SNAILS! Rabbit Snails, Assassin Snails, Ramshorn and Malaysian Trumpet Snails

Everything you need to know about Assassin Snails, Rabbit Snails, Ramshorn Snails and Malaysian Trumpet Snails! Keeping, feeding and breeding!
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kzbin.info...
Here, I tell you all about the four different freshwater aquarium snails I keep in my fish room.
Assassin Snails (Clea Helena) are carnivorous and predatory. Clea Helena have been known to eat cherry shrimp (although they typically leave them alone in favor of eating other snails, they can sometimes develop a taste for dwarf shrimp). If your aquarium has many pest snails that you would like to get rid of, Assassin Snails can be a solid choice for controlling or even eliminating them. Pond snails, bladder snails, pest snails, ramshorn snails and even Malaysian Trumpet Snails are all just yummy snacks for Clea Helena. They've even been known to gang up on large Apple Snails as a group.
If you don't have other pest snails to feed Clea Helena, you can feed them other high protein foods, such as bloodworms, live blackworms or shrimp pellets.
Breeding Assassin Snails can be relatively easy if you have a male and a female and provide them with someplace to lay their eggs. Clea Helena eggs are like little paper tags that contain a single snail egg.
Rabbit Snails are one of my favorite types of freshwater aquarium snails. They grow much larger than Malaysian Trumpet Snails and come in multiple colors. This makes rabbit snails an attractive addition to the freshwater fish tank. Rabbit snails are also pretty slow breeders, giving birth to a single baby snail at a time. Interestingly, these aquarium snails do not lay eggs. They are livebearers.
Malaysian trumpet snails are another livebearing freshwater aquarium snail. MTS can give birth to 70 baby snails at a time! Malaysian trumpet snails can be beneficial to a planted aquarium because they burrow into the the substrate which stirs up the substrate and aerates it for the plant roots. MTS do not eat live plants but will eat dead plant leaves, algae, leftover food, fish waste, dead fish...pretty much anything that is not alive, the malaysian trumpet snail will eat it.
Ramshorn snails are another favorite freshwater aquarium snail of mine. The variety I keep are the blue ramshorn snails.
Ramshorn snails are egg layers and will lay several eggs at once, covered in a "jelly" pouch. You'll find these egg sacks on aquarium glass, driftwood, rocks, etc..
Like MTS, ramshorn snails are omnivores who will eat pretty much anything that is available to them except for live plants, making them a nice choice for a planted tank.
I put out new videos every Friday. My goal is to both inform and inspire you in this awesome fishkeeping hobby!
I'm breeding fish for profit, aquascaping for fun, collecting fish, selling fish and expanding my fish room...and I'm sharing all of it with you!
Thank you so much for all of the support! Every comment, like and subscription is so helpful, not only for KZbin's purposes but also because the positive feedback from you, the fishkeeping community, is what keeps me motivated to keep making these videos.
God bless ya, Fish Nerds! I will see ya next time!!

[@TheFishNerd]

Thanks for watching! What are your favorite snails? If you're new here, be sure to subscribe! kzbin.info

[@librasunscorpiomoon5894]

The Fish Nerd The Blue ramshorns I bought from you of course! 😁

[@presouz1740]

The Fish Nerd I am scared to death of snails when I was younger I started the hobby and was overrun with snails on the glass eggs everywhere so anytime I get plants I always quarantine them for a month or more until I make sure that there's no snails. Or I pay the big bucks for tissue cultures that are in gel that are guaranteed no pests This gives me the heebie-jeebies looking at all those snails LOL I put a message about a homemade snail trap that won't hurt your fry and you can release the fry every 10 minutes every hour if they get stuck in this homemade trap

[@TheFishNerd]

+Rebecca Portaluppi aha!! No wonder your name is so familiar!! Lol I thought I only recognized it from KZbin but now I remember you ordered snails! How are they doing for you?

[@TheFishNerd]

+Guppy Gal & Tanzie the Ragdoll lol I used to do everything I could to keep snails out of my tanks. Now I just embrace it. Lol

[@SantaMonicaFiltration]

I must learn more about FW snails... I've over-dosed my brain with SW info :)

[@DankTanks]

Dude! Where did you buy that Malaysian substrate?😂😂😂.

