Assassin "Anentome Helena" Question

Hollygirl

Hollygirl

Overfilter and Understock
Sep 3, 2007
2,681
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Chicago, Illinois
Now that there are more of us who are keeping this fascinating snail, has anyone noticed their "Assassins" preferring one type of snail over another? I'm keeping mine in a 6 gallon until they grow a bit more, and I had several types of pond snails in the tank with them. I've noticed that mine prefer the ramshorns, and there are hardly any ramshorns left in the tank. I still have a lot of the brown pond snails, and they don't seem to go near those pearly shelled snails. I had one MTS who never reproduced and it was toast.
 
I have the same scenario going on in my tank. I'd assume the Assassins would attack whichever snail is easier to take down. Ramshorns don't have a operculum and are very slow, so they'd make easy targets. Pond Snails (or mine at least) are fast enough to run circles around Assassins, so their population haven't been dented yet.
 
^ agreed. I had a good sized population of RH snails that got decimated. After they were gone, the assassins started going after the MTS, which is fine by me. There's still a good number left and I have a snail "farm" going on in my backyard.
 
I order of preference for lunch:

Ramshorns
True Pond Snails
MTS
Bladder Snails (What most people call pond snails)

I have not kept them with snails from there native hunting grounds yet but I think they would fall into the MTS range since their shell is about the same.
 
jeez i never knew there was a difference between the pond snail and the bladder snail. Kinda irks me that I've been calling bladder snails pond snails all this time. A quick google search of 'bladder snail' is straightening it all out though.
 
My assassin snails devoured all of my pond and ramshorn snails when they finally acclimated to my water. Took a while until they get on beastly.
 
pik01 said:
jeez i never knew there was a difference between the pond snail and the bladder snail. Kinda irks me that I've been calling bladder snails pond snails all this time. A quick google search of 'bladder snail' is straightening it all out though.
Click to expand...

A lot of people don't they are so closely related. The easiest way to tell is the Pond Snail's point on his shell is a little longer and pointer. Also the pond snails shell is usually all one color where the Bladder snail has a more splotchy pattern.

I may shoot for some pictures for comparsion as soon as my Pond's get big enough. I wasn't watching and the Assassins almost wiped them out to the last man.:)
 
ah, i have noticed the splotchy pattern in the jar that has pond/bladder snails
 
Are you looking to purchase Assassin snails? (Anentome helena). Try msjinkzd or flaringshutter two of the mods here at AC, as well as the Classifieds here at AC as well.
 
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