Assasin Snails Pros and Cons

In this video I talk about my experience with keeping assassin snails for 3 years. I talk about the pros and cons of these awesome little invertebrates. I talk about why I think everyone should keep them in their aquarium and in what cases you should avoid these unique snails.
Products I use for this tank
Substrate(Fluval Stratum): amzn.to/2Fko79a
Powder substrate ( Tropica powder type): amzn.to/2CWX9PI
Filter (Aquaclear 20): amzn.to/2F78aEh
disclaimer: Above are affiliate links and when products are purchased using them I get a small commission from amazon.
I hope you all enjoyed this video and will join back for my next video.

[@AquariumCop]

I'm a snail lover, hence why I never owned them! IM SO SO HAPPY YOU MADE THIS VIDEO! YOU LAID IT OUT PRECISE AND CLEAR !!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH for this video.. now I don't feel bad about never having them! I do agree they are beautiful and it's nice that they have a low bio load!!!! Who knows maybe one-day I'll have a tank JUST for them! 👍☑.

[@KalemsFishtanks]

AquariumCop no problem i would recommend trying them out. I keep them and cycle throughout all my tanks to keep populations maintainable

[@rick49]

Awesome scape! Really nice work. Thanks for the snail info.

[@frankschindler7073]

Great video very informative. I added 5 to my plant last year now I have hundreds. Love them🐡👍🇨🇦

[@vicky34pa]

What did they eat now that they are they only type of snail in your tank? Do you still have this many? No Ammonia spikes from that many? Its what I was worried about with the other snails over population.

[@CaylorsReptilesAquatics]

Very informative video, and accurate information. I've never kept Assasins. I have considered them but have always had the desired result by decreasing available foods in the tank. This lowers snail populations. I use the snails like coal mine canaries to make sure my hand isn't sneaking extras to the fish and shrimp. The tank is looking very nice. Thanks for the video Kalem!

[@spidermonkey304]

Thanks you answered a couple questions I had.

[@GurjotGrewal74]

Very informative good video. I tired to only put 3 in my 55 and they have been breeding. Also I've kept shrimp with assassin snails and only once have I had assassin snails eat my shrimp

[@johnjwedrall4290]

I'm 4 years late but I subscribed to your channel today in 2022.

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Hhahaha thats awesome dude! Hope you enjoy the content 😁

[@144928]

I like this video. Informative, great narration, AND.... you use a tripod for your camera. I can barely watch videos where they are walking around pointing the camera in all directions. Almost makes me dizzy. Good Job !!

[@saundrabush236]

Great information! Waiting on my local petshop to get another order of assassin snails in, definitely getting a couple of them. I have a question about planted tanks. Yours is very beautiful...how do you clean your planted tank successfully? 😄👍🏼👍🏼

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Its just waterchanges nothing special I dont gravel vacuum and I usually have larger clean up crews. All my planted tanks have cherry and amano shrimp which I find really help hope you find this helpful and thanks for watching (:

[@gregghorner9107]

Best video I've seen on these guys. I love your nano tank too!

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Thanks so much glad you enjoyed 😁

[@viralvideosphtv1897]

Wow nice

[@2ssrs950]

Ok I need one of these asap

[@ACAquatics]

I love the assassin snail. I have them in a lot of my tanks. Another pro is they dig through the substrate and help stir it up which is great for planted tanks. Plus when you get too many of them they are easy to sell at my LFS. Great video as always and thanks for sharing. Keep doing what you do if it works for you.

[@KalemsFishtanks]

A.C. Aquatics thanks man also good points thanks for watching

[@froilanalegre342]

Lps

[@demeo50]

Great video

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Thank you!

[@TheFishBeast]

Hey man! Great info but just wanted to correct you that these are a different family than MTS. Assassin snails are Nassariids (related to marine whelks) and which lay eggs and these are Thiarids (generally livebearers). Cheers!

