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MSR Imporium

Assassin Snail

Assassin Snail

Regular price $6.99 CAD
Regular price Sale price $6.99 CAD
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CHARACTERISTICS

Tank Level:

Bottom

Minimum Tank Size:

10 Gallons

Diet:

Carnivore

pH:

7.0 - 8.0

General water hardness:

6 - 20 dH

Temperature:

70 F to 80 F (21 C to 26 C)

Temperament:

Peaceful

Assassin Snails (Clea helena) are a species of cone-shaped freshwater snail. Their shells are golden yellow with a thick dark brown stripe, and their bodies are pale with dark patches.

These snails are a very popular means of pest control, as they will seek out and eat other snail species. While a couple of assassin snails will help keep pest snail numbers in check, make sure you assess common reasons pest snail problems proliferate (such as over-feeding your aquarium). 

Assassin snails are easy to keep. On average these animals will reach 1-inch in length, but they will grow much larger on a high-quality diet consisting of mainly animal protein. These animals are sensitive to fluctuations in water parameters, so only add them to a fully cycled aquarium. They prefer temperatures in the mid-70's. Be wary of adding some fertilizers, as snails are sensitive to copper. These snails will live 2 years on average, and a couple can comfortably live in a 10-gallon aquarium. 

These snails are carnivorous. While they prefer to eat other live snails, they will also eat frozen foods (such as brine shrimp or bloodworms) and will eat flaked foods in a pinch. These snails do not reproduce very quickly, and the rate in which they reproduce varies on their diet (they have a more difficult time reproducing on a diet of fish flakes, as opposed to a diet of other snails). These snails will not attack or eat your live plants. 

These snails are a peaceful community animal. They can live with any other fish species, as long as those fish are not inclined to eat snails. Poor tankmates include fish like cichlids, pufferfish, crayfish, or goldfish. Assassin snails can be kept with shrimp species, and with much larger snail species such as mystery snails (assassin snails are not particularly inclined to hunt much larger snails, but it's still possible for predation to occur if the assassin snails are not well-fed).

 

Photo of an Assassin Snail by RSX - cropped from the File:Anentome Helena 2010.jpg. (Cropped by User:Snek01)., CC BY-SA 3.0, for Wikipedia (English).

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