# Killersnail -Anentome helena



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

LOOK AT THIS!! Has anyone ever heard of these. They sound perfect. Just think - no more pond snails! Where do I get some? Any drawbacks?

http://www.aquarium-glaser.de/en/fish_details.php?product_id=1016


----------



## Six (May 29, 2006)

I'm usually pretty pessimistic about ideas like this, but there certainly are snail eating snails in the SW world I've heard of- so this isn't unlikely, and I kind of doubt they'd bother any other live animal, though I wouldn't but that as a 100% guarantee... 
Heck, try it out! LOL. Hopefully it won't get 1' long or something crazy.


----------



## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

Why do you want to replace a snail with a snail? In general, snails are very good at keeping the aquarium clean; they process detritus, eat algae, keep the substrate aerated, eat dead leaves off of plants........

So, Tex......why do you want to get rid of your current snail population?


----------



## joycould (Mar 13, 2007)

I did a google search on them, they are very pretty. One forum says they even get MTS snails if they are smaller. There seems to be a lot of sites in German, so I assume they are popular in Germany.


----------



## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

I encourage pond snails. They are good at eating green dust algae and bluegreen algae. They keep a nice clean tank, and they never harm my plants.


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I like the apple snails. I hate the pond snails. They are a menace. They are creepy to me. I like MTS. I used to only have MTS but the pond snails have hitch hiked into my tank on plants I have purchased. I'd rather have all those fine snail qualities in a neater prettier snail.


----------



## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

Well, if you get a snail that survives on protein by eating other snails, then you will likely have extreme dust algae, overloaded detritus, hair algae, and perhaps even green water (eventually) as rotting leaves and fish food are left unprocessed, and add all of that nutrient load back into the water column.

Are you sure that you want to do this? And why are the pond snails "creepy" to you, yet the "carnivorous" ones are not? That doesn't make any sense, Gyrrl! 

I dunno, Tex.....I think you under-estimate the real value of regular good ol' pond snails and their function in the aquarium. Maybe, IMO, you should second-guess this logic before you decide anything?


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

DonaldmBoyer said:


> Well, if you get a snail that survives on protein by eating other snails, then you will likely have extreme dust algae, overloaded detritus, hair algae, and perhaps even green water (eventually) as rotting leaves and fish food are left unprocessed, and add all of that nutrient load back into the water column.
> 
> Are you sure that you want to do this? And why are the pond snails "creepy" to you, yet the "carnivorous" ones are not? That doesn't make any sense, Gyrrl!
> 
> I dunno, Tex.....I think you under-estimate the real value of regular good ol' pond snails and their function in the aquarium. Maybe, IMO, you should second-guess this logic before you decide anything?


Some of the web sites say that once the snails are gone they will eat leaf detritus. It also says that they won't eat the MTS that are the same size or bigger than themselves.

Well anyway, I think they are pretty unavailable in the US. At least that's what it seems like... Actually if I could have my way I would like to keep only the MTS and the Apple snails. How can I do that? Ya know this whole thing about floating the lettuce leaf and trapping them hasn't worked for me.


----------



## praxis5624 (Apr 22, 2006)

Think real careful before replacing your snails with this killer. A good concept that may end in trouble.


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Tex Gal enters and plays JAWS music.....

Really though, thanks for the comments. Sounds like a great idea to me, albeit moot! (Also, figuring silently, you are all guys so don't get the "creep" factor here..... )


----------



## Six (May 29, 2006)

Those poor "ugly" snails deserve to die... long live the pretty ones... LOL. Good thing we don't abide by that in our species.


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Yes Six! You get it! 

Actually, they can live as long as they want to in some other place besides my tanks! :-s One thing is - I can't stand to just squish something living between my fingers. To horrid. [smilie=f: Now if they just had nice "personalities" :wink:...... but their ugly isn't just shell deep it's clear to the mush...


----------



## DMHdispute (Oct 23, 2007)

I dont like snails either, any kind. I just think that something sliding around the glass looking like a booger is ugly. I usually just scoop as many out as i feel like (20-30), and throw them away. Even tho it dosent keep the population down. 
One thing that i never considered is the fact that they clean the tank, would some shrimp be as good at keeping the substrate clean? I dont mind running my magnet sponge thing across the glass to keep it clean ( better than looking at sliding boogers).
If the shrimp will work then i can get something to eat the snails and still have a clean tank.


