Where to get assassin snails & will they kill fry?

melissasroja

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Sep 28, 2010
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Connecticut
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Melissa
I've become totally over-run with little snails and really need them gone. Problem is the kids love snails and don't want me to trap them. I'm thinking assassin snails will clear them out while allowing the kids to keep snails. So my questions are where do I get them? How many per tank? And will they be ok in my fry tank and not bother the fry? Regular tank is 29 gal and fry tank is 10 gal. The fry are guppy, molly, platy and swordtail. Any advice would be great. Thanks.

Melissa
 
Snails wont be able to catch fry unless it's very sick or injured. I'm not sure about the amount but from what I've read, should you get three and not feed them specifically they will start to elimunate the pest snails right away.
 
I haven't had them eat fry ever.

I would start with a couple. Keep in mind, the assassins will breed as well if you have both sexes. You could start with one and see how long it takes to maek a dent.

Also consider increasing your maintenance routine (more gravel vacs) and decreasing your feeding.
 
I started with 1/2 a dozen assassins maybe a year or so ago, to help alleviate the snail infestation. I now have 0 snails in 5 tanks, and probably 20 or so assassins in 4 out of the 5 tanks. They did a great job. I have not had any other snails for a while, and the assassins are just fine eating leftover food in the tank. I have even had to go back to going to petco/smart (both are within a mile of my house) and asking for snails to feed the puffer and for the sids. I recently bought some ramshorn snails and they will go into a tank without assassins as I try to repopulate (to an extent) them for the puffer. Good luck.
 
I sure hope you guys are right.. i picked up a bunch(5) of assassin snails and think they might of killed some of my amano shrimps i just got, i had 24 and now it seems like half are gone? well i was gonna kill the biggest assassins but since i found this thread i put the 2 biggest ones in a 10 gallon apisto fry tank.. anyone think my assassins killed my shrimps? i think the assassins may have been starving since there havnt been much snails left to eat lately..
 
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