# How many assassin snails should I buy?



## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

I personally never recommend more than 3 to start. Otherwise, you have a breeding snail that you need to feed. I would highly encourage you to increase water changes, cut back on feeding, and bait and squash the snails you see before deciding on an option basedon livestock.


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## Regenesis (Apr 12, 2011)

+1

Lessen the feeding. The population of the snails depends on how much you feed the tank. Any leftovers could start another colony of them. 

I have eliminated a whole colony by just smashing them when near the surface of the tank. I did more work than my Assassin snail did (All it was doing was sitting under the gravel. Moving once and a while).


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## ValMM (Feb 22, 2011)

I heard that a lot of people just buy 2, so they can work together to take down large snails.


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## Scruff (Mar 18, 2011)

I added 2 assassin snails to a 10 gallon tank when I started seeing alot of pond snails. I have never seen one eat another snail but I see empty shells all over the place so I know they're eating them. All of the adult snails were eaten in 2 weeks and now I just have tiny baby snails that just hatched. I'm thinking/hoping that the babys will be eaten before they have time to lay eggs.


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## yamadoo (Dec 8, 2010)

I added 2 to my twenty gallon and they ate about 75 snails in about three weeks and after they we're gon I was adding more snails for them to eat but then I just stoped and now they just eat blood worms and algae waffers and I have not seen one pond snail since. Plus ther fun to wach climb up the side of the tank and scope things out. Ps I have seen them eat a snail very long toung/straw thing the have and they just kinda slurp the snail out of its shell


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

5 took out the entire snail population in my own 46gal in about 2 weeks. And I'd had a MASSIVE pond snail outbreak in there... so I agree 3 would probably be a good number.


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## Regenesis (Apr 12, 2011)

Hmm, not trying to steal the thread or anything, but would they be able to take out a ramshorn snail population?


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Yup.


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## Regenesis (Apr 12, 2011)

Great


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## PlantedTankLover (Aug 28, 2010)

Ended up buying 4 of them at $2.49 each. I had a store credit so no loss.


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## SteveCorle (Dec 9, 2021)

msjinkzd said:


> I personally never recommend more than 3 to start. Otherwise, you have a breeding snail that you need to feed. I would highly encourage you to increase water changes, cut back on feeding, and bait and squash the snails you see before deciding on an option basedon livestock.


They breed slowly.Their offspring mature very slowly.When all pond and other pest snails are gone,assassins will readily eat flake food and algae tabs.No problem having them around.



PlantedTankLover said:


> I have an outbreak of nasty snales and my LFS just got some assassin snails in stock today. How many should I buy to see a reduction? I have squashed many so far and took out my moss balls witch they loved. I have a 46 gallon planted. Thanks!


Thats a tough question to answer.Most here speak of how 3 or so in a 40+ gallon tank took care of snails in 2 to 3 weeks.
I had 8 in a 20 gallon tank and the lazy buggers decided rather than chase snails,theyd eat fish food that theyd find.I couldnt exactly stop feeding my fish,so I gave up.
I just today,bought 12 for my 55 gallon tank.Ive got multitudes of pond snails in that tank.Luckily,I feed my 55 gal tank once a day.So,we'll see how well that works out.
Having assassins in your tank is no problem.They breed slow,and offspring burrows in the substrate until they gets big enough to feel safe to venture out.And they grow slowly as well,so you should be able to keep up with managing population.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

SteveCorle said:


> They breed slowly.Their offspring mature very slowly.When all pond and other pest snails are gone,assassins will readily eat flake food and algae tabs.No problem having them around.


You're responding to a thread from a decade ago. On top of that, the individual you're responding to is Rachel O'Leary - arguably an expert in this field.


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