Broke Down And Bought Assassin Snails.

Woke up to like over 100 gross pond snails on the sides of my 40-gallon breeder tank. I spent like half an hour either catching them for feeder tank for puffers or squishing them. I have had it. I bought Assassin snails. Hopefully, they leave my mystery snails alone, since they have plenty to eat.

So, question. They mate too and reproduce, but read they have 1 egg at a time and it takes 2 months to hatch? Is that right?

I will likely never buy a live plant again. I soaked my plants too when they came in aquarium salt, but I am infested now.

So now just have to wait for their delivery.

 

Sorry about your infestation. In the meantime, like before the assassin snails arrive, you can put a piece of lettuce in the tank and the snails will gather on it to eat overnight. In the morning you can remove the leaf and masses of snails with it.

 

Okay, someone please educate me on these pond snails. I bought plants for the first time a week and a half ago and today realized I had snails. I'm not sure I want snails other than the two Nerites that call the tank home. What's the story on these assassins? Will trapping the pond snails with bait really help long term?
I feel like I won the lottery. Not really.

 

Okay, someone please educate me on these pond snails. I bought plants for the first time a week and a half ago and today realized I had snails. I'm not sure I want snails other than the two Nerites that call the tank home. What's the story on these assassins? Will trapping the pond snails with bait really help long term?
I feel like I won the lottery. Not really.

Well, the pond snails will be cute eat first. At first, I had 1, then 2, then 4, I felt bad killing them, etc. Now, in the morning I have 50 to 100 on the sides of my tank. I have tried traps, lettuce, etc., to catch them. The traps catch 3 or 4. They are constantly laying eggs, that you cannot see. They are tiny as eggs, and will quickly overrun a tank. The assassins will also reproduce but not nearly as fast, so I feel I can take them out easier. People say do not over feed them, hold back food for a few days so they die of starvation, the pond snails, but my fish should not suffer because I bought plants about a month ago.

They were cute initially. I despise them now. They remind me of roaches, you cannot kill these things. So, now, I pull out what I can grab, because they are not easy to grab, they drop down into the water and are hard to catch, credit card does not work, and I put what I can grab into my pond snail tank to feed to my puffers, the rest, the really small ones, I squish.

They love to hang out on the bottoms of plant leaves, mating, leaving eggs, etc. They have me to the point of tearing down my tank and restarting with new gravel, no plants, etc. But one little snail will survive and lay eggs and it will be all over again.

Oh did maintenance on my tank other day using tub for washing some things out, and later on found pond snails in my tub, so started worrying, will these things get into the septic system?

Some people like them though.

 

I just read a horror story posted on another fish website. What have I gotten myself into? Luckily I don't have a lot of fish yet but from this guys story I read he couldn't get rid of them no matter what. He drained the tank, threw everything away, cleaned the tank and then let it sit for a month in a garage. Filled it back up eventually and within days he had snails. Apparently he'd missed an egg or 10 when cleaning. They can survive being dried out. Is my tank trashed now?

 

I just read a horror story posted on another fish website. What have I gotten myself into? Luckily I don't have a lot of fish yet but from this guys story I read he couldn't get rid of them no matter what. He drained the tank, threw everything away, cleaned the tank and then let it sit for a month in a garage. Filled it back up eventually and within days he had snails. Apparently he'd missed an egg or 10 when cleaning. They can survive being dried out. Is my tank trashed now?

I don't know. I am new to plants so really had no idea the problem. Nobody really tells you. You buy plants online they don't tell you. It is horrible. I have not received my Assassin snails, so I am hoping that works, but I have to take the chance they will eat my mystery snails that I really love, but gotta do something. Copper kills them too, but that involves tons of water changes and I do not know much about how to do it and it will also kill any snails and shrimp, not too sure about Cory's.

I bought 2 round 5-gallon containers to put my mystery snails in if I notice the Assassins bugging them, but really have no where to put them, and they will need filters, ugh.

Google some pictures of "bladder snail infestations." Horrible. I am afraid I am going to populate the city's sewer system with these things. I am sure I have washed a few down the drains.

