Anentome helena: killer snail

[SCOPE]

had anyone tried this snail on Malaysian Livebearer snails...

[FishSoup]

Read online that they do consume malayan trumpet snails too.

[Shaihulud]

I have 6 of them for 5 days already, divided in different tanks. I haven't seen any indication of it eating snails though. The species of snails are ramshorn, trapdoor snails, pouch snails and 2 kinds of malaysian trumpet snails. There is some indication of response from the mts to the "snailkiller", I have seen it crawl over various snails and not act in an aggresive manner. I have not seen any empty snail shells than normal in the tank, sadly, my snails are not snailkillers, or they only eat certain snails.

[FishSoup]

Hmm, i got two of them too, somehow they don't seem to be eating the ramshorn snails that plague my tank either

[celticfish]

The more I read about these guys they more they perk my interest.
Like the old chinese saying... "fight snails with SNAILS!!"

[Ariel]

mmm, seem like "not effective" snail killer.

[Quixotic]

How effective do you guys think this snail should be? This snail is still fairly new in the trade, so a lot of information are just mere observations (which can be flawed) and guess work.

Is it not possible that the snail may not need to eat every day, but just a snail every few days would suffice? So give the snail a break, yeah.

From another German website (which is now inaccessible), these are said to be the habitats of A. helena (though not verified).

The website is now up, there is a wealth of information in many snails, including Tylomelania, Clithon and the various nerites, etc.
http://www.allesumdieschneck.de (Main website)
http://www.allesumdieschneck.de/html...me_helena.html (A. helena page)

There are links to several threads on a German forum for you to read in the A. helena page above (translate via Babelfish or Google language tools although some information may be lost in translation). If not, just admire the pictures taken. IMO, the German aquarists are quite good and enthusiastic with snails, after all it is a "schnecken" (snails in German) forum.

[celticfish]

Just to add to Quixotic's thought on them not having to eat everyday, very possible btw.
Could you guys have been feeding heavily in the tank?
That might explain why the snail killers are not killing.
If I were them I'd just go for the non-moving protein target...

[Ariel]

thanks for the link , Quixotic.

[Shaihulud]

Thanks for the link, it was very helpful. My snails finally ate another snail, a large mts! i also find small pouch snail shells around. At that rate, they won't take out all the snails in a tank, but make fascinating inhabitants. Another observation is that they seems to have made a dent in my shrimp population even though they aren't suppose to predate on shrimps, it could just be a coincidence however.

[dzylim]

yes. this snail sure does the work. slowly but definately. i am seeing empty ramhorn shells after a few days of leaving it inside my sulawesi shrimp tank.

[Jungle-mania]

Finally, a cure. My cherries are atually dying out because my ramshorn are eating faster than the shrimps!

[EvolutionZ]

i just got one of this cute guys today..
hopefully he is able to eat all the snails in my tank!

[Samuel2618]

cant resist anymore but bought three of these cute little fellows and put them in a 1ft tank.. Hope they really help me control snail population in the tank.. They can be really good replacement of dwarf puffer if as we all know dwarf puffer might have the tendency to harass other tank mates..

[guqin]

I put three of these fellows into a small container with three small tadpole snails (Physa sp.). In about half an hour, all three tadpole snails were literally gouged out of their shells. Man, these Clea helena are really vicious.

[EvolutionZ]

hi, just to share, this is my killer snails,
currently its living with quite alot other snails and 1 nitrite snail.. mine is not very active, most of the time hiding.. but it does moves really fast!
any idea if it eats algae?

[Shaihulud]

I don't think it will eat algae, its mouthpart is on a long probocis (not the one you normally see it waving around) that it uncurls and sends it into a preys shell to eat it. Yeah mine also hides most of the time, and i seldom see it eat (only twice)

[EvolutionZ]

okay.. will be going c328 tomorrow, might be getting afew more =)

[lEddyl]

I don't think it will eat algae, its mouthpart is on a long probocis (not the one you normally see it waving around) that it uncurls and sends it into a preys shell to eat it. Yeah mine also hides most of the time, and i seldom see it eat (only twice)

mine too. it only stay around my sand substrate. away from my driftwood, plants and glass wall

kind of find it useless.

[Quixotic]

Hmm... these snails, their primary diet is live snails, so they are carnivorous i.e. they need high protein food. So if you are going to treat them as algae eating snails, then they are probably going to disappoint you, right?