[@johannenslin4136]

When I’ve added 4 to my 70 gal tank the many pest snail eggs disappeared within about 3 days. Therefore, I conclude that they also eat snail eggs. Ever since there are hardly any pest snail eggs on my glass.

[@patriciakloeppel9863]

super awesome video i sub thanks for the video another pro is they wont attack there own kind

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Patricia Kloeppel yeah thats true i forgot to mention that 😁

[@luisgarcia-ps5kr]

I have mystery snails and they ate a dead shrimp that was on the bottom of my tank

[@babydevol]

I have snails in my tank but they are reproducing like crazy. Can I add one of this to keep the other snail population down? Or this kind will kill all the other snails?

[@tonyamoony]

Thanx so much! (new sub)

[@branrx]

Do they eat the whole snail, including shell? I have tiny Malaysian trumpet snails I’m trying to get rid of.

[@KalemsFishtanks]

They dont eat the shells but those will slowly dissolve

[@hectorskmetija3015]

I added 2 to my 60 L quarantine tank as my plants i quarantine had bladder snails. I had 4 big bladder snails i could see. Three weeks later, the bladder snails are still there. I was also told initially they wouldn't eat my mystery snail in my main tank. As i was going to move them over once their job was done. I am now not going to risk it. As Sally the mystery snail would suffer horrendously being eaten alive by one. The bladder snail should be consumed quiet quickly. But after seeing how they work, i am thinking about returning them.

[@claate]

A few months back I brought home a new fish, and with it, apparently a Malaysian trumpet snail egg or larvae because in a few weeks I saw one snail...which became 4, then 8, then 12...now there are at least 30 and goodness knows how many babies in the substrate! And so I bought an Assassin snail. It immediately dove into the substrate and I figured it would eat all the babies. Then I caught it eating a fully grown trumpet. And so I bought two more! And now they are mating! You answered all my questions and growing concerns...would I now have too many Assassin snails? What happens when all the trumpet snails are eaten? Thanks! Sounds like I am in for a fun ride! 🙂

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Once all the trumpets are gone they may start breeding, this is a very old video and I have learned the best solution is to just lower the amount your feeding, or even how much gets spread throughout your tank. Turn off your filter so less gets down to the bottom and only feed what your fish can eat. This will naturally lower the snail population and keep both your trumpets and assassins in check. Good thing is if you breed lots of assasssins people always are looking for em!

[@charliebrown9188]

Great video Kalem, I agree with most of what you said apart from the shrimp eating, I added 5 assassins to my 10 gal tank which was supper infested with pest snails which I really dislike... my shrimp colony suffered with the prolonged extreme heat we had this summer in the UK, I kept seeing dead shrimp and fishing them out, after the heat wave the dying stopped but my colony of cherry shrimp wasn't recovering and the pest snails weren't diminishing - maybe the assassins learned the taste of dead shrimp and decided it was easy prey. I put a stop to that a month ago, and a few days ago I started seeing shrimplletts... oh joy I did the right thing. 2 days ago I saw assassin babies and started to remove them as well, yesterday one of said babies was snaking on a shrimp twice its size... not good. So in my opinion assassins do go for shrimp of all sizes, even babies who never seen a dead shrimp... I now even have pygmy corrys babies darting about - the assassins were eating their eggs. I syphon the pest snails religiously off the 10 gal tank and transfer them to the assassins, I even buy pest snails at the pet shop because they do not want my assassins back even for free lol And to put everyone at peace, I didn't destroy the assassins, I set up a smaller tank right bellow the 10 gall tank so syphoning the pest snails is easy, I will not just kill them. So - sorry for all the snail lovers, assassins do need to eat too. And finally - what else can I feed to the assassins? I would appreciate suggestions.