 

I only had real problems with pest snails in one of my shrimp tanks. I had some weird pest snails in my 20h and they're now almost completely gone if not entirely gone. But one of my 3 gallon shrimp tanks was getting overrun with the pest snails, it was insane. I rarely feed my shrimps so it wasn't an overfeeding issue. But my 10g, which is older and houses cpd and sparkling gourami.. the most I ever see in that tank is 3-5 pest snails. I'm seriously starting to think the fish snack on the babies or eggs.

OP once the assassin snails clear out the pest snails you'll need to feed the assassins. I personally wouldn't risk the mystery snails with them but hopefully you won't have issues.

 

I only had real problems with pest snails in one of my shrimp tanks. I had some weird pest snails in my 20h and they're now almost completely gone if not entirely gone. But one of my 3 gallon shrimp tanks was getting overrun with the pest snails, it was insane. I rarely feed my shrimps so it wasn't an overfeeding issue. But my 10g, which is older and houses cpd and sparkling gourami.. the most I ever see in that tank is 3-5 pest snails. I'm seriously starting to think the fish snack on the babies or eggs.

OP once the assassin snails clear out the pest snails you'll need to feed the assassins. I personally wouldn't risk the mystery snails with them but hopefully you won't have issues.

If they should successfully clear out the pest snail population, they are going to be removed from tank and have their own tank or bucket or something.

I was just in the tank pulling out more pests, feeling the leaves of the plants, they all had slimy eggs on the bottom of the leaves, along with snails, so pulled off what I could.

Really, it is water change day but one of my mystery snails is laying eggs and do not want to disturb her, but I might pull everything out, all ornaments, all plants, soak them in bleach or something, really really really clean the gravel well, not that that will get them all but better than doing nothing. Hope the fish make it through this.

 

I've only found 5 snails so far ranging in size from 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch. I'm pretty sure there must be more and probably eggs too. My plants have only been in the tank for a week and a half. :*(

I did find one of my Nerites and took her out and put her in a Betta tank. If I can find the other one I may consider treating the tank with something kill off the pests.

I'm using a canister filter and am wondering now if they can somehow impede the flow of that. I've heard they can clog a HOB type with the eggs and the snails themselves.

 

I've only found 5 snails so far ranging in size from 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch. I'm pretty sure there must be more and probably eggs too. My plants have only been in the tank for a week and a half. :*(

I did find one of my Nerites and took her out and put her in a Betta tank. If I can find the other one I may consider treating the tank with something kill off the pests.

I'm using a canister filter and am wondering now if they can somehow impede the flow of that. I've heard they can clog a HOB type with the eggs and the snails themselves.

I just put brand new canister filter on this tank too, like 2 days ago. I wonder when I clean it, how many snails will be in it.

You are not seeing the baby snails. If you have 5, there are more, and probably tons of slimy eggs.

OMG, just pulled out a few ornaments, and underneath them, are tons of eggs and snails.

I'll be back in a few hours, gonna see how many I can clean out with a good tank cleaning.

 

I just looked around the site and can't really find anything relating to dipping plants before putting them into a new tank. It seems to me like that is information the newbs should have. I did some googling and found this which while informative is a bit late to help.

 

Corey says just learn to live with them. Dang, didn't want to hear that! In the comments one lady says that HE is where she got the herp snails from, lol. Oops, busted!

 

Corey says just learn to live with them. Dang, didn't want to hear that! In the comments one lady says that HE is where she got the herp snails from, lol. Oops, busted!

Almost all aquarium plants have snails, unless they've been tissue cultured or some other special growth method. It's just a matter of how many you're going to get.
Since you have a puffer, just enjoy the free food! And your assassins will have the time of their life in there. And when the assassins breed, I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding homes for the young ones.

 

Yeah, that's the OP with the Assassins and puffers. I have neither, just a handful of snails from the plants I got last week. I'll remove them as I see 'em and just see what happens, I'm not tearing down my tank at this point but I'll keep my options open.

 

Snails were eradicated from my 60gal by some striped loaches. It was BADLY infested and assassins did not do the trick. Had both pond snails and MTS. Loaches cleaned them out completely in just a few days.

 

By the time I saw my first ramshorn snail there were lots of babies in my tank. When they started getting out of hand and picking out the ones I could see didn't put a dent in them I was desperate to get rid of them.