[@TheFishNerd]

+Dank Tanks haha! Made it myself!

[@byrguy1295]

lol ya. I thought I had a lot of MTS till I saw this. Must have got them when I purchased some fish. My zebra loaches kill a lot of them and still dont make much of an impact on them. Assassin snails seem like a better solution to wipe them out but I had my loaches 1st so they stay :)

[@cadepope4093]

Think you added a little calcium 😂

[@kinkyfella1994]

Ded

[@joehughes2536]

Control your pet snail population, have them spayed or neutered

[@TheFishNerd]

Haha!!!

[@muddyriverdogz]

Crush and don't get them in the first place

[@smeallo]

donate a big bag of snails to Murphy in Aquarium Co-Op as a snack :)

[@TheFishNerd]

Something tells me Murphy could make short work of them! lol

[@evanprobst3755]

Spare the life of the poor snails! I'll take them instead of u killing them XD

[@TheFishNerd]

+Evan Rules lol 👍🏼

[@renewillard777]

The Fish Nerd do you still sell snails? I will buy some of each! If healthy

[@dronespace]

Holy smokes that's a lot of snails

[@TheFishNerd]

They errwhere lol

[@zettatakem4173]

I have so many I don't know what to do Apple snails r for ever what a joke 🤭

[@user-iy9yb7hb9e]

I started using pulverized eggshell that I grind with a cheap coffee grinder for my cherry shrimp ,and the snails love it too ,and I noticed their shells are much nicer than before. . No signs of calcium deficiency anymore. I believe it also helps buffer the water ,as I feed my shrimp a lot of different kinds of dried leaves ,which makes the water more acidic and tea colored . . . Great presentation ,Thanks..

[@RiverCottageDesigns]

Great video. I love snails. I use powdered eggshell and cuttlebone in my tanks. The shrimp and snails love it!

[@TheFishNerd]

+HopArt Studio Thanks HopArt! Yeah, that's a great tip. LR Bretz uses eggshell in his shrimp tanks as well.

[@byrguy1295]

One of the best videos I've seen on snails thx

[@TheFishNerd]

Thanks!

[@RyoWatanabee]

I saw you on Flip Aquatics and I gotta say that your snails are awesome. Only if you had a mbu puffer :)

[@TheFishNerd]

+CW Aqua Hobby thanks CW!! A Mbu puffer would be awesome! A Schoutedeni (basically a mini Mbu) is on my bucket list. :)

[@Cookiz4dark]

I love my MTS and red as brown ramshorns. I feed my extra snails to my loaches. I have always wanted assassin snails but they are classed as an invasive species in New Zealand. Thanks for the vid man!

[@TheFishNerd]

+Cookiz4dark no kidding! Wow, that stinks that they're classed as invasive there!

Assassins won't kill your shrimp. There are copious numbers of trumpets to keep them fed.

[@caseythrasher]

They hunt Malaysian over everything as well lll

[@bubblerings]

Really good snail info, here!! Thx! Anyone have experience with Malaysian Trumpet snails as Puffer food?? Or do they just get their heads cut off and foul the tank water?? Can puffers crunch those stiffer thick shells? Was thinking of letting them burrow in my substrate for the Puffs.. Figure 8 puffers.

[@muckshifter]

Nerite Snails are my go-to snail ... they don't breed in freshwater, they look good, they eat algae (especially brown algae) and they don't eat healthy plants :))

[@TheFishNerd]

They are pretty awesome. :)

[@johnnokov2852]

But they leave eggs EVERYWHERE

[@nicholaslopez6384]

@@johnnokov2852 which ones do u like?

