Assassains

[saltynay]

Anentome helena - Assassain snails

Got some q's which I can't seem to find definitive answers for;

Do they prefer processed food over live snail prey?
Can they survive in a brackish environment?
How often do they eat when eating a snail diet?

There isn't that much documentation on them and quite a lot of it is conflicted. I currently have tadpole snails in my tank which aren't a pest yet, I quite like the look of them and I want to get some trumpets snails to turn over my substrate. Both species can become overwhelming quite rapidly so I want to find a happy medium between reproduction rates and deaths

 

[Liam]

They will eat processed food or frozen bloodworm but they prefer snails. They will breed and eventually they would eat all the snails in a tank. I don't know if they can live in Brackish water, mine are living in very soft water. If you just have one or two and a lot of snails then the trumpets should be able to keep up with the predation. I think they can kill a snail every few days. I had four in a tank and they had lots of babies and killed all the snails in the tank over a period of about 6 months. Its hard to be precise about how fast they kill the snails or how fast they breed themselves.

 

[saltynay]

Would you be willing to send me one Only want one as I don't want them breeding and becoming pest . Thankyou for your advice

 

[stang1]

Hope this helps:

Assassin Snail

 

[saltynay]

I have had read so many fact sheets over the last few days looking for some first hand experience. Thankyu anyway

 

[stang1]

Neale does have first hand experience, he keeps them himself as far as I'm aware.

 

[saltynay]

Thanks I have pm'd him