Snails, How To Get Rid Of?!

[fluttermoth]

i don't much like the idea of buying assassin snails to kill other snails and then have them breeding themselves (even if they are better looking).

Do assassins self breed (i.e. if I get one, will it still have kids)?

They're normally carrying packets of sperm to get themselves pregnant with when you get them. I bought one for my son's Edge, and it's had quite a few babies I could share out amongst other tanks They don't breed madly and leave you overrun like pest snails do though.

Apart from the fact that they are better looking, there's also an actual demand for assassins, so you can easily get rid of them, if you do end up with too many.

 

[the_lock_man]

If they are small snails don't bother with an assassin snail as he can't eat them. There is an esha treatment that will obliterate them but you will have to remove shrimps from the tank and keep them out for about a month.

Assassins can and do eat small pest snails - they suck the flesh out of the shell - they generally don't go for anything significantly bigger than themselves.

Assassin snails breed much more slowly than other snails, and they're useful, so if you do find yourself with too many you should be able to easily sell them.

I swapped a bag of 40 or so assassins for a bag of black sand from my LFS

you will NEVER get rid of them, unless they die off by themselves which is very unlikely, chances are it will keep getting worse and worse,

the only way is to empty the tank and let everything sit DRY for awhile, probably a month or so

I disagree completely. My assassins have done the job quite happily. I first got them when I was overrun with pests, and they took a while to sort it, but they definitely did sort it. When I redid my tanks (with the free bag of sand above and some new plants), I retained 3 assassins, and they have again eradicated the pests.

I would suggest that if you can't eradicate them, you need to reduce your fish feeding regime, as that is almost certainly what is making the pest snails breed so quickly.