Boston Aquarium Society Message Board

I saw Assassin Snails (Antentome helena) at Skipton's yesterday.
Pretty cool looking, these snails eat other snails (and alledgely may also eat shrimps).

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... nails.html

http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Anentome_helena



I think they were about $4 each.
I'm thinking of trying one in my 5g planted tank to see if I can knock down the snail population a bit.

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Rich
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Its new, its improved (its still a work-in-progress)
its http://redpaulhus.com !

If you want to control snail populations, get ONE. They will breed like rabbits and they do not cannabalize their own species so you will have an infestation of the assassin snails. They do not just eat snails, they also eat meaty pellets and whatever they can find so they won't starve to death just by the lack of other snails.

They're cool to have, but terribly ineffective for snail control as you're replacing one problem with another one.

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Eric - Secretary/Bowl Show Chairman

Wow,

good observation Eric... I hadn't even thought about a new "infestation".

And, they DO eat shrimps, according to other inverts forums. A healthy one will get out of the way quickly, but just after they've moulted, they're vulnerable to the snails.

-Jane

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Dec. '09 - 10 gal Planted w/ Black Bar Endler's Livebearers, 10 gal Planted with "mini Mystery snails", shrimp & dwarf cray tank, 5.5 gal Planted w/Celestial Pearl Danios (and hopefully breeding soon!). 20 H planted temp housing for Danio choprae, Panda Cories, Dwarf Crays, Shrimp. 30 gal Planted community tank - under De- and Re-Construction. 10 gallon planted awaiting new shrimps!

I picked up a few of these a while back.

I put one each in 3 different tanks - 1 5g, 1 20g, and one 15g column tank.

A few observations:

The snail in the 20g (with loads of moss, moderate number of pest pond snails, and a few small fishes) laid eggs even though she was alone. The eggs were pretty distinctive looking, unlike any fish eggs I've seen, kinda "square" looking. None of the eggs hatched (or no larvae survived if they did).

The snail in 15g (with fair amounts of moss and some cherry shrimp, along with pond snails and MTS) reproduced - I now have at least half a dozen small assassin snails in that tank. I haven't seen the adult lately, but she could be hiding under the moss layer I guess. Cherry shrimp have continued to multiply despite the existence of the assassin snail(s) in the same tank. Its possible that the snails are grabbing the occasional shrimp, but they certainly are having a smaller impact in the shrimp population than the pair of celestial pearl danios that previously lived with the shrimps. I did not see the eggs in this tank, I just found baby snails. The snails here do not seem very effective at controlling MTS - there are always large MTS up on the glass in this tank, and I only see the assassin snails down on the sandbed.

The snail in the 5g tank never laid eggs. I eventually lost this snail when a weekend power outage in my office led to a temp drop that almost "crashed" this tank - I lost a few fish as well.

I'm wondering if these snails might use internal fertilization with a delay before the eggs are laid - I think the snail was in the 20g at least a week or two before I found the eggs.

_________________
Rich
-- ---------------------------------------
Its new, its improved (its still a work-in-progress)
its http://redpaulhus.com !