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Hey guys,

Recently a local fish club member asked me whether my assassin snails would eat the eggs of plecos. I have breed plecos in the pass but always took the cave and male out to another tank.

I have not notice assassin snails going after any eggs in the limited time I allow them to stay in the main tank.

Have y'all notice anything like this?

Yes, they will eat eggs ime.

Have you actually seen nails do this?

myjohnson wrote:Have you actually seen nails do this?

If we're still talking about assasin snails, yes. They even left other snails in peace to enjoy Tatia intermedia eggs.

if you want snails in your breeding tanks the best species is Melanoides tuberculata, better known as Malaysian Trumpet Snail, Burrowing Snail, MTS and so on

this is a carrion eater but it only eats dead matter; it leaves live eggs in peace.
it's a great snail to use when you're concerned about unfertilized eggs, fungus or dead fry polluting the rest.

I've used this snail with great success with messy spawners like Synodontis species, Hoplosternum punctatum etc.

it can be used in egg tumblers, fry tanks, breeding set ups and the like

if you don't take my word for it, check out Wels Atlas pt 1 by Mergus.
it's all in there
;)

What is your experience with algae eaters - Neritina and Clithon in this respect? I've seen Clithon crossing corydoras eggs on the tank wall and he didn't seem to pay attention to them, it just ran over them and left them behind but still, I'm not very sure

I have never kept these....

why get a snail for algae cleaning duty while there are so many cool fish that look a lot better and do the job as well?

There is nothing better than neritina or clithon for algae on rocks tank walls and other flat surfaces! You just don't have to clean the tank walls. It's a must to have them in my aquariums I'd say.
And they don't touch plants at all. And can coexist with assasin snails too.

Marc van Arc wrote: If we're still talking about assasin snails, yes. They even left other snails in peace to enjoy Tatia intermedia eggs.

Yeah, I'm referring to assassin snails.

I was wondering if you actually seen them eat eggs. But it appears that you did see this.

Where the eggs dead or viable?

Viable. The assasins just loved them. As I had enough Tatia at the time and an abundancy of MTS, I decided to give up the eggs and let the assasins stay. Moreover, every time the youngsters hatched they were eaten by their parents and other woodcats.
The assasins have done a great job since: no more MTS in either of my 2 tanks. And - to be honest - no more fish eggs either....

The few times my cories have spawned, I removed all the eggs I could. The ones I couldn't were eaten quickly by the cories themselves, and perhaps the assassins.

I've never seen an assassin get any pleco eggs unless they were booted from the cave.

Vlacek wrote:There is nothing better than neritina or clithon for algae on rocks tank walls and other flat surfaces

Yes, they're excellent algae-eaters, much better than any fish I know. However, there's some significant downsides with Neritina: they'll starve if there isn't heavy algal growth as they will not scavenge or accept any replacement feed, and they deposit white egg cocoons (which never hatch) everywhere. Also they are in reality freshwater-tolerant brackish-water species which do not do well in soft, acidic, water, and they're all wild-caught, probably not sustainably.

I'm not surprised to hear that Clea (Anentome) eats fish eggs. I've not kept that species, but it's a whelk (Buccinidae) and its marine relatives are highly efficient and opportunistic predators. I would expect it to also attack moribund fish and freshly molted crustaceans.

I'm not sure why people dislike malaysian tower/sand snails (Melanoides) so much - they're decent alga eaters (and among very few snails who eat cyanobacteria), do not eat fish eggs, and are great scavengers.

I don't like mts bc they burned two eheim 2260s I had when they got into the motor.

Taratron wrote:I've never seen an assassin get any pleco eggs unless they were booted from the cave.

Ah, now that is a good point.
I'd like to make clear that I have no experience wrt assasin snails eating eggs of fishes that guard their eggs/nests/caves etc, except for Pseudohemiodon spec marbled in which the males keep the eggs under their lips. These eggs/youngsters were not threatened by the snails.

A bit off topic...

Mike_Noren wrote: Yes, they're excellent algae-eaters, much better than any fish I know. However, there's some significant downsides with Neritina: they'll starve if there isn't heavy algal growth as they will not scavenge or accept any replacement feed, and they deposit white egg cocoons (which never hatch) everywhere. Also they are in reality freshwater-tolerant brackish-water species which do not do well in soft, acidic, water, and they're all wild-caught, probably not sustainably.

All correct Mike, just that they will go for replacement feed like spirulina tabs I have so you can keep them in quite algae free tanks but you have to make sure that they can reach tabs or whatever before they are eaten by other obviously much faster tank inhabitants. Neritina is very slow snail but extremely effective. Well white cocoons are quite hard and not easy to remove if you don't like them but I wouldn't see that as a problem

Does anyone have any advice on getting rid of pest snails in your pleco breeder tanks?
I had some hitchikers on a plant that I thought I had cleaned properly and then boom dozens of what I think are tiny ramshorn snails in the tank.
I put a few assassin snails in there to keep them under control and you guys were right.. they were predating on my pleco eggs and even fry in the floating breeder ring! I have removed the assassins but wondered if there was another approach I should be taking?
I'm a bit hesitant about using chemicals to kill off the snails so am looking for suggestions from those of you that have had the same problems...

Regards

Kris

I have assassin snails which I got to eat snails (not in pleco breeder tanks). Early on I asked my friend Rachel of inverts by msjinkzd if assassins would eat eggs and she said not to risk it. So I never have. But I do keep them in grow tanks. However, I rarely move fry to grow tanks until they are at least an inch.

The feeding for offspring feeds pest snails and I move things between tanks so almost all have pest snails. In the tanks without assassins I regularly vac up the snails and drop them into the tanks with assassins. Those tanks would have no food snails if I did not do this.

BTW- assassins love Hikari Algae wafers and Repashy Soilent Green. Considering the assassins are meat lovers, this surprised heck out of me.

Hi all,

Tigerking333 wrote: ↑26 Aug 2022, 16:19 .... I have removed the assassins but wondered if there was another approach I should be taking?

Embrace your Ramshorn snails? They are plant and egg safe and a great tank janitor.

Have a look at viewtopic.php?t=42862 - "Live tips to save Cory eggs".

cheers Darrel

I had a huge colony of assassin snails in with my breeding Brochis Splendens and African Butterfly fish. The assassins never touched eggs from either of those species, haven't tried them with pleco's yet.