[@cindyluroman7238]

great video..thank you

[@dcphifer4307]

This is my first time finding you. Great Review. I am one who got some Ramshorn Snails and Bladder Snails with some WaterSprite and Hornwort from a LPS. I don't want to get a Turtles. I want to add Shrimp, but don't want them killed you. As long as I was only I was only sticking to Tissue Culture Plants, I was fine. I need to get this under control because I don't want to transfer these guys into my new tank. Meanwhile, I need to find someone to take them. :-)

[@cree_VI]

in the beginning i had those small round snails, i always pick up few of them, to control population and after 4-5 months from aquarium start i find one Malaysian Trumpet Snail and after few months those round snails has gone and soon there was many Trumped babes. It's so odd where gone all those round snails

[@trebor44089]

The snails are pretty easy to catch without a commercial trap. DIY yourself a shallow sinking dish of some sort tied to a string. Sink the dish...place some food in it and leave it in awhile/overnite. Pull it out via the string full of snails. It works well because the plecos and shrimp are fast and will escape the dish while youre lifting it out. And no hands in the tank. Or just scoop/grab them out b hand as Ive heard you say lol

[@TheFishNerd]

trebor44089 not a bad idea! I've also thought of rigging up something similar to suspend the food up in the water column where the snails can't get to it.

[@nickferdinande1646]

Me---wow crushed coral for a substrate looks good. You---ya those are MTS.... Mind blown!

[@TheFishNerd]

Lol yup

[@tympanum59]

tie a string on a chunk of cucunber to collect snails,they will cover it

[@T0tenkampf]

Have you ever seen MTS or Assassins attack fish eggs or wigglers? I am curious if they will impede dwarf cichlid reproduction

[@bloodshotgamer3532]

Great video thanks

[@TheFishNerd]

Thank YOU!

[@915hookinem1]

thank you I will check it out

[@66bigbuds]

Great food supply for pea puffers.

[@SapphireX413]

My MTS don't breed like crazy oddly enough. Bladder snails and mini ramshorn snails though HOLY COW. I had one MTS that I received as a hitchhiker on a plant. Quarantined it in its own half gal mini tank and there must have been a few of the other snails I just mentioned. Within 3 months the MTS only had 2 babies that I found while the bladder and mini ramshorn snails were out of control with very minimal feeding 😳 1 year after moving the MTS into my 10 gal they're still trying to establish a really good population.

[@ambatukham3482]

Mts need a male and female to reproduce. Bladder and ramshorns don't need a mate.

[@neilt1524]

Cool vid

[@MinorSwing82]

i love it, im breed yellow rabitt, there are amazong, regards!

[@TheFishNerd]

+MinorSwing82 that's awesome!

[@AsheValendis]

Hello, I have a question. What is that beautiful fish at 6:10? It’s near the wood and swims around it. I would love to know because it’s a stunning fish.

[@TheFishNerd]

That’s a Ruby Killi, aka Nothobranchius Rubripinnis.

[@MelissaGraves3919]

I would love to take some MTS off your hands!! I love them!!

[@madcat61207]

Me too, They're Delicious!!

[@45kittyboo]

I absolutely love snails and I have a bunch of mystery snails

[@evanprobst3755]

Would you recommend spirulina powder for the shrimp/why and how do you use it to feed them?

[@TheFishNerd]

+Evan Rules I sure do! It's such a fine powder that it dissolves in the water and makes a film on everything that the shrimp can graze on. Excellent for babies.

[@evanprobst3755]

The Fish Nerd thanks for the information!

[@beararms6945]

Any idea if I can use snails in a tank with an ornate bichir?

[@presouz1740]

FYI I was watching Rachel O'Leary and she has a homemade snail trap that would not harm your fry one little bit in fact it's made from a water bottle that's been cut in half and inverted back the other way and will catch a ton of snails in no time she caught like 30 snails in an hour and then you can just remove the top part of the trap real quick and let the fry out every hour

[@TheFishNerd]

+Guppy Gal & Tanzie the Ragdoll Awesome!! I'll have to go check that out!! Thanks for the tip!

[@DYTV-se9fj]

Nice tank men

[@mellewedin8221]

I have never seen so many snails ever!!

[@TheFishNerd]

Lol it’s pretty ridiculous

[@gavinkralik4694]

at 4:17 what plant is that?. i found some in a lake, and it is growing like crazy.

