rm
Passport
- Family
- Snails
- Grows to
- 3 cm (1.2")
- Lives
- 2–3 years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Beginner
- Swims
- On the bottom
- Keep
- One is fine
- Water
- 24–28 °C (75–82 °F)
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Care requirements
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On record for Assassin Snail: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, carbonate hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level.
Not on record for Assassin Snail: tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 38 L / 10.0 US gal
- pH 7–8
- Hardness 6–20 dGH
- Carbonate hardness 2–10 dKH
- Diet carnivorous
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Assassin snails eat other snails. That's the entire reason they're in the hobby, and they're extremely good at it — a small group will work steadily through a pest snail outbreak that no amount of manual removal was fixing.
They're handsome as well: a conical shell banded in yellow and dark brown, like a humbug, carried by an animal that spends most of its time buried with only a siphon showing.
The thing to understand before buying them is that they're slow. Slow to breed, slow to work through a population, and slow to starve when the job is done. This is a long-term solution rather than a quick one.
Tank setup
Give your assassins sand or fine gravel. They burrow, they hunt from beneath the surface, and a coarse substrate takes that away from them.
Keep the water hard. They build a substantial shell and soft acidic water erodes it, which is the common thread running through every snail in this catalogue.
They're otherwise undemanding about the tank. Planted or bare, bright or dim, they carry on regardless.
Leave the pest snails alone while the assassins establish. Removing their food supply by hand at the same time just starves them.
Feeding
Assassin snails hunt live snails, and that's their preferred food by a wide margin. They detect prey through the substrate, dig it out and consume it inside the shell.
They'll take frozen bloodworm, sinking pellets and carrion once the snails run out, but they're carnivores and they will not graze algae. A tank cleared of snails needs to feed them deliberately.
Feed them protein a couple of times a week when the pest population is gone. Otherwise you'll have solved one problem by starving the solution.
Avoid: copper in anything, and avoid expecting them to eat leftovers like a scavenger snail. They won't.
Filtration and flow
Ordinary gentle filtration is fine. They're not demanding about flow or oxygen.
Keep nitrate down and hardness up, as with any snail.
Guard intakes only for the sake of the smallest juveniles.
With plants
Assassin snails are completely safe with plants and have no interest in them at all. They're carnivores.
Plant however you like. Dense growth gives their prey more places to hide, which slows the clean-up but doesn't stop it.
Their burrowing does gently turn the top layer of substrate, which is mildly good for rooted plants.
Health
They're hardy and rarely ill. Shell erosion from soft water is the main long-term risk, as with every snail.
A buried assassin is normal, not a problem. They spend long stretches out of sight, and a tank can look empty of them for days.
Sudden losses point to copper or a chemistry swing rather than disease.
Breeding
Assassin snails breed slowly and controllably, which is exactly why they don't become a pest themselves. They have separate sexes, so a single one will never populate a tank.
Females lay eggs one at a time in small square capsules stuck to hardscape or glass. Each capsule produces a single snail, and it takes weeks. Compare that with a bladder snail laying dozens in a clutch and you see why the population stays manageable.
The young burrow immediately and stay hidden for months. You'll see the adults long before you notice you have more of them.
Tank mates
Avoid9
- Clown Loach Clown Loach is not safe with Assassin Snail: loaches and botia and snails are a bad pairing.
- Demasoni Cichlid Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Assassin Snail: african cichlids and snails are a bad pairing.
- Dwarf Chain Loach Dwarf Chain Loach is not safe with Assassin Snail: loaches and botia and snails are a bad pairing.
- Electric Yellow Lab Electric Yellow Lab is not safe with Assassin Snail: african cichlids and snails are a bad pairing.
- Hillstream Loach Hillstream Loach is not safe with Assassin Snail: loaches and botia and snails are a bad pairing.
Only with care13
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Assassin Snail is peaceful.
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid is aggressive and Assassin Snail is peaceful.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid is aggressive and Assassin Snail is peaceful.
- Bristlenose Pleco Bristlenose Pleco is a risk to Assassin Snail: bristlenose catfish and snails are a pairing to watch.
- Clown Pleco Clown Pleco is a risk to Assassin Snail: bristlenose catfish and snails are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 82 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 4 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.