I took everything out of the tank and gave it all a strong bleach bath. I removed the gravel and replaced it with sand. I cleaned so much I caused a minI cycle. Got back on track with my cycle but even after all of that the snails remained. I bought a dozen assassin snails. Soon I started seeing empty pest snail shells. Within a couple of months the pests in the tank were no more. I found some in my HOB filters. I put a couple of assassins in there and they cleaned those up to.

I did rescue a few of the pests and put them in their own tank because I knew the assassins would still have to eat once the tank was free of them. I plan on selling some of my assassins this fall. I want to wait until the heat wave breaks before trying to ship them. Pest snail seem to be a problem for a lot of folks. In my humble opinion Assassins are the perfect solution.

 

Yeah, that's the OP with the Assassins and puffers. I have neither, just a handful of snails from the plants I got last week. I'll remove them as I see 'em and just see what happens, I'm not tearing down my tank at this point but I'll keep my options open.

I tried dipping plants that went into my 10 gallon with a bleach solution and obviously it didn't work. In the 10 gallon I remove as many as I can find during a water change. That tank has been going for almost a year and it hasn't gotten close to extreme population levels yet. I forgot to mention it also has shrimp in it which is why I haven't placed assassins in it, I may be paranoid but I don't want them to be seen as yet another meal.

 

I'm getting the impression that snails are just a part of a planted tank. I'll be honest, when I first realized what I was looking at on the glass front of my tank today I about freaked out. All of the ones I found were within a few inches of a Bocopa Carolina that I just got. All of the other plants came from a different seller. No way to know and at this point it doesn't matter I guess. I don't mind snails per se, I just wasn't thrilled to find out I had hitchhikers. My Nerites won't reproduce under their current conditions, they eat a little algae if there is any and they're pretty and that's why I have them. These other guys? Not so thrilled.

 

I'm getting the impression that snails are just a part of a planted tank. I'll be honest, when I first realized what I was looking at on the glass front of my tank today I about freaked out. All of the ones I found were within a few inches of a Bocopa Carolina that I just got. All of the other plants came from a different seller. No way to know and at this point it doesn't matter I guess. I don't mind snails per se, I just wasn't thrilled to find out I had hitchhikers. My Nerites won't reproduce under their current conditions, they eat a little algae if there is any and they're pretty and that's why I have them. These other guys? Not so thrilled.

Definitely had the exact same thought the first time I found them in a tank. It was jarring to have these sudden invaders. But I find that the "pest" snails don't really do a whole lot. They seem more interested in eating algae than plants. And like I said, free food for cooler things in your tank. Nerite snails were in my stocking plan (cause they're great), but I never ended up getting any since I already have my assassins and their food snails.

 

So, took every single little thing out of the tank minus the gravel. Soaked it all in bleach and water while I went about gravel vacuuming. You should have seen the hundreds if not thousands of snails floating up into the Python. I did it over and over again, ran my hands through it, over and over again. Did 90% water change, poor fish were in 1 inch of water. If I had other substrate, would have taken out the gravel, but I have nothing. Maybe I will get something to have for next time I break down the tank. I am sure I did not get rid of all of them but I think I did some damage. After the soak in bleach, soaked everything in water with prime and rinsed a few times. I looked at every plant, checked every leaf, stem, and considered throwing them all out, but I have so few anyway, that I couldn't do it. So, hopefully between today's cleaning and when the Assassin snails come, they will at least make a big dent in the amounts. I am beat now. I hate those buggers. I have dreams about them now, LOL.

 

I just looked around the site and can't really find anything relating to dipping plants before putting them into a new tank. It seems to me like that is information the newbs should have. I did some googling and found this which while informative is a bit late to help.

I did soak mine from reading here, but did not realize the problem they become if you get snails. I soaked them in Aquarium salt and am not sure how effective that is. Another lady told me to use Alum, which I have ordered for future plants, but she told me you have to soak the plants for 24 hours in this stuff.

Corey says just learn to live with them. Dang, didn't want to hear that! In the comments one lady says that HE is where she got the herp snails from, lol. Oops, busted!

I love Corey but nope, not just gonna live with my entire wall of my tanks being covered in crunchy disgusting snails.

Almost all aquarium plants have snails, unless they've been tissue cultured or some other special growth method. It's just a matter of how many you're going to get.
Since you have a puffer, just enjoy the free food! And your assassins will have the time of their life in there. And when the assassins breed, I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding homes for the young ones.

