# Assassins



## Hollyhawk (Mar 28, 2011)

Hey all, I just gave ten assassins away yesterday. Mine are breeding like crazy. I'm sure I will have extras in no time again as I have many tiny ones in tank now.
I'm in mission now so if anyone is interested leave a post and I can get back to you when they are a little bigger.

Figures the only thing that breeds for me is snails LOL!!!


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

I'm interested in a few thanks!


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## nigerian prince (Mar 8, 2013)

im in the same boat hahaha everyday it seems theres more, theyre great


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## trevorhoang (Oct 13, 2010)

i never got my assassins to breed. whats the secret? lol


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## Hollyhawk (Mar 28, 2011)

I have nooooo idea what the secret is. LOL 

They lay their eggs on the stems in the heavy java fern growth, if that helps. I was really over feeding and had hundreds of rams horn snails in both tanks, so it could be they had lots to eat. I feed extra shrimp pellets now to supplement because the pest snails are gone. The assassins keep on breeding. The only other thing different is I stopped changing out so much water every week. I was changing 9 gals from the 16 gallon and 12 to 15 gals from the 30 gal. 
Now I only change a third to half that much water once a week or once every two weeks. Soo many plants and hairy roots to suck up the nutrients that it is now easier on me.

I just spend hours pruinning both tanks and still I have too many bushy plants. My dream is to combine both my 30 gal and the 16 gallon into one 46 - 50 gallon. I have everything needed except for the tank, lid/light, stand and canister filter! I have more than adequate planted driftwood and flourite sand. Too much for my set ups now. I can't even see the fishies in the 16 gal! LOL (Unliess it's time to eat)

Next time instead of giving the snails away to a stranger, I'll make sure I post and let Reckon know. We can meet at starbucks or something, I'll be the one with a bag of snails LMAO!!!!


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## pdoutaz (May 13, 2010)

I am being over-run by snails in my 65 and 90 - would happily pay the shipping and some cash for your effort if you were willing to send via Harbor Air (collect) to Nanaimo - would need al least 10 -15, more if possible


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## Hollyhawk (Mar 28, 2011)

Ah man I feel so bad for you. I noticed two were coupled up for a few hours today so, I'm thinking in a few weeks i should have extras. I really wish i had posted before giving them away to a stranger at a pet store. The pet store did not want them.... Imagine that. I guess to quaratine snails is too much work LOL!
I guess there no pet stores over there with assassins?
Before i got assassins I'd scoop em up off the side with a net and flushed them. It helped a little. Then I started taking everything out of the tanks and washing the snails and eggs off with the shower attachment. CRAZY amount of work. I finally found assassins.
In the meantime good luck.


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## inuudo (Sep 23, 2012)

Would you like to trade some baby apple snails for some assassins??


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## Hollyhawk (Mar 28, 2011)

No thanks, I'm not fussy on any snails but assassins. Thanks for the offer though. Depending on how small they are they would probably be snacks for the assassins anyway.


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## Shiyuu (Apr 9, 2011)

I have 3 assassins in my shrimp tank, they never breed tho... 
and they chow down the ramshorn snails soooo slow, that it is actually faster for me to manually crush them... = =

Any secret to make them eat faster???
or maybe I have too much baby size ramshorn, that it's too small for assassin snail?


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## inuudo (Sep 23, 2012)

Ok. Let me know when your assassins are big enough. I'll likely be interested in buying a few or working out some other kind of trade.


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## Hollyhawk (Mar 28, 2011)

If there is a secret to breeding them, I honestly have no idea. Mine just do. They have been in the tanks for several years and now suddenly babies.
No Prob inuudo.  Members from bcaquaria have given me freebies over the years. Even before I joined the site.


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## Hollyhawk (Mar 28, 2011)

Shiyuu said:


> I have 3 assassins in my shrimp tank, they never breed tho...
> and they chow down the ramshorn snails soooo slow, that it is actually faster for me to manually crush them... = =
> 
> Any secret to make them eat faster???
> or maybe I have too much baby size ramshorn, that it's too small for assassin snail?


I have had mine for years in my tanks. The process takes a while. It doesn't happen very quickly, and you need to have proportionate numbers of assassins to pest snails. I had 10 in a 30 gal, and it took half a year or more for all the pest snails to be gone. That included me swooshing some out with a net. 

I should probably ad the first batch of assassins I bought had a major die out within a couple days. I think three survived out of ten. I thought it may have been the excel, but probably not. There went 30 bucks quickly and man did they stink!!

One of the original group is a breeder LOL It has always had a broken off end on it's shell. I always look for that one to see if it is still alive.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

A good trick to removing snails is. Place a small glass jar in the tank at night before your lights turn off. Put some zucchini in the jar. Wedge it in there. Cut a hole in the lid so the snails can get in but the fish cant or go no lid and make sure the zucchini stays inside the jar by placing a elastic band around the zucchini and a rock. By the morning the jar will be full of snails. Remove the jar. Get rid of the snails and start over again. It's a very safe and effective way of getting rid of pest snails.


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

trevorhoang said:


> i never got my assassins to breed. whats the secret? lol


I find that mine only breed when they have snail meat. Also, they are... Uh what's the word for non-hermaphrodite? Well, there are boys and girls, so if you only have a few, maybe you have all one sex.



Shiyuu said:


> I have 3 assassins in my shrimp tank, they never breed tho...
> and they chow down the ramshorn snails soooo slow, that it is actually faster for me to manually crush them... = =
> 
> Any secret to make them eat faster???
> or maybe I have too much baby size ramshorn, that it's too small for assassin snail?


I think the problem is most likely that three assassins can't do it alone. If you watch videos of them eating snails, you'll notice a lot of the time a bunch of assassins will gang up to take down a snail. I started with ten, and then even it took a few months before I really started to notice the pest snail population to disappear.


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## Hollyhawk (Mar 28, 2011)

Mine are weirdos and are breeding without "snail meat". They actually didn't start breeding until after the pest snails were gone. I feed them shrimp pellets now. LOL


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## inuudo (Sep 23, 2012)

Livyding said:


> I think the problem is most likely that three assassins can't do it alone. If you watch videos of them eating snails, you'll notice a lot of the time a bunch of assassins will gang up to take down a snail. I started with ten, and then even it took a few months before I really started to notice the pest snail population to disappear.


I have just one assassin snail in my 45 gallon; this is where I hatched out a couple of my apple snail clutches. The bottom of the tank is littered with empty snail shells, both rams horn and apple. The assassin no longer seems to finish eating the apple snails though, since they are getting much bigger than him. (The remaining apple snails clean up.)


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## Hollyhawk (Mar 28, 2011)

So with my trusty flashlight and magnifying glass, I have found many new eggs laid.  Hope they hatch and grow for ya'll.


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