[@TheFishNerd]

The plants in that tank are hornwort (floating all over the top) and the thick carpet on the bottom is just a bunch of algae. :)

[@sustainableepiphany]

I love my MTS!! They serve such a great purpose for us planted tankers❤ They get a bad reputation!

[@alis49281]

That's a big crew of cleaners. Indeed the only way to reduce them is tomove out the fish and shrimp, then have the snails alone.

[@TheFishNerd]

Malaysian trumpet snails and duckweed will both survive the apocalypse.

[@donovanwisdom310]

What is the plant in the tank that has the Malaysian Trumpet Snails for substrate? I have that in one of my tanks, but I don't know what it is (I got it out of the river).

[@TheFishNerd]

Hornwort and cladophora algae

[@victorg7036]

I love rabbit snails. I found mystery snails kind of annoying. At one point I had over 300 of them. They just kept breeding. I also had a calcium problem in my tank with the mystery snails. I bought a bag of 10 cuttlebones for birds it only cost like two or three dollars. I think I crushed up three of them and put it in the tank on one side and then I put another one in the filter so it would slowly erode into the water. That took care of my problem with the calcium.

[@TheFishNerd]

Yup! That’ll do it!!

[@donnaford7488]

will one trumpet snail multiply. I had one ramshorn snail ( a baby ) in the tank and it made babies.

[@TheFishNerd]

Yup! They can mate before you get them and have babies after.

[@ejfishes7610]

Very informative Carlos! Thanks for sharing

[@TheFishNerd]

+EJ Fishes 76 thanks EJ!

[@koalamarsc7452]

Maybe just have a tank for snails or multiple tanks?

[@timwjack]

Dude!! Thanks for the great video!!! I am a bit of a snail nerd, and loved the great info!!! Maybe now I can get my assassins to breed, seems so simple but but I never thought it through.

[@TheFishNerd]

+Tim Jack Good luck! Hope they take off for you!!

[@aidanlapham2929]

if you wanted to do a puffer they would love it

[@evanprobst3755]

Also will mineral rocks work for snails too?

[@TheFishNerd]

+Evan Rules yup!

[@anastazias712]

Help! Please!! How do you tell the difference between rabbit snails and trumpet snails? Is there a way to look at them and tell? Thank you for any advice you can offer!

[@TheFishNerd]

Rabbit snails get way bigger and generally have darker shells.

[@anastazias712]

@@TheFishNerd Thank you!! :-)

[@TheTurtleGirl]

Carlos, you have type one and type two MTS....must be tough. :P

[@TheFishNerd]

Hahaha!!! That cracked me up!

[@sandra6330]

QUESTION : I have 4 Rabbit snails, can I add a Helena? (plague of little snails) Thanks and God bless

[@CoolGobyFish]

why would you add something called assassin to expensive and slow breeding high end snails?

[@petestockus1082]

Are they canned green beans and do you cook first? Also, any problems with platies?

[@TheFishNerd]

Yes, canned green beans and no, I don't cook them. They're soft enough out of the can so I just drain them. Not sure what you mean about problems with platies but I've never had any (can't say there never are any, but I haven't in any of the situations I've kept them in).

[@CJBlack265]

Excellent information in thus video- thank you!!💕👍

[@TheFishNerd]

+CJ Black thanks CJ!

[@ashleyportertv8973]

I know you made this 3 years ago but hopefully you will see this. I am in Michigan do you know if it's safe for me to order the blue snails online? Do you recommend a site?

[@TheFishNerd]

Yes, I ordered mine from ebay. Aquabid has sellers who ship them as well and Life With Pets sells them online too.

[@ShrimpinAintEz_com]

I was breeding snails for my puffer... it did get out of control so now I just use cucumber to bait the snails out

[@TheFishNerd]

I've done the same.

[@amandamccollister7373]

my mom would borrow a turtle from a friends son and it cleaned a lot of the snails out. she would do that when ever the snails got out of hand.

[@TheFishNerd]

My turtles love snail snacks

[@ericadams5019]

what kind of pleco are those? Id like to breed some.