----------



## Adragontattoo (Jun 3, 2007)

praxis5624 said:


> Think real careful before replacing your snails with this killer. A good concept that may end in trouble.


Skinner: ahh, but as it turns out the lizards where a god send since they've eaten all the pigeons.
Lisa: Isn't that a little short sighted, what happens when where up to our ears with lizards?
Skinner: Ah, well we shall simply release wave after wave of Chinese needles snakes.
Lisa: then what about the snakes?
Skinner: We simply import gorillas who will eat all the snakes.
Lisa: Well what happens when where up to our ears in gorilla's!
Skinner: Ah that's the beauty of the thing, come winter the gorillas will freeze to death.

I want to get rid of snails in two of my tanks because they are going after the crypts as well.


----------



## Jareardy (Feb 14, 2008)

Yeah, snails just crawling around the tank in the hundreds is disgusting. And the only way to avoid that is to not have them!


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

You guys are funny. I see I'm not alone in my aversion to snails....


----------



## KnaveTO (Jul 4, 2007)

just to let you know these snails are available in Canada as I just picked up 8 of them. So if they are north of the border they should be south.


----------



## hoplo (May 14, 2007)

I have one. They are slow feeders so don't expect them to go on a crazed rampage. I've had it for 2 weeks and only saw it in action once when it was wrestling a MTS half it's size. And I've only counted maybe 5 or 6 empty shells. No worries of starving though, I have like about a zillion MTS.


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

hoplo said:


> I have one. They are slow feeders so don't expect them to go on a crazed rampage. I've had it for 2 weeks and only saw it in action once when it was wrestling a MTS half it's size. And I've only counted maybe 5 or 6 empty shells. No worries of starving though, I have like about a zillion MTS.


Well it sounds like the balance of power in your tank goes to the MTS. Wonder who outbreeds who? You didn't mention how many of the snail eaters you had.


----------



## Afyounie (Aug 10, 2007)

This sounds cool having a snail that eats other snails. Might be interesting to see it hunting the other snails. I like the more peaceful way of my ramshorns outcompeteing the pond snails. I think that if you got too many of the killer snails, then maybe they could become a plague of their own, till all the other snails died. Then you would have these killer snails, which would then die off due to no food. A few would live, and everytime you tried to add some new snail that would be good for the aquarium, well it would die. I guess those who don't want any snails would not care about that though. Thats just my 2 cents.


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Afyounie, I think the plan is to have only the bigger snails. These snails are able to kill the bigger snails. So you could have nerite, canas snails and the adult MTS snails. Wouldn't that be nice?!


----------



## Afyounie (Aug 10, 2007)

But I like the itty bitty ramshorns, they are cute. Pond snails are ok too, sometimes. To be honest though I like my shrimp more than snails. I only have snails to get rid of the things the shrimp don't get rid of.


----------



## oscarjamayaa (Dec 12, 2009)

Pond snails like physa and other like to eat some plants Like Blyxa japonica, instead Anentome only eat snails and they´ll help you clean your tank


----------



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

wrong. they only eat snails, and earthworm sticks if you have them. otherwise they get hungry and cranky. i have 10 and they decimated my MTS population >.> now i'm asking my local club for free snails to feed them.


----------



## mthom211 (Sep 3, 2010)

I don't think they breed very fast only one or two occsionly, these re the same as asasin snils right?


----------



## gBOYsc2 (Nov 26, 2010)

Personally I like to have some ramshorn snails in my tank. At first their population grew tremendously but it seems to even itself out with the amount of food they can find. I used to take em out once they get to be the size of about a nickel but I haven't seen one get that big in months now.


----------



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

there are several species of snail eating snails. the one we commonly call assassin snails are brown shells with yellowish stripes. ateome helena. i asked lotsoffish on aquabid and he says they eat planaria as well...


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

It's been a while since I posted here. I did try theses snails twice. Turns out they could not survive in my high tech tanks. I think it was the CO2. Since that time I've learned that there is a not so great mix with shrimp tanks. I have a friend that has watched them kill shrimp after shrimp. She will not even take plants from people who have them. She is well skilled in raising shrimp. 

So for me I have loaches and don't feed a lot. I still don't like the pond snails but we have made our peace.


----------



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

i watched one of my assassins kill a yellow shrimp but then after that no more incidents. just keep enough snails or earthworm sticks.


----------