I have been harvesting them and putting them in a separate tank for the puffers, but this separate tank is going to be wall to wall snails soon. It is only 3 gallons. I am going to have to get a bigger tank to house all these things soon.

Snails were eradicated from my 60gal by some striped loaches. It was BADLY infested and assassins did not do the trick. Had both pond snails and MTS. Loaches cleaned them out completely in just a few days.

I have been told a 40-G is too small for loaches, especially the ones that really eat these gross buggers.

I tried dipping plants that went into my 10 gallon with a bleach solution and obviously it didn't work. In the 10 gallon I remove as many as I can find during a water change. That tank has been going for almost a year and it hasn't gotten close to extreme population levels yet. I forgot to mention it also has shrimp in it which is why I haven't placed assassins in it, I may be paranoid but I don't want them to be seen as yet another meal.

I do not know how many is extreme to you, but to me, seeing 50 of them on the sides of the tank is extreme. They have got to go.

I'm getting the impression that snails are just a part of a planted tank. I'll be honest, when I first realized what I was looking at on the glass front of my tank today I about freaked out. All of the ones I found were within a few inches of a Bocopa Carolina that I just got. All of the other plants came from a different seller. No way to know and at this point it doesn't matter I guess. I don't mind snails per se, I just wasn't thrilled to find out I had hitchhikers. My Nerites won't reproduce under their current conditions, they eat a little algae if there is any and they're pretty and that's why I have them. These other guys? Not so thrilled.

I hope you figure out a way to eradicate them. Copper works I read but I am not sure of the procedure and when it is safe for creatures that the cooper usually kills, if you have any.

By the time I saw my first ramshorn snail there were lots of babies in my tank. When they started getting out of hand and picking out the ones I could see didn't put a dent in them I was desperate to get rid of them.

I took everything out of the tank and gave it all a strong bleach bath. I removed the gravel and replaced it with sand. I cleaned so much I caused a minI cycle. Got back on track with my cycle but even after all of that the snails remained. I bought a dozen assassin snails. Soon I started seeing empty pest snail shells. Within a couple of months the pests in the tank were no more. I found some in my HOB filters. I put a couple of assassins in there and they cleaned those up to.

I did rescue a few of the pests and put them in their own tank because I knew the assassins would still have to eat once the tank was free of them. I plan on selling some of my assassins this fall. I want to wait until the heat wave breaks before trying to ship them. Pest snail seem to be a problem for a lot of folks. In my humble opinion Assassins are the perfect solution.

I do not know what I am going to do with the Assassins if they get this under control, but maybe they will get their own tank, if I can find a place for it.

 

So, took every single little thing out of the tank minus the gravel. Soaked it all in bleach and water while I went about gravel vacuuming. You should have seen the hundreds if not thousands of snails floating up into the Python. I did it over and over again, ran my hands through it, over and over again. Did 90% water change, poor fish were in 1 inch of water. If I had other substrate, would have taken out the gravel, but I have nothing. Maybe I will get something to have for next time I break down the tank. I am sure I did not get rid of all of them but I think I did some damage. After the soak in bleach, soaked everything in water with prime and rinsed a few times. I looked at every plant, checked every leaf, stem, and considered throwing them all out, but I have so few anyway, that I couldn't do it. So, hopefully between today's cleaning and when the Assassin snails come, they will at least make a big dent in the amounts. I am beat now. I hate those buggers. I have dreams about them now, LOL.

Where did you order your silent killers from? I may need these guys.

 

Sad thing is, even if you DID quarantine the plants and they had snails on them... then your tank is basically trash, lol. Best to use something disposable I reckon to QT plants in and then BURN IT!

 

Definitely had the exact same thought the first time I found them in a tank. It was jarring to have these sudden invaders. But I find that the "pest" snails don't really do a whole lot. They seem more interested in eating algae than plants. And like I said, free food for cooler things in your tank. Nerite snails were in my stocking plan (cause they're great), but I never ended up getting any since I already have my assassins and their food snails.

I'm sure I have algae because well, it's an aquarium but they're going to starve in my tank, lol. The back glass and ends are covered and the front doesn't get much daylight. I realize that artificial light is sufficient but I'm not going to help the snails or algae if I can keep from it.

 

Where did you order your silent killers from? I may need these guys.

I ordered from Ebay, Trins Fish:



Estimated delivery is 8/2, and the shipping was free.

