How To Get Rid Of Assassin Snails: Tackling Killer Snail Invasions For Beginners

If you want more snails into your aquarium, but fear that your existing assassins will kill them off, your only option is to remove the killer snails as they can’t coexist peacefully. Ironically, assassin snails can become pests if they get too comfy in their environment. After solving pest snail invasions, they may start to breed, multiply, and invade the tank later on, returning you to square one. The best solution is to quickly get rid of the killer snails when you can, and we will delve into effective methods to do so.

The best ways to get rid of assassin snails are by cutting out their food supply, manually baiting them out of the tank, or putting aquarium pets that will eat the assassins up. If the killer snails are few, you can easily pick them out of the tank without a hassle. Otherwise, you may need more serious solutions.

6 Effective Ways To Get Rid Of Your Assassin Snails

People usually don’t talk about how assassin snails become invasive, which is why it’s best to introduce only a few into your tank. If you have landed in a situation where you’re stuck with unwanted assassin snails, here’s how to remove and get rid of them:

1. Hand-Pick The Assassin Snails

If you have only a few assassin snails, perhaps in the range of 10 to 15 in number, you can pick them out of the tank with your hands. However, you’d have to scan keenly to ensure that you don’t miss any of the little crawlers. Assassins can take long naps in hidden places like aquarium decor and substrates. If the substrate is sandy, they will hide underneath it for hours and you simply wouldn’t find them unless you run an object through the floor. It also doesn’t help that they are mostly nocturnal—so, you may have a harder time fishing them out during the day.

2. Set Traps To Remove Them

To make removing them from the tank easier, place a thin strip of raw fish or a few fish pallets to lure the assassin snails out. Thanks to their keen sense of smell, they will come out of hiding to feed and explore. You can then proceed to pick the visible snails out, repeating the process until there are none of them left.

Do not leave the bait in the tank for over 24 hours to prevent it from decaying and disrupting the nitrate cycle. When fish food decays, it raises the ammonia level of the tank which can entirely disrupt your tank’s natural process leading to a toxic environment for your pets.

3. Cut Off The Food Supply

Another method of eliminating unwanted assassin snails from your tank is by completely cutting off their food supply. If you have fish in the aquarium coexisting with assassin snails, make sure the food fed to them daily is just enough for the fish in the tank. There shouldn’t be any leftovers for the assassins to eat. Slowly, the killer snails will begin eating tank algae which would take them around two weeks to start dying off from the unsustainable diet.

Also, out of starvation, the assassin snails will turn to eat themselves, especially the adults onto hatchlings, reducing their population even further. The only problem with this method is that you’d have to regularly check in with the tank removing the dead snails to prevent their decaying bodies from raising the ammonia in the aquarium.

4. Get Assassin Snail Predators

Pea puffers, yoyo loaches, and bettas are great fish for regulating snail invasions. They enjoy eating mollusks, crustaceans, and smaller fish that are easy to prey on. Predatory fish cannot cohabit with snails because of their tendency to attack and eat them, most especially pea puffers. In terms of eradicating snail invasions, pea puffers are competitively as good as assassin snails, and are my best choice of an aquarium predatory fish to help you get rid of your assassin snails.

5. Drop Or Raise The Temperature Of the Tank

Assassin snails will struggle in temperatures under 70°F and over 80°F, and if they are the only inhabitants, dropping or raising the temperature of the tank will exterminate them in their numbers. If you use a heating system for your aquarium, uninstall it or increase the temperature for the snail population to die off and you’re good to go.

Bear in mind that assassin snails can enter dormancy to conserve energy, nonetheless, they can only withstand extreme temperatures for at most two weeks before they pass away. During this period, you must check in to remove the dead snails to preserve the nitrate cycle of your tank. Otherwise, you will have to perform a brand new cycle before your aquarium is habitable for new pets.

6. Lastly, Opt For Chemical Treatments

I only recommend this step if you are willing to start a new tank and perform the necessary water cycling after you have discarded your assassin snails, as it will inherently destroy all living organisms in your tank including the good bacteria. You need a toxic substance like copper sulfate or seachem cupramine to kill the assassin snails.

Depending on the size of your tank, there are dosage instructions to follow to prevent you from contaminating your aquarium decor for too long after you have cleared up the invasion. It usually takes a month to finally get rid of the unwanted snails.

How To Discard Your Unwanted Assassin Snails After You’ve Caught Them

If you have successfully removed the assassin snails from your tank and don’t know what else to do, I have you covered. The following tips will guide you on how to go about it:

Selling To Other Aquarists

Several communities on social media platforms such as Facebook and Reddit are reserved for trading aquarium pets such as your assassin snails. They usually sell for $3 to $5 and even higher depending on where you’re situated.

Donating/Gifting

Carnivorous pet fish owners and aquarists with pest snail invasions seek assassin snails to help eradicate pest snail invasions. If you’re in luck, local pet stores around may help take the snails off your hands as they’re profitable to breeders.

Freezing

Put the assassin snails in a container and then freeze them for 24 hours. Afterward, you can either throw them in a bin or use them for compost. Ensure you wash your hands properly once you’re done handling them to avoid mistakenly ingesting bad bacteria.

Crushing

You will need to toughen up for this, but crushing renders a quick end to the snails. After which you can dispose of them accordingly. Use a hard broad object like a book, and with one quick hit, the saddening ordeal is over.

How To Make Money From Selling Assassin Snails

Assassin snails can be bred for profit and are quite beneficial when you get a hang of it. However, you must provide a healthy environment for them to breed. Unlike most algae-eating snails, they breed rather slowly and only under the right circumstances. Water parameters like temperature and acidity must be in the proper range for their survival, and food must be abundant for them to copulate and reproduce. Also, assassin snails are not asexual, so you must get a male and female snail before any breeding happens.

Below are the water parameters your snail requires to be healthy enough to breed:

Generally, it would take 4 to 6 months or even less before your snails start to breed, that is if you’re doing everything right. Otherwise, assassins can refuse breeding for a year and even more until all their needs are met.

How Long Do Assassin Snails Live For?

Assassin snails can live up to 4 years under the proper conditions, but their average life expectancy is 2 years. If you’re planning to wait for them to die off instead of acting on their population, you should be prepared for at least two years. On the other hand, if you intend for them to live long, you must ensure that you provide their necessities in terms of diet and environment so that they can grow strong and healthy.

Will My Assassin Snails Eat My Other Snails?

Assassin snails are carnivorous hunters, so they WILL eat your other snails. If you’re hoping they can coexist, sadly, they’re not wired to live with potential prey. Even when you provide them with alternative food, they can choose to hunt down and kill your colorful mystery or ramshorn snail and feed on it instead. I simply do not recommend taking any chances with assassin snails especially if you care for your algae-eating pets.