[@TheFishNerd]

Bristlenose

[@melo-cj5um]

What is the plant in the tank with the plecos and snails

[@TheFishNerd]

It’s cladophora algae lol

[@Brandon-jw5cv]

Can you just take all the empty ramshorn snails from the assassin snail tank and dump them into the ramshorn tank to give them back their calcium?

[@TheGreatMoonFrog]

Can you not huck a couple assasin snails into the Malaysian Tumpet Snail tank?

[@carvedwood1953]

Will the assassin snail keep trumpet snails in check?

[@TheFishNerd]

They'll eat them. Trumpet snails breed fast enough though that if you overfeed they'll still multiply faster than the assassins can eat them.

[@handymaninside]

Wonder shell works immediately to get calcium to the shrimp and snails

[@raymondgilbert7887]

Maybe try feeding higher up so the plecos can get there

[@peculiarone339]

What is the substrate used in your Assassin Snail tank?

[@TheFishNerd]

+amy marie just a thin layer of cheap aquarium gravel...and a bunch of mulm lol

[@Allthingslife30]

Suuuuuper coool

[@TheFishNerd]

Thanks!

[@cindyluroman7238]

So cool, thank you...

[@leoroars8475]

Why don't you use cuttlefish bone? I have shrimp and multiple species of snails, I have cuttlebone in every tank and ponds, it only cost a dollar, and I put a one inch piece every time one dissolves.

[@foolishfoxaquatics9179]

Where did you find the blue rabbit snail?

[@TheFishNerd]

Flipaquatics.com

[@edwinbrown855]

I wish I had that many mts! My Assassin snails are starving!

[@TheFishNerd]

They wouldn't be in this tank! Lol

[@AquariumCop]

I love snails

[@eggroll1725]

how do you have so much ramshorn snails? i only have 12

[@TheFishNerd]

I started with 5 lol

[@915hookinem1]

where can I find those blue snails

[@TheFishNerd]

cK ThrAsheR fishnerdstore.com Unfortunately I do have them as out of stock until I get more healthy shells after the calcium issue.

[@mrspockyt]

EggShells is a great form of calcium for snails. You have to totally clean them and just crush the eggshells and bury in the substrate.

[@mildredgilmore5533]

Put a large spinach leaf in the tank. When it is full of snails, lift them out.

[@kchstudiophx9843]

Best snail info.

[@TheFishNerd]

+KCHstudio Phx thanks!!

[@machscga6238]

What about loaches?

[@TedSpacey]

Your substrate is snails

[@TheFishNerd]

Lol pretty much

[@vakong1467]

Do rabbit snails burrow in sad?

[@TheFishNerd]

They do some but not deep like the MTS

[@kennethjosephsantiago9532]

Why are there no fish in the assassin snails tank?

[@TheFishNerd]

That tank was going through a transition at that point. It had been a grow out tank for baby guppies but now isn't even on that rack.

[@paulteves638]

Why not put a few assassin snales in for the trumpets

[@allietheepocket]

heck i’ll buy some

[@pressuredprepper4232]

Do u sell the Malaysian Trumpet snails..?

[@TheFishNerd]

I don't

[@christinagordon2351]

You should seperate out the albino blue ramshorn

[@caseythrasher]

Get like 3 assassin snails and theyll be gone in no time i let my pest snail population grow till i felt they would continuously populate and the assassin wouldnt eradicate them and i think he has lol

[@pa.fishpreacher6166]

Where do you get your snails?

[@TheFishNerd]

The assassin snails came from my local fish store, the blue ramshorns came from eBay, the rabbit snails came from Flip Aquatics, and the Malaysian trumpet snails came as hitchhikers on plants I got from my LFS.

[@troublingleaf]

Rams worked for me, and that wasn't their purpose, I'm told they don't eat snails, but I watched my German blue rams eating them, 2 of them almost cleared my pond snail infestation, unfortunately they only lived about 2 months, and the snails made a comeback, I replaced them with bolivian rams which I've only had a few months, and they cleared the snails up fast.

[@TheFishNerd]

Wow! Never seen that before! I did have jewel cichlids eat a bunch of them before.

