# assasin snails



## mjw1476 (25 Jan 2009)

i was just wondering if anyone has any assasin snails that they could spare, only after 2 or 3. somewhere along the line ive introduced some snails, and in my opinion they are ruining the look of the tank, saw around 30 on the glass thismorning and they have absoloutely tons of jeelied eggs all over the tank and snails, dont really want to add chemicals and picking out individually seems very arduous. plus the assain snails look alot nicer and apparently dont breed so rapidly.
has anyone got any spare or can shed some light on controlling the population?

cheers

Matt


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## chump54 (25 Jan 2009)

snails... those little rams horn snails are buggers.

but, I got my population under control by 
1. syphoning them out when ever there was enough visible to make it worth while, using a bit of air hose. with a bit of practice i could get them off leaves without any damage ( although this was an issue to start with)
2. reduced feeding of fish (and the snails)

took a couple of weeks but it was free, and I don't now have an assassin snail problem   if you see what I mean.

cheers

Chris


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## Nick16 (25 Jan 2009)

yeah, same as above, i cut down on feeding, removed as many as i could see, crushed the eggs that were always on the silicone and then siphoned a few out. 

another trick is putting a lump of cucumber on the bottom wieghted of course and then switch the lights off, come back in 2 hours and you can remove about 30 in one go, do this a few times and you will be ok. 

or have several lumps of cucumber in all over the tank floor so you can remove loads in one go. good luck.


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## Tony Swinney (25 Jan 2009)

I had an outbreak of tiny little snails a couple of months back. I added 6 Botia Striata and they were gone within a week !  They're great little fish to watch too !

Tony


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## Ed Seeley (25 Jan 2009)

Bear in mind that the snails are they because there's plenty to eat.  I have a few in my display tanks whereas there are loads in my fry/rearing tanks as I feed them heavily.  And if the snails weren't there then all that food would be left rotting down until I removed it in a water change.  With the snails they eating a lot of it and are converting it into their body tissues so it is locked up and not polluting the water.  If you want to reduce the snails reduce the food and remove the snails you see - adding something to eat them is great but then feed slightly less too as they are getting some nutrition from the snails!


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## LondonDragon (25 Jan 2009)

I used to have hundreds of snails in my tank, but when I had an issue with my tank and lost quite a lot of the fish population then I reduced the food accordingly, since then all my snails have died out, there isn't one in the tank now.


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## Egmel (25 Jan 2009)

I would recommend feeding less alongside manual removal.

However efficient/lovely some snail eating fish are, they're not usually a good solution.  For a start they treat the symptom rather than the cause and secondly it means you are stocking your tank according to a problem rather than choosing the fish you might otherwise prefer. That's all assuming you even have the space in the tank to keep them!

So while manual removal is tedious, combine it with reduced feeding and it really is the best option for long term control.


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## mjw1476 (25 Jan 2009)

thanks for all the help, i do have alot of algae due to starting my tank off with slow growers, which ive since remedied, also i used to have discus in the tank with carpet plants for a while so this may have been a main contributor. ive moved my discus out and put some shrimp in the tank.
i got 20 cherries and 3 v.large amanos yesterday that were very active all day yesterday but today they are all clustered in a hollow log, ive tried shaking them out but them all went back in. ive only got cardinals and otos in the tank now and a fair bit of algae so cant understand, has anyone else had this problem? i know they are new but they seemed very confident yesterday and timid today.

thanks

Matt


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## Egmel (25 Jan 2009)

mjw1476 said:
			
		

> i got 20 cherries and 3 v.large amanos yesterday that were very active all day yesterday but today they are all clustered in a hollow log, ive tried shaking them out but them all went back in.



Leave them alone for a bit and they'll soon be out and about.  You'll probably find that the inside of your log is full of algae that they're feasting on, when they've finished it off they'll be out to look for more.


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## spikey4me (5 Feb 2009)

> i was just wondering if anyone has any assasin snails that they could spare, only after 2 or 3.



Hello Board! 
Just to let you know Snail shop has these on special offer at the moment - Â£2.49 each or 5 for Â£9.99. 
A bit of a shameful plug i know  , but desperate times = desperate measures!  
http://www.snailshop.co.uk
Louisa x


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## TDI-line (5 Feb 2009)

Hello and welcome to the forum Louisa.


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## spikey4me (5 Feb 2009)

Thanks for the welcome TDI, have been meaning to get on here for a while...and not just to plug my shop i hasten to add! 8)


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