I like My Pest Snails

Funny there was a thread here a year or 2 ago with a guy trying to get rid of them. He started with 7 and had hundreds. He attempted many different ways to get rid of them. Seemed every time he thought he got rid of them. Babies would show up a week or 2 later. Even threw pennies into the tank thinking the copper would kill them. Finally he just emptied the tank and started it new.

 

Funny there was a thread here a year or 2 ago with a guy trying to get rid of them. He started with 7 and had Finally he just emptied the tank and started it new.

I did that with my 20 long when I converted it to a 29. The 20 long is now my quarantine tank. The other tank that is assassin free (I think) is a 10 with Panda Cories. I am planning to transfer the occupants of the 10 into the 20 and then the 10 will become my quarantine tank.

Maybe I will roll through each of my tanks in that way if I want to keep some assassin free. Not sure yet. At the moment, I like the assassins. In some ways, I am having more fun with the snails than the fish.

 

I have pulled about 60 assassins from my tanks and put them in a bucket with an air stone. I am going to give most of them to my LFS. I plan to keep a small population in one tank. I will pull any assassins I see out of other tanks. Since assassins breed more slowly, I am thinking I will be able to manage the population without too much difficulty. I expect my pest snail population to grow. I will pick excess pest snails out of other tanks and feed them to the assassins. If I have difficulty keeping up with the pests in a particular tank, I will put some assassins back in.

It is an interesting process to manage.

 

Easiest way to pull pest snails out to feed them to a predator or clean the tank without burying them in my experience is chunks of pleco wafers and a gravel rake. Not too hard at all. Sounds like a plan to me.

 

I had been syphoning out snails at every water change prior to buying my Assassins.

I probably reduced the population, but did not remove all of the problem.

I bought four Assassin Snails in October.

In the last month they have suddenly eliminated all the MTS and tiny Ramshorn Snails from my 40g planted tank.

I think this is because they have bred and flooded the tank with baby-faced Assassin's!

I also now have some BGA for the first time in 20 years. I wonder if this is connected.

 

I also now have some BGA for the first time in 20 years. I wonder if this is connected.

I would have to say yes it is connected. The MTS and ramshorns would have been keeping the BGA at bay. As far as I know assassins don't eat algae so now all of your algae clean up crew is gone and the algae has a chance to thrive.

 

I have a hunch that hundreds of snails suddenly disappearing within the tank has released a whole bunch of nutrients into the tank and this has caused the BGA bloom.

I'm not worried because I have dealt with it before in this tank and know that if I lower my nutrients it will disappear.

 

Yes but what are you going to feed all those assassins? Yes I have this problem too. The one tank with assassins is a shrimp tank that was being overrun with bladder snails. Now that all the bladder and mts are gone it’s the only tank with bba. It’s a shrimp tank so all it gets is a little food in the morn. But the bba is starting to thrive. Ah I do feed thrive to the plants! That could be it .

 

Yes but what are you going to feed all those assassins? Yes I have this problem too. The one tank with assassins is a shrimp tank that was being overrun with bladder snails. Now that all the bladder and mts are gone it’s the only tank with bba. It’s a shrimp tank so all it gets is a little food in the morn. But the bba is starting to thrive. Ah I do feed thrive to the plants! That could be it .

My assassins like algae wafers. But I plan to give most of them to my LFS.

 

My assassins like algae wafers. But I plan to give most of them to my LFS.

I can't say I have ever seen my assassins eat algae wafers but they come running, well as fast as a snail can run, for shrimp pellets.

 

I can't say I have ever seen my assassins eat algae wafers but they come running, well as fast as a snail can run, for shrimp pellets.

That makes more sense and is what I would expect. I tried to feed my assassins sinking carnivore pellets and they would not eat them. But they swarm on algae wafers.

 

That makes more sense and is what I would expect. I tried to feed my assassins sinking carnivore pellets and they would not eat them. But they swarm on algae wafers.

I cleaned out my mostly plant bowl last week and removed all the assassins from it. I decided I wanted ramshorns in there so the assassins had to go. I put the assassins in a container until i decided what to do with them. I had read in another thread about your assassins eating algae wafers so decided to see if mine would. I dropped both a shrimp pellet and a Hikari mini algae wafer in there. They swarmed the shrimp and totally ignored the wafer. It seems, unlike yours, mine prefer a meatier diet. I am just happy they will eat things other than just snails. I'm afraid they might go hungry if that was the only thing they would eat.

 

When I first found snails in my main tank and then saw how many there were in there I just wanted them gone. I did everything suggested to get rid of them. I even removed the gravel and replaced it with sand. I finally got enough assassin snails to eat all of them. Once the assassins had done their job I got concerned about feeding them. Along about this time I actually discovered that they really aren't pests in controllable numbers and do have their place in our hobby.

I found a few of what I considered pests at the time in one of my filters and moved them to their own home (a 2.5 gallon jar) so I could feed my assassins some of their favorite food from time to time. Along about that time I started thinking about what a good job a few of them can do to help keep algae under control. I never though I would learn to like snails. I happen to have ramshorns and in manageable numbers they are welcome in my tanks now. I am not as pleased with the bladder snails I somehow managed to get but I can learn to even deal with them.

I now also have rabbit and nerite snails in a tank with no assassins. These thing have grown on me I tried mystery snails but sadly both of the ones I bought died within days of getting them

No luck with Mysetrys either. They were entertaining though. I'm 4-0 on Nerites though! Tough little buggers. No "pest snails".

I know these are old, but I just wanted to say I’m surprised you guys didn’t have luck with the mystery snails! I have had my snail Dusky for 10 months, and although he is very large he isn’t showing signs of old age really. He’s still very active and has a decent enough shell. Also, my pH is 6.0.... it’s weird stuff.

 

I know these are old, but I just wanted to say I’m surprised you guys didn’t have luck with the mystery snails! I have had my snail Dusky for 10 months, and although he is very large he isn’t showing signs of old age really. He’s still very active and has a decent enough shell. Also, my pH is 6.0.... it’s weird stuff.

I am thinking mine didn't handle being shipped for some reason. I got 2 of them. The first that died never came out of its shell so I am thinking it died in transport. The second one died a few days later. I've not tried again. The rabbit snails that came in the same order are doing really well and have tripled in size since I got them. I bought 3 and hate to admit it but i have to think I must have siphoned the smallest one up during a water change and then over looked it because it just ended up gone. It was a little bitty guy so I suppose it is possible. That is the only explanation I have come up with for it to disappear.

 

I have about 70 assassins in a bucket with an airstone at the moment. Not an ideal situation. Going to give most of them to LFS. Thinking I will keep my assassins in a 10 gallon with Betta.

Could I put all 70 in there for now?

How many would be reasonable to keep in their long term?

 

I have about 70 assassins in a bucket with an airstone at the moment. Not an ideal situation. Going to give most of them to LFS. Thinking I will keep my assassins in a 10 gallon with Betta.

Could I put all 70 in there for now?

How many would be reasonable to keep in their long term?

I am just guessing but I guess I have at least 15 but is probably closer to 20 in my 5.5 gallon tank. I think I had at least 10 in there already and added the 8 I pulled from my planted bowl a week or so ago. I am thinking their bio-load is fairly low so I am not concerned about the numbers.