Assassin snail infestation

As the title says, I never thought I would have an assassin snail problem as everyone says they breed so slowly. You can see my aquarium information on my profile. 6 months ago I got my 32 gallon aquarium but I had a pond snail problem very soon. I bought 2 Assassin snails but they could not handle the growing pond snail problem. about 2 months later I bought more assassin snails, got 8 of them in total. Now, I rarely ever see a pond snail, but I see tiny assassin babies everywhere! On the glass, on the substrate, surfing on the surface, on plants, decor, in the filter. There are not as many of them as there were of the pond snails but they are getting there. My LFS do not buy fish nor invertebrates from anyone but their suppliers. I live in a small village so selling them to other aquarists is not that easy. I heard cichlids and puffers eat snails but are problematic in community tanks. I could try some loaches but my tank would be overpopulated and I never had any loaches so idk if they would really eat the snails. I could try waiting and see if they stop breeding so rapidly now that they dont have any snails to eat. Some people say they will breed even on plant based food, some people say they can live on algae and such but will not breed. What are my options?

 

As the title says, I never thought I would have an assassin snail problem as everyone says they breed so slowly. You can see my aquarium information on my profile. 6 months ago I got my 32 gallon aquarium but I had a pond snail problem very soon. I bought 2 Assassin snails but they could not handle the growing pond snail problem. about 2 months later I bought more assassin snails, got 8 of them in total. Now, I rarely ever see a pond snail, but I see tiny assassin babies everywhere! On the glass, on the substrate, surfing on the surface, on plants, decor, in the filter. There are not as many of them as there were of the pond snails but they are getting there. My LFS do not buy fish nor invertebrates from anyone but their suppliers. I live in a small village so selling them to other aquarists is not that easy. I heard cichlids and puffers eat snails but are problematic in community tanks. I could try some loaches but my tank would be overpopulated and I never had any loaches so idk if they would really eat the snails. I could try waiting and see if they stop breeding so rapidly now that they dont have any snails to eat. Some people say they will breed even on plant based food, some people say they can live on algae and such but will not breed. What are my options?

Pics? That’s just out of interest. I have a new snail infestation and was going to get assassins is all.

 

Yeah, I never knew why people traded "pest" snail populations for assassin snail populations.

I am not aware of anything that preys on assassin snails consistently but I could be incorrect. I would think the only recourse now would be manual removal.

 

I think you might be over feeding. I actually have pest snails in 4 tanks and none are taking over. I've been experimenting with the pest snails for a while now and they do explode when they're population is first establishing, and they explode with too much available food. That might be why your assasins exploded too. I've never had to remove an assasin population, but I would try and set up a temporary secondary aquarium while you collect them. This could be a tub with a spongue filter if you can. Put blood worms out and see if that lures them. Collect them whenever you see them. Do this consistently for a few weeks and then take the batch to the pet store and give them to them for free. I know you said they don't buy from people, but if you're not selling I don't see why they wouldn't want to take something free if they could make a profit from it.

 

Many loaches adore snails: gold zebra; zebra; clowns; yoyo; dwarf loaches.... of course not sure you want to trade a snail problem for a bunch of loaches. Most loaches require 5 to 8 to be happy. While dwarf loaches are the smallest they are hyper active and zebra loaches tend to be better bet. Still you should get 6 or more zebra loaches and they are about 3.5 inches long but at least the ones i have are pretty calm relatively speaking.

Yeah, I never knew why people traded "pest" snail populations for assassin snail populations.

I am not aware of anything that preys on assassin snails consistently but I could be incorrect. I would think the only recourse now would be manual removal.

 

I had a similar experience with Assassin Snails. I bought five to deal with pest snails. I have given about 80 to my LFS. They will not buy them, but they will accept them as gifts.

I have six tanks and have consolidated the remaining Assassins to one tank. I have maybe 15 or 20 in that tank (a 10 gallon with a Betta). I expect that my other tanks that had Assassins in them will continue to see babies pop up for a while, but since they breed more slowly, I expect that I will be able to pick most of them out before they breed and ultimately, I will eradicate most or all Assassins from my other tanks.

I like my Ramshorn snails and my Assassins reduced their population more than I wanted. I am trying to keep a balance.

I am assuming that the tiny Assassins are not breeding yet and I will be able to remove most of them before they lay too many eggs.