but if there is no snails in the tank they will sometimes eat your cherries and other shrimp.
For the record;
I keep A.helena with Cherry and Amano shrimps and have never seen the snails attacking the shrimps nor the shrimplets.
My snails eat all sort of food even flakes (probably only the meaty parts of the flakes - red and yellow in color)
They are readily available form Singapore so any local shop should have them.
To anyone not familiar with or maybe interestd in these snails.
don't WASTE YOUR MONEY...
They are to be honest a complete waste of time.!!!!
I run a shop in the north east UK and have 6 to a tank and they are useless..
They eat 1-2 snails every 3-4 days so unles you have an army that equals the snail infestation you already have don't bother.Added to that any snails over the size of approx 5mm are ignored and left .
As these assasin snails are not cheap I thought id let you now to spend your money on something that actually works
They are to be honest a complete waste of time.!!!!
I disagree. In the short time I had A. helena, I was very pleased with the results. Unfortunately, mine died on me.
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They eat 1-2 snails every 3-4 days so unles you have an army that equals the snail infestation you already have don't bother.
In addition to the A. helena, it is important to practice other means of keeping down the snail population, namely not overfeeding. That will give the A. helena time to keep the population down.
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Added to that any snails over the size of approx 5mm are ignored and left.
Again, I beg to differ. If you check back a few pages, you will see a photo I posted of an A. helena devouring a ramshorn snail. The ramshorn is bigger than 5mm.
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As these assasin snails are not cheap I thought id let you now to spend your money on something that actually works
And what exactly is that? Clown loaches? Chemicals? A. helena is the only thing I would actually buy to try and get rid of snails... otherwise I'd simply try some home remedies such as the lettuce in a bottle trick. _________________ Dumpster Tank Nano Fish Mbuna
They are to be honest a complete waste of time.!!!!
I disagree as well, even if they aren't the best snail eaters in your experience out there, they still look pretty darn neat. I've seen people spend 5-6 bucks for a full grown spixi, so why not spend 4-5 bucks on an assassin snail that at least looks different than the mystery/brig shells.
Just my opinion though, and I agree with nik, I've got a friend who lives a little bit away from me who has them breeding like mad and they eat all of his snails, the only ones they pass by are the pond snails that live towards the top of the tank since they can't get there fast enough.
So if you've got say 100 snails in the tank and 2 assassins, provided you are not overfeeding and you are keeping water quality at a high level then you shouldn't be seeing more than half a dozen a week. With 2 assassins each eating 4 snails a week, that's 2 less each week. So what if it takes time? Everything takes time and one thing I think we can all agree on this hobby teaching us best is patience. _________________
philbot, I have to admit you do sound like you've had a bad experience with the assassin snails. In fact, I thought you sounded disappointed.
However, I do want to highlight to you that not all specimens are the same. Each batch of specimens could be taken from different places, and as such, the specimens may not have the same reaction to certain things.
Also, though with no offense directed to you, most LFS (Local Fish Shop) do not establish a sound enough environment for fish or invertebrates to perform at their best. As a result, the assassin snails may, henceforth, be less active in their daily feeding habits. So, could this be applicable to your case? If yes, maybe you would like to design a display tank for these creatures and see whether there's a difference. Maybe after a few months, you could report back with any findings. We'll be glad to have your opinions on them.
Moreover, what do you think would work better? Loaches? Maybe you may not have realised that in your hurry to finish the post, you have not considered bioload into the picture. Most loaches are schooling fish and are definitely bigger than the assassin snails. Thus, they carry more bioload. Many snail infested tanks are already rather well-stocked, and adding more snail eating fish may not be wise as it may cause the tank to enter into the overstocked region, and by then, there might be even more urgent matters to attend to than the irritating snails.
What other fish would then eat snails? Pufferfish? These fish have a lot of compatibility issues with other fish and are best kept in a species tank. So, would it be wise to keep pufferfish to eradicate snails that are in another tank? In order to move the snails over, you'd have to take them out. So why not just leave the snails in the sun and kill them that way, instead of having to go through the hassle of keeping another fish that you may not like to solve a problem that could be easily solved if the large majority of snails could be caught and removed?
Lastly, assassin snails are rather small creatures with a tiny appetite to fit their size. As such, one prey snail a day could already be good enough. As compared to other considerable candidates, they would be better as assassin snails do not have much bioload to begin with and generally do not have much compatibility issues; in fact I think they're only bothered by the water chemistry.
On my part, I would like to say that I've no experience with assassin snails, though the points I've raised do not involve the need to have any experience with them, so you may want to dismiss my argument.
iv had assasin snails for a couple of months now,, and no they will not eat each other they will gladly feed and algee tablets and other food debris.. iv find by letting a poplution of trumpet snails multiply in my filter it keeps a constant food supply for my assasins. breeding is easier then I thought they will lay little pouches with a white dot in the middle looks like a shark egg... the lay one egg every 10 days I think it takes like 3 months for them to develop.... well iv nearly 3 times as many little ones.. no problems with them eating each other orriginally I thought they were a waste of money because I saw no improvement,,, but once u get them breeding (it all takes time) ull end up feeding them snails.!!
A. helena attacks only snails of their own size and smaller but never bigger.
I wrote this statement above last year or so and it isn't true
I have observed A. helena eating my full grown Zebra Neritina snail. The Neritina snail did live together with a bunch of A. helena for a very long time (a few month) without being harmed but then it fell on it's back and couldn't get up ... this was a chance for A. helana snails to score the Neritina.
So, they can not do any harm to the Neritina snails unless the Neritina falls on their back and can not get back on foot.
They eat 1-2 snails every 3-4 days so unles you have an army that equals the snail infestation you already have don't bother.
What about something called patience mate?!
I acquired a few A. helena for my MTS over run Cherry shrimp 42 litres tank. At the start of course they could eat just so many, but after a month new baby A. helena appeared and after approx 3 month all MTS disappeared, and I was left with at least 30 A. helena which kind of look nice to be honest. Once the MTS population declined the A. helena reduced breeding.
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Added to that any snails over the size of approx 5mm are ignored and left .
Not true, as stated my A. helenas did wipe out the entire MTS population in approx 3 month time (and I had MANY MTS).
Also read my reply above please.
I'm new to this forum. I have an MTS problem too - just bought 5 Assassin snails on Ebay but then happened upon this thread and realised that perhaps 5 may be too much for a 75 Litre tank. I also have a large Apple Snail and I'd be gutted if it was eaten by the assassin snails. Still - I can always buy new apple snails I guess and if the apple snails mate then there is plenty of food for the assassin snails.
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