Stray Assassin Snail

**nicklimzhiwe** · 27th Jan 2010, 23:24

I was looking at my tank just now and I saw this weird tiny little thing.. It looked like something I have being reading up on.. And low and behold.. When I took a closer look, I saw this tiny little stray assassin snail..

I didn't know where it came from? Most likely came in with some plants.. Anyways, I always wanted to breed assassin snails.. This little baby snail must have be a sign to tell me to go ahead.. Haha!

Now its in a small plastic container of its own with a small piece of tetrabits complete.. Afraid that it would grow up to harm my yellow shrimp-lets that has being swarming my tank for a week or two already..

The "Snail-let" is like a missile, darting around the container.. Super fast.. Hope it will survive and grow up to a be a strong snail..

**vynzs** · 28th Jan 2010, 05:13

Not to worry too much bro...

They are not harmful.. So far have kept them for quite sometime, they dont really disturb tankmates..

**nicklimzhiwe** · 28th Jan 2010, 07:55

Haha.. Forgot to mention I have some snails I want in the tank too..

**Shaihulud** · 28th Jan 2010, 09:18

Just remember that assasin snails are not hermaphrodite! They need to actually breed with another one of the opposite sex to reproduce. They don't harm shrimps from my experience, but they will wipe out ramshorn or bladder snails population.

**Fuzzy** · 28th Jan 2010, 09:47

I don't have conclusive evidence that they kill shrimp, but I have strong suspicions that they will do it on occasion.

They will kill your other snails eventually though, the problem is they don't really breed unless you give them a constant supply of live food. My initial four A. Helena mulitplied to 11 individuals before they cleaned out the tank and just completely stopped reproducing.

**stormhawk** · 28th Jan 2010, 14:50

Odd, mine didn't multiply, but they're still alive and kicking even without no other snails. They've left my nerites alone so far, but they seem to be feeding on something. I read somewhere that they feed on detritus as well, so in an established tank, that shouldn't be a problem.

**harnsheng** · 28th Jan 2010, 15:18

I think i need to get some of this, as i have thousands of stupid little snails in my cement pond. SG now got supply?

**Fuzzy** · 28th Jan 2010, 22:24

Originally Posted by stormhawk

Odd, mine didn't multiply, but they're still alive and kicking even without no other snails. They've left my nerites alone so far, but they seem to be feeding on something. I read somewhere that they feed on detritus as well, so in an established tank, that shouldn't be a problem.

Yeah they'll survive just fine on detritus, or leftover shrimp food in my case. The A. Helena population boom in my 2ft didn't start until about 2 - 3 mths after they wiped out all the baby ramshorns in my tank.

How many do you have? is it possible you have all males / all females?

**Neutral81** · 28th Jan 2010, 22:57

Hi.. Does anybody got any information if they can co-exist with CRS and sulawesi Shrimps? Have caught them chewing on dead shrimps but not sure if they eating their dead bodies or attacked them...

**Fuzzy** · 30th Jan 2010, 05:29

Same experience for me, I think for high value shrimp like CRS / Sulawesi you might want to keep away from your A. Helena

**Shaihulud** · 31st Jan 2010, 11:27

better if you feed them sinking tablets, I fed mine Hikari sinking carnivore pellet.

**stormhawk** · 31st Jan 2010, 11:31

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

How many do you have? is it possible you have all males / all females?

I've got 6 in a 4 ft tank, and they're running about just feeding on detritus and the fish food I think. Been a month since they wiped out all the Ramshorn, pouch snails and whatever else were in there. There was some weird snail too, but that got killed by them as well after the Ramshorn were wiped out.

I thought about it too, and I probably got all males or all females in my batch.

No matter as well, I'd rather not see babies since they're fine right now.

**Jungle-mania** · 31st Jan 2010, 11:45

I have got them with my shrimps, no mortality so far.

**bluebubbles** · 2nd Feb 2010, 23:08

Will they eat planaria or at least kill it?

**Fuzzy** · 3rd Feb 2010, 00:16

No they won't touch planaria at all

In fact I've had a few which I suspect were killed by planaria...

Originally Posted by stormhawk

I've got 6 in a 4 ft tank, and they're running about just feeding on detritus and the fish food I think. Been a month since they wiped out all the Ramshorn, pouch snails and whatever else were in there. There was some weird snail too, but that got killed by them as well after the Ramshorn were wiped out.

I thought about it too, and I probably got all males or all females in my batch.

No matter as well, I'd rather not see babies since they're fine right now.

They reproduce very slowly though, so there's no fear of them growing to plague proportions in a tank. I was getting annoyed that they weren't reproducing at all when they finally did.