Assassin snails bumblebee

[snailaquarium]

Hi

As I have way too many snails in the aquarium I have bought a bumblebee assassin snail and I am wondering if it just lives in the water or will it crawl out of the tank?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Assassain snails are good for controlling pond snails numbers, would just have the one otherwise they may breed.

They live in the water and under the substrate as they primarily prey on snails this way, like a sort of trap when snails go over them under the substrate.

Most snails, including assassins, won't crawl out of the aquarium if the water quality and parameters are good.
However if the tank water quality is bad then they may try to escape the aquarium, shrimps do this as well, they will try to get out of the water if there's something bad in the water column, such as copper for example.

 

[denogginizer]

Hi

As I have way too many snails in the aquarium I have bought a bumblebee assassin snail and I am wondering if it just lives in the water or will it crawl out of the tank?

I've had hundreds of Assassin Snails in multiple tanks and have not had one crawl out yet (that I know of).

 

[snailaquarium]

Are there any other snails that eat snails? I have lots of tiny ramshorn snails, I might think about selling on ebay if I can.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Assassins are the only snails that I know of that eat other snails.

I know that there are some fish species that can eat snails such as yo yo and puffers etc but not any other carnivorous aquarium snails am afraid.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Assassins are the only snails that I know of that eat other snails.

I know that there are some fish species that can eat snails such as yo yo and puffers etc but not any other carnivorous aquarium snails am afraid.

And if the ramshorns are the super tiny species, the bigger loaches don't bother. Have some of the really small ramshorns in a tank with two yoyos, but the snails are too tiny for the fully grown botia to bother with. They did decimate the apple snails that used to be in that tank though (before the ban).

@vanalisa would a pea puffer eat the really teeny snails?

 

[snailaquarium]

They live in the water and under the substrate as they primarily prey on snails this way, like a sort of trap when snails go over them under the substrate.

Must I have substrate in there then? I took mine out to help me deal with the detrius worms which I still have.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Must I have substrate in there then? I took mine out to help me deal with the detrius worms which I still have.

Seeing lots of detritus worms and an explosion in pest snails is a sign that you're overfeeding and/or not cleaning the substrate enough.

I've only ever seen detritus worms when an algae wafer fell down into the gravel and the fish couldn't reach it, and a good gravel vac took care of that. The snails and the worms don't do any harm, but they do let you know that you need to reduce feeding and up the maintenance.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Seeing lots of detritus worms and an explosion in pest snails is a sign that you're overfeeding and/or not cleaning the substrate enough.

I've only ever seen detritus worms when an algae wafer fell down into the gravel and the fish couldn't reach it, and a good gravel vac took care of that. The snails and the worms don't do any harm, but they do let you know that you need to reduce feeding and up the maintenance.

@AdoraBelle Dearheart has this spot on, this is something I agree with entirely, detritus worms, planeria and even mites showing up are usually down to either poor water quality or overfeeding too much food.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thank

@AdoraBelle Dearheart has this spot on, this is something I agree with entirely, detritus worms, planeria and even mites showing up are usually down to either poor water quality or overfeeding too much food.

Thank you
I panicked a bit when I first saw detritus worms on the front of the glass, as most of do when we see anything weird or new in their tanks, but did some reading up on them and had a good clean, and realised they were helpful rather than harmful. Those bits of algae wafer down in the gravel were out of reach of the fish and probably most snails too, so having detritus worms is like having earthworms in the garden; they'll break down bits like that and turn them into mulm. Fertiliser for your plants. Gravel vac the worst of it, and the rest is rendered pretty harmless by the worms and other micro organisms rather than just sitting there rotting and producing ammonia. I'm sure there are still worms in that tank, I'd only worry if I see them, since that means there's something rotting there that's drawing them out in numbers or the population is exploding, and that needs cleaning up.

OP, removing all the substrate and trying to eradicate them and the snails is a mistake. You should replace the substrate and just up the cleaning, and reduce feeding. This is a little ecosystem we're creating, micro organisms are a healthy, normal part of it, and trying to destroy them all is much more likely to do harm than good.

 

[snailaquarium]

Seeing lots of detritus worms and an explosion in pest snails is a sign that you're overfeeding and/or not cleaning the substrate enough.

I've only ever seen detritus worms when an algae wafer fell down into the gravel and the fish couldn't reach it, and a good gravel vac took care of that. The snails and the worms don't do any harm, but they do let you know that you need to reduce feeding and up the maintenance.

Well I drastically reduced feeding and the snails started to eat the guppy grass. I now have no more guppy grass, the aquarium is pretty bare now, it just has 6 large moss balls and a couople of small strangs of the plants I had. I need to buy more plants to make it look attractive. Someone suggested I could have a small fish called Chili Rasboras however I think they need warm water, my tank is not heated and room temperature.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Well I drastically reduced feeding and the snails started to eat the guppy grass. I now have no more guppy grass, the aquarium is pretty bare now, it just has 6 large moss balls and a couople of small strangs of the plants I had. I need to buy more plants to make it look attractive. Someone suggested I could have a small fish called Chili Rasboras however I think they need warm water, my tank is not heated and room temperature.

What size is the tank and what's in it at the moment, livestock wise?

Yeah, chili raspboras are tropical and would need a heater to keep the temp steady and warm. They are a lovely nano fish, but still need a bit of swimming room.

Without food, the snails will start to die off. Just hoover them out so a mass die off doesn't cause a big ammonia spike.

 

[snailaquarium]

What size is the tank and what's in it at the moment, livestock wise?

One gallon drinks dispenser as you can see in below video, at present livestock is only lots of snails and 6 large moss balls. I would like to add some small hardy coldwater fish.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

That's no good for fish. Shrimp or snails only, it's a gallon man, come on.

 

[snailaquarium]

That's no good for fish. Shrimp or snails only, it's a gallon man, come on.

Well I would only buy 1 small fish. As it happens 1 gallon was no good for shrimp. I had some die and these all happened after water changes. I was told by someone on here you can maintain a 1 gallon tank for shrimp but I won't do that again.
Pet stores are full of tanks that small?