## thefisherman (Oct 15, 2011)

well aside from other predator species, even tho i do concur dwarf pea puffers are just so super cute ohmygosh! 


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

I would love to use dwarf puffers, but I just don't want to find 100+ half eaten cherry shrimp in the my tank... I may get some more assassin snails, and hope that they aren't unionized..


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## DesmondTheMoonBear (Dec 19, 2011)

Just thought I'd update, the snails finally kicked into action 

It's neat the way they hunt, as long as you have lots of time to watch it, lol. This particular assassin stalked this ramshorn for an hour or so, not attacking, but following it everywhere at a steady speed while "smelling" it with it's head tube thing as if to size it up. Eventually It got up close to it, and the snail flinched, and that was it for a couple hours. Couldn't see what it really did to the ramshorn, but whatever it was affective. The assassin hid nearby while I saw the snail slowly whither away. After a couple more hours I noticed the assassin was out and about. Hunting, it looked like, but it looks like it was after this particular ramshorn. Once caught up to the dying snaily, it proceeded to do what these freaky things do.




















As snail blood spilled into the water the meat slowly dissapeared.










A second assassin soon woke up and started to feed. You can see it's mouth tube creeping into the snail in this pic. This morning there was nothing left but an empty shell.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

Wow, those are amazing photos, thank you for sharing!

I didn't know they hunt snails their size, so they would probably hunt nerites as well? funny they never attack my nerites. I wish they would eat my pond snails though, the ponds snails are 1-3mm in width.


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## Alyssa (Sep 16, 2011)

Cool pictures! Isn't the tube on assassin snails a holder for a stinger that they use to stun their prey?

I had what I considered a fairly moderate but traveling towards heavy infestation in my 2.5 gallon, and I put one assassin snail in it (I do not want a lot of assassin snails!) hoping it was either a male or a female that wasn't fertilized.

It took it about a month and a week to seriously bring it down to where I was almost thinking none were left, but as I type this I see one teeeeny tiny ramshorn, so evidently there are at least a few babies it needs to address still. 

I'm thinking about buying one more for another tank and then just cycling the snails (never together though!) to the tanks that need to be addressed.


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## amcoffeegirl (May 26, 2009)

If someone has any extra assassins i would be in the market for 3-4.


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## DesmondTheMoonBear (Dec 19, 2011)

Alyssa said:


> Cool pictures! Isn't the tube on assassin snails a holder for a stinger that they use to stun their prey?
> 
> I had what I considered a fairly moderate but traveling towards heavy infestation in my 2.5 gallon, and I put one assassin snail in it (I do not want a lot of assassin snails!) hoping it was either a male or a female that wasn't fertilized.
> 
> ...


I'm pretty sure the tube that's always sticking out is just there for "smelling". The mouth tube is hidden right inbetween the eyes.


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## amcoffeegirl (May 26, 2009)

Just bought some on sns. do these snails bother shrimp at all?


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## DesmondTheMoonBear (Dec 19, 2011)

amcoffeegirl said:


> Just bought some on sns. do these snails bother shrimp at all?


Mine killed a RCS after 2 days.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

chiefroastbeef said:


> Wow, those are amazing photos, thank you for sharing!
> 
> I didn't know they hunt snails their size, so they would probably hunt nerites as well? funny they never attack my nerites. I wish they would eat my pond snails though, the ponds snails are 1-3mm in width.


Very nice photos of the assassins in action! Assassins will kill nerite snails, even apple snails 10x their size.



Alyssa said:


> Cool pictures! Isn't the tube on assassin snails a holder for a stinger that they use to stun their prey?


That tube on their head could be used to detecting prey. Not sure about that, but it definitely is used to inject some type of poison into snails that will dissolve their insides or something. That's why they're slowly die off after a pest snail has been "tagged". Same thing happens to shrimp that get "tagged" after molting.



amcoffeegirl said:


> Just bought some on sns. do these snails bother shrimp at all?


Sometimes they might kill a shrimp. People have said their assassins continued to hunt shrimp after getting a taste .


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