[@troublingleaf]

The Fish Nerd yeah in all fairness I did also take the bigger ones out by hand, but they definitely ate any that would fit in their mouths, I'm still vacuuming out empty shells!

[@dennis-qu7bs]

hey why don't you release one assasin snail into the malaysian trumpet snail tank to control things

[@TheFishNerd]

+dennis I doubt just one would be able to control that many but I am considering adding several once my breeding colony of assassin snails gets bigger.

[@basiliskgamer8352]

Hi guys , doesn't the assassin snail eat baby shrimps?

[@TheFishNerd]

I've heard from friends that they ate theirs, but I've never encountered it in my own tanks.

[@ACAquatics]

I have a MTS problem in my 46bow. How many assassin snails do you think it would take to stabilize the MTS? I really don't want to eradicate them. Just control their population from getting out of control.

[@TheFishNerd]

+Adam C. It's going to depend on how many MTS you have but honestly, if you just want to control the population, the most effective way is to adjust your feeding. The more leftover food that fish don't eat, the more snails you get. The less food the fish leave behind, the fewer snails.

[@crazycatmom420]

I paused it trying to figure out what the green beans were before he said green breen I was at a loss as to what it was lmao

[@carvedwood1953]

do snail eggs make for good fish food?

[@TheFishNerd]

Loaches will eat snail eggs

[@carvedwood1953]

@@TheFishNerd Thanks. Trying to pick a good snail for my betta tank. It is not very large so I am leaning towards nerite so they dont multiply.

[@TheDragon039]

Will theybeat my elephant snail

[@farajaraf]

Got 15 MTS on the way. Hopefully I'll have too many to count soon

[@TheFishNerd]

Oh, you will. Lol

[@yourdailynoob5828]

It took me 1 minute to realise the aquarium soil from 1:06 are trumpet snail shells

[@TheFishNerd]

Lol

[@robotech21]

don't the snails eat plecos eggs?

[@calmorezoo]

Thank you for this. I love my rams horns, Malaysians and assassins . The only snail I hate are pond and bladders.

[@sirpfa]

Hey which is the best algae eater snail to keep shrimps that wont eat baby shrimp and eggs?

[@TheFishNerd]

Best algae eater is the nerite snail 👍🏻

[@sirpfa]

The Fish Nerd but does it eat shrimps and baby shrimps also or not?

[@TheFishNerd]

Nope!

[@sirpfa]

The Fish Nerd so they are not like killer? Nerit is the one that can come out of water?

[@TheFishNerd]

Totally peaceful. I've never seen them come out of the water

[@aquariumarts6258]

Hey can you please tell me when the cherry shrimp are going on eBay or when your going to sell them because I'm very interested

[@TheFishNerd]

Animal Arts I just need to get some pictures taken and then I'll be listing some on my website. :)

[@TheFishNerd]

Animal Arts hopefully in the next few days.

[@aquariumarts6258]

The Fish Nerd thanks so much is there a way you could contact me when there up on eBay and also could you tell me what they will be priced at

[@TheFishNerd]

Animal Arts sure! Shoot me an email and I'll use that to let you know. They'll actually be on fishnerdstore.com rather than eBay. :)

[@TheFishNerd]

Animal Arts they'll be $2 apiece :)

[@retardationnation869]

I thought I had A LOT of malaysians. But this dude is measuring them in inches.

[@kc322511]

Whats the best way to get ahold of you i was wondering the price on the 5 super reds and if i could pick them up and skip the whole shipping thing

[@TheFishNerd]

+Kevin Cooper shoot me an email [e-mail]

[@ameliasmenagerie3350]

I LOOOOOVE rabbit snails and MTS :) need some in my life!!!

[@TheFishNerd]

+Amelia's Menagerie I've got enough MTS to spare. Lol

[@Howlingwolf1970]

I’ve just added some rabbit snails to my tank what’s the best thing to feed them

[@TheFishNerd]

Mine eat a wide variety of things. They tend to prefer plant based/vegetable type foods. They love green beans.

[@PurelyAquatic]

That's a lot of MTS!

[@TheFishNerd]

+j03yYunG Aquariums yup! Lll