I Have A Pond Snail Infestation And Assasin Snails Are Actually Useles

[Fishcakes]

I have a 60L tank and I have hundreds of pond snails that have hatched over the last week. I can easily count 30 without having to look around the tank, just gaze in one section. I brought 2 assasin snails shortly before it got out of hand, and they're really really rubbish. Tonight I watched as one pond snail actually crawled right up the the front of the assasin snail (as the AS was burying itself) crawl onto the top of its shell, then back onto the sand in front of the AS's front, then slowly crawled away. I mean, really?! What sort of predator lets their pray crawl over them?!

What can I do? Will buying more of the AS help, or not?

 

[the_lock_man]

I have a 60L tank and I have hundreds of pond snails that have hatched over the last week. I can easily count 30 without having to look around the tank, just gaze in one section. I brought 2 assasin snails shortly before it got out of hand, and they're really really rubbish. Tonight I watched as one pond snail actually crawled right up the the front of the assasin snail (as the AS was burying itself) crawl onto the top of its shell, then back onto the sand in front of the AS's front, then slowly crawled away. I mean, really?! What sort of predator lets their pray crawl over them?!

What can I do? Will buying more of the AS help, or not?

The assassin was probably full! No, seriously, they won't just eat for eating's sake, unlike fish. And me.

I would suggest you cut down on your feeding of the fish, if you have that many snails, that quickly, then your are almost certainly overfeeding. THe assassins will take care of the rest eventually, but not overnight. It'll take a few weeks.

 

[Livewire88]

You could allways send the snails to me, my puffers would make light work of them

 

[Fishcakes]

I have a 60L tank and I have hundreds of pond snails that have hatched over the last week. I can easily count 30 without having to look around the tank, just gaze in one section. I brought 2 assasin snails shortly before it got out of hand, and they're really really rubbish. Tonight I watched as one pond snail actually crawled right up the the front of the assasin snail (as the AS was burying itself) crawl onto the top of its shell, then back onto the sand in front of the AS's front, then slowly crawled away. I mean, really?! What sort of predator lets their pray crawl over them?!

What can I do? Will buying more of the AS help, or not?

The assassin was probably full! No, seriously, they won't just eat for eating's sake, unlike fish. And me.

I would suggest you cut down on your feeding of the fish, if you have that many snails, that quickly, then your are almost certainly overfeeding. THe assassins will take care of the rest eventually, but not overnight. It'll take a few weeks.

Today I have starved them, I might toss in an algae wafer before I go to bed but that's it. I have noticed a few empty snail shells at the bottom of the tank, but only 3 or 4. Gonna try halving the amount of pellets/flakes I put in but keep up the amount of algae wafers/blood worms I feed them, as it tends to be pellets and flakes that end up being forgotten or not noticed by the fish for a while.

 

[the_lock_man]

I have a 60L tank and I have hundreds of pond snails that have hatched over the last week. I can easily count 30 without having to look around the tank, just gaze in one section. I brought 2 assasin snails shortly before it got out of hand, and they're really really rubbish. Tonight I watched as one pond snail actually crawled right up the the front of the assasin snail (as the AS was burying itself) crawl onto the top of its shell, then back onto the sand in front of the AS's front, then slowly crawled away. I mean, really?! What sort of predator lets their pray crawl over them?!

What can I do? Will buying more of the AS help, or not?

The assassin was probably full! No, seriously, they won't just eat for eating's sake, unlike fish. And me.

I would suggest you cut down on your feeding of the fish, if you have that many snails, that quickly, then your are almost certainly overfeeding. THe assassins will take care of the rest eventually, but not overnight. It'll take a few weeks.

Today I have starved them, I might toss in an algae wafer before I go to bed but that's it. I have noticed a few empty snail shells at the bottom of the tank, but only 3 or 4. Gonna try halving the amount of pellets/flakes I put in but keep up the amount of algae wafers/blood worms I feed them, as it tends to be pellets and flakes that end up being forgotten or not noticed by the fish for a while.

If you've noticed some empty shells, then the assassins aren't useless!

 

[CezzaXV]

I'd just start picking them out myself, it's the only sure fire way. Even if you don't get them all, it'll be a start.

 

[three-fingers]

Assasin snails help but until they breed themselves - very slowly in comparison one egg at a time - they wont decimate an established pest snail population. Assasins scavenge themselves too, so it's not like they are only predators anyway, hence they don't mind letting prey get away if they are already full-up from scavenging (as mentioned above). The plus side is that even if they aren't eating that many snails yet, they will at least be partially competing for food, also for every empty snail shell you see, theres probably 2-3 others hidden in the sand so they may be helping more than you think .

Adding more assasins would help get the population established faster, but they are more of a long-term solution to pest snails than a quick-fix, which I think is a good thing anyway .

 

[Fishcakes]

Assasin snails help but until they breed themselves - very slowly in comparison one egg at a time - they wont decimate an established pest snail population. Assasins scavenge themselves too, so it's not like they are only predators anyway, hence they don't mind letting prey get away if they are already full-up from scavenging (as mentioned above). The plus side is that even if they aren't eating that many snails yet, they will at least be partially competing for food, also for every empty snail shell you see, theres probably 2-3 others hidden in the sand so they may be helping more than you think .

Adding more assasins would help get the population established faster, but they are more of a long-term solution to pest snails than a quick-fix, which I think is a good thing anyway .

I've currently only got 2, so I think sometime over the next few days I'll buy 2 more. I watched one of them chase down a snail today. Least epic predatory/prey chase scene ever (I left to make myself a sandwich halfway through, had a bath, a nap, watched a film... ) so they are 'working' lol, I guess it was disappointing for me to see a population bloom for the pond snails after I the assasin snails had been there for a few weeks. Sigh...

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I had a massive outbreak of Pond Snails in my 620T last year, while trying to keep young growing catfish well fed. I finally got the situation under control by spending ~20 minutes a day for a week or so, picking up those fiddly baby snails. These days there are now literally one or two remaining and their days are numbered, now that I have my Lionhead Cichlid family (parents plus ~35 fry) in there, who often chose live snails over Tetra Prima and Hikari mini algae wafers!

 

[Shane Ward]

Get a bunch of clown loaches, they love to swim around and munch up all the snales...

 

[CezzaXV]

Get a bunch of clown loaches, they love to swim around and munch up all the snales...

Worst idea EVER.

Clown loaches can grow up to 16 inches!

 

[the_lock_man]

Get a bunch of clown loaches, they love to swim around and munch up all the snales...

Not in a 60l tank, mate....

 

[fidjet2]

I had an outbrake of pest snails, i cut down my feeding and now there is only one here and there

 

[RZayneC]

I find if you put an apple or cucumber down after a few days there will be 20 or so snails on it. just throw them away and repeat.

 

[Sask Aquarist]

Any moderately sized cichlid will decimate a snail population. Personally my 55 gal and my 45 gal bow front had a impossible amount of snails in them. I tried the putting fruit in the water to collect them and clown loaches. Nothing really seemed to work. When i sold out my fish from my community tank (45 gal) to replace them with a breeding group of electric yellow lab cichlids, slowly the snails disappeared and i noticed as the cichlids would 'dig' out from under certain spots they would eat the snails. In my 55 gal electric blue ahli's had the same effect hope this helps =)