Assassin Snail

Originally from Southeast Asia, particularly rivers and streams across Thailand, Malaysia, and surrounding regions, Clea helena has earned a permanent spot in the hobby as the go-to biological solution for pest snail outbreaks. That distinctive conical shell banded in yellow and brown makes them surprisingly attractive for something marketed mainly as a hitman. They're small, reaching about 2.5 cm at most, but don't let the size fool you.

Care is genuinely straightforward. They need stable water that leans toward neutral to slightly alkaline, and hard water is more than just a preference since soft water will slowly erode and pit the shell over time. Temperature tolerance is decent, somewhere in the 21 to 27 Celsius range, and they'll thrive in any well-maintained community setup that isn't overly acidic.

Diet is where they shine. They hunt other snails by tracking mucus trails, ambushing them, and using a long proboscis to extract the soft body from the shell. Between hunts, they'll happily scavenge on sinking wafers, dead fish, and any meaty scraps that reach the substrate. If the pest snail population gets wiped out, supplemental feeding with protein-heavy sinking foods keeps them healthy.

They're peaceful toward fish and most invertebrates their own size, though dwarf shrimp are a different story. In planted tanks they're excellent, causing zero damage to live plants while patrolling the substrate and thinning out bladder snail and ramshorn populations. They also breed in captivity, laying small capsule-shaped eggs that hatch into tiny snails, so a colony can establish itself if conditions are good.