In addition to helping your tank stay clean, snails can be very pleasing to the eye. Just watch an aquarium with a snail – it can be relaxing seeing one slowly move inside the aquarium. Sometimes, you can even see them fall from the top, gently landing below.
There are many types of snails, and Assassin snails are just one example. They are generally small in size compared to other snails. They are scavengers, which means that they eat most of the decaying matter in your tank. Like all other snails, Assassin snails can be helpful, but when they multiply too many times, they can be considered pests.
In this article, we are going to tell you how to get rid of Assassin snails in your aquarium.
Table of Contents
How do I get rid of Assassin snails?
Assassin snails often bury themselves in the lower part of the aquarium, meaning that they can be hard to get rid of manually.
The first solution that you have to do is stop overfeeding your tank. Overfeeding causes the snails to thrive on excess food, which can cause your snail population to explode in size.
However, feeding your aquarium less frequently can mitigate this issue. In simple terms, when the snail doesn’t find anything to eat, it dies on its own.
Another solution is to add assassin shrimps that can prey on Assassin snails. This way, the shrimps will have something to eat, and the snails will disappear in no time. However, the downside to this is that assassin shrimps also have a high rate of multiplication and can also be pests themselves.
The next solution is to use chemicals to get rid of the snails. Of course, you have to use fish-safe chemicals when trying to use this type of solution. You should be ready when you use chemicals because there will be a massacre of snails in your aquarium, and it may cause stench due to the dead snails.
The last thing that is recommended is to clean your whole tank. This way, you can start again and pick what organism you will add to your aquarium. The only downside is that it’s time-consuming to do.
What will eat Assassin snails?
As mentioned above, Assassin shrimps can eat them since Assassin snails are part of the Assassin shrimps’ diet.
Assassin snails can also eat their own kind since it is a fight for survival in the tank when talking about snails. Scavenger fishes can also eat the small snails that are lurking in the tank. The Zebra Loach is an ideal scavenger fish for small tanks due to its small bodies. If you have a larger tank, you can use also put catfishes to eat your Assassin snails.
Are Assassin snails bad?
Well, technically Assassin snails aren’t that bad since they are scavengers that eat excess foods from the tanks. They also feed on decaying fish remains in the aquarium. Basically, they naturally clean the aquarium for you.
They don’t eat your plants, so you won’t have a problem in snail-eating plants when looking at an assassin snail. They are also good in killing pest snails in your tank that get a free ride from other fishes. The Assassin snails are good at regulating the population of other snails in your tank.
Assassin snails’ rate of reproduction is not high because they can’t produce asexually, and they lay eggs only once in a while.
In general, assassin snails aren’t bad, and they help you in making sure your tank is regulated, but unlike other organisms overabundance of these snails can be harmful to the other species in your tank.
Does salt kill Assassin snails?
Other snails succumb when they encounter salt on their body. They don’t die from it, but they do become dehydrated very when given salt.
On the other hand, Assassin snails are freshwater organisms meaning that they don’t need salt to live. That said, they don’t die when encountered with salt, although they don’t like it.
What affects them more is temperature. Assassin snails should live in a stable temperature tank because they don’t like any fast changes in the quality of water.
Can one Assassin snail reproduce?
Some snails can reproduce asexually, meaning they can reproduce themselves without male or female partners. There are species of freshwater snails that have this ability.
As mentioned above, though, the Assassin snail does not belong in this group; they need a heterosexual partner in order to reproduce. They also lay eggs when giving birth to their offspring. They don’t consistently reproduce like other species, so overpopulation in the tank is not a problem.
For more information about snais, check out our aquarium posts!