 

I wonder does anything eat biofilm that forms on the sides of the tank. With every water change, I am wiping it down with rags, and I sit and wonder what do people who have 200 gallon or more tanks do with that biofilm.

I have a magnet cleaner but doesn't really work that great. And, the mystery snails and plant items are always in the way too.

 

No idea on the biofilm, my glass is pretty clean I guess. I'll keep Trins in mind if I decide to go full Assassin on these guys.

 

I wonder does anything eat biofilm that forms on the sides of the tank. With every water change, I am wiping it down with rags, and I sit and wonder what do people who have 200 gallon or more tanks do with that biofilm.

I have a magnet cleaner but doesn't really work that great. And, the mystery snails and plant items are always in the way too.

Elbert, my bristle nosed pleco does a pretty good job of keeping the bio film cleaned up. When he isn't chowing down on his zucchinI he is working all over the glass. That is my handsome fella over there in my avatar.

 

Where did you order your silent killers from? I may need these guys.

So my Assassins will be here shortly, but have a dilemma now. Since I pulled the tank down other day, and soaked everything in bleach and vacuumed and vacuumed again the gravel and then ran my hands through it over and over again, there are very few bladder snails left (I think I have seen 10 since the other day.) I am sure they are there and mating and laying more eggs, and will show up again soon, but for the time being, what do I do with the Assassins I will be getting in a little bit?

My plan is to put them in the tank and watch them with the Mystery Snails. If I see any issues, they are going to go into a 5-gallon bucket with a filter and heater until I need them. What else can these Assassins eat. I have to go research, so as to have them not be hungry and attack my Mystery Snails.

 

They'll eat fishfood for the time being.

 

I feed mine shrimp pellets, tetramin tropical crisps and blood worms. They will appreciate snails as you pull them from your tank too. I am afraid your mystery snail will be a big temptation for them even if you do offer them other things.

 

I feed mine shrimp pellets, tetramin tropical crisps and blood worms. They will appreciate snails as you pull them from your tank too.

I have most of that but how do you feed blood worms to snails? You mean putting them in the tank and letting them fall on the gravel or sand? I have frozen blocks, might put a block in their bowl.

 

I actually have a piece of netting with a fairly big weave. I put the bloodworms in the netting, close it up with a rubber band and weigh it down. They can pull the bloodworms through the net. I feed freeze dried bloodworms.

 

I actually have a piece of netting with a fairly big weave. I put the bloodworms in the netting, close it up with a rubber band and weigh it down. They can pull the bloodworms through the net. I feed freeze dried bloodworms.

The only netting I think I have is from a breeder net. I can try that I guess, thanks!!!

 

The only netting I think I have is from a breeder net. I can try that I guess, thanks!!!

This is also the way I feed bloodworms to my Cory's. I had no idea how much they loved them until I put a net full of them in for the assassins I left in my big tank. The Cory's swarmed it and didn't leave until it was cleaned up. I am not sure the assassins get any of them but I do push the bottom of the net into the sand hoping they will get a bite or two. Now when I feed the assassins I put two feeders in there so they can all eat.

 

This is also the way I feed bloodworms to my Cory's. I had no idea how much they loved them until I put a net full of them in for the assassins I left in my big tank. The Cory's swarmed it and didn't leave until it was cleaned up. I am not sure the assassins get any of them but I do push the bottom of the net into the sand hoping they will get a bite or two. Now when I feed the assassins I put two feeders in there so they can all eat.

I am going to try it. I know the cory's will eat it. They eat anything LOL.

 

So, put the Asssassins in yesterday. Watched for a bit, saw one or 2 around the mystery snails, took them away, but now cannot find any of them. Probably in the gravel?

 

So, put the Asssassins in yesterday. Watched for a bit, saw one or 2 around the mystery snails, took them away, but now cannot find any of them. Probably in the gravel?

Yep, they will bury themselves and wait for food to come to them. Mine stay buried in the sand until they sense? smell? food.

 

I wonder does anything eat biofilm that forms on the sides of the tank. With every water change, I am wiping it down with rags, and I sit and wonder what do people who have 200 gallon or more tanks do with that biofilm.

I have a magnet cleaner but doesn't really work that great. And, the mystery snails and plant items are always in the way too.

Otocinclus love biofilm.