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Very interesting! As for what else you can feed them assassins seem to eat fish food as well doesnt need to be just snails

[@charliebrown9188]

@@KalemsFishtanks Somebody recommended catfish pellets, somebody else recommended animal heart pieces, but I need to research a bit more as assassins mouth parts are different, and I don't want the food to be just sitting there rotting and ruin the environment completely. as a by the way: I'm still fishing out assassin babies lol

[@TyraWadman]

I know this is old but I'm wondering if maybe there was a deficiency in calcium? Pretty sure they need calcium pellets from time to time to maintain their shells. Or the next best thing- other snails/shrimp!

[@vicky34pa]

So you’re saying I don’t need to worry about an overload of these assassin snails at all? I put two in my 2 year established 20 gallon planted after I had a non stop breeding frenzy of every snail I could imagine.. and now those are all gone. For the past two weeks I only seen the two assassins who seem to now be breeding too. I woke up to about 30 babies. What will they eat now that the other snails are dead?

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Well they will probably slowly die off to the amount of other things present in the tank for them to eat. The population will level out to the amount of food present in the tank.

[@equestanton1017]

Will thy eat fish eggs?

[@hydroguy6927]

I am a newer planted tank owner and curious if assasin snails help clean algae and respect the plants in the aquarium? May be a dumb question lol.

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Not a dumb question at all! And in my experience they dont help enough to make any noticeable difference

[@JorisV1983]

They also eat shrimp. They ate 2 of my christal red shrimp in that i have seen myself. . but it seems there are more missing… i have a snail problem for the moment. thats why i added them to my tank. The shop where i bought them they woud not touch shrimp…

[@jy4talk]

I had hundreds of pond/pest snails n placed 6 assassin snails in my 20g. Its been 5 weeks. I still see pond snails. I feed the fish every other day in this planted tank. I'm guessing my assassin snails are still working at it or they are eating other things or something else?

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Could be a mixture of both, probably eating other things but still working on it as well, Id recommend when you feed your fish to turn off the filter and just feed in tiny amounts. This way there will be less uneaten food which will help lower the snail population and encourage your assassin snails to take care of them

[@spug9338]

What is the plant that grows in the gravel on the bottom of your tank?

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Micranthemum monte carlo 😁

[@spug9338]

@@KalemsFishtanks Thank you!

[@viralvideosphtv1897]

Wow

[@DuyDepTraiPhoBaTrieu]

My Apple Snails are 10 times my Assassin Snails, should I be worry that they might get killed?

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Hmm honestly Im not 100% sure I have never heard of them preying on larger snails

[@andym209]

Can you feed them mussell

[@KalemsFishtanks]

No clue

[@gregorymathewson1334]

What snail eats cherry shrimp?

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Some say these do But it’s very rare

[@WhalesWilly]

Will it kill bladder snails?

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Definitely!

[@milhaant786]

Will it eat fishes? Please advice

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Nope

[@milhaant786]

@@KalemsFishtanks thanks! But will it just kill them when the fishes are at rest at night? Lost many fishes

[@surabhivijaya9227]

They cant eat nerete if they are one or 2

[@cinezmartinez4949]

Do they eat snail eggs?

[@KalemsFishtanks]

They wont eat the eggs but they will eat them after the eggs hatch

[@Kenneth_Fishing]

I have a ton of pest snails and one mystery snail. I’m thinking of getting an assassin but I’m not sure if my mystery snail would be killed

[@KalemsFishtanks]

The mystery snail would be too big for them to kill same with nerites

[@Kenneth_Fishing]

KalemsFishtanks Thanks. I hate pest snails because they ate my floater plants.

[@micahpark8769]

You got a lot of water flow in there 😂

[@MattKeepsFish]

Bought 3 and they died within a week…

[@user-fn8mz8lg9i]

I don't think they eat algae

[@KalemsFishtanks]

Yeah looking back on it probably not that much they may contribute with things like biofilm though

[@Cuchelfan]

I don’t know about you chumps, but I have a crowned conch which basically eat’s my pest snails😎

[@reptileclub8681]

I want assassin snails to keep snail population down