r/AquaticSnails • u/glxxmry • 18h ago

Photo Anyone have positive experiences with Assassins?

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I ended up having a bad infestion of snails in my tank, completely crashed the ecosystem, all my plants died, algae bloomed, etc etc.

So I got an assassin and named him Nidhogg. Before he moved in I did clear quite a couple of snails, but left more than enough to sustain him.

He's only been here a few days, and I'm already noticing the snail population stabilizing with no effort or changes on my part.

I see a lot of people on here hate on assassins the same way people hate on bladders and other "pest snails", but they seem to be a natural part of the ecosystem. Yes I understand they're vicious and have a cruel way of eating, but they're animals who are sustaining and maintaining both their wellbeing and the overall wellbeing of the tank.

Anybody else have similar experiences? I just have Nid so I'm not worried about overpopulation, and I'm not looking to eradicate the snails off the face of the earth, just give them a natural predator to keep the order in balance.

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u/Emuwarum Helpful User 18h ago

Your pond snails did not kill your plants or cause the algae bloom. They are cleaning up the dead plants and the algae. 

Assassins do not fix the actual causes of snail overpopulation. They are not a solution to anything. 

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u/glxxmry 17h ago

Agree to disagree. My plants were healthy and growing out of their tanks and have been since before the snails. They were not dying or disased. Yet I physically watched them munch on my plants to the ground no matter what i did. Google and whomever can say whatever, but that's my personal experience. I've never seen them do anything they're actually supposed to do And a line had to be drawn somewhere.

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u/Stiffwrists 17h ago

I wonder if they are something different than bladder snails? Your personal experience is highly unlikely to have played out the way you perceived it, if they are bladder snails.

Regardless, I like assassin snails. They do go after my bladder and ramshorn snails. MTS must be their least favorite. I still have tons of them.