Anentome helena

Anentome helena is native to Southeast Asia, where it lives at shallow depths in clear waters of Indonesia and Thailand. The snail is very beautiful and in addition serves as a good tool to combat the overpopulation of other species of small snails in the aquarium, for which it is nicknamed as a killer snail. Snail has interesting habits, easy to keep and can be recommended for keeping novice aquarists.
Anentome helena has an attractive black and amber coloration, with contrasting stripes on the shell. The head of the snail is in the shape of a trunk. The entire body of the mollusk is dotted with dark dots. The snail also has a lamellar lid which it closes the entrance to the shell in case of danger. Snails are different sexes, but there are no external signs by which you can distinguish them. In aquarium conditions, the size of the snail reaches 17 mm.
Anentome helena has an active lifestyle, moving relatively quickly throughout the aquarium. It is the ability to move quickly, compared to other species of snails, allows it to catch up and destroy small snails that reproduce in the aquarium at high speed and cause damage to plants by gnawing holes in their leaves. Of course, we must keep in mind that Anentome helena will hunt and melaniums, which do not harm plants, but only loosen the soil and eat uneaten food from the ground. Therefore, when populating your aquarium helena should be clear about what you want to achieve. If your aquarium contains large snails, for example, such as ampularia or spawn, then, of course, Anentome helena will not do them any harm. It is interesting to watch how Anentome helena stalks its potential victim and literally pounces on it completely sucked out of the shell.
Water parameters should be as follows: the temperature can be within 20-30 ° C, but still optimal is 22-26° C, hardness dH 4-28°, acidity pH 6,2-8,5. As a ground in the aquarium it is desirable to use sand or fine gravel.
Anentome helena feeds on animal food. Their food is melaniums, coil snails and other small mollusks. They will not refuse and shrimp, which during the period of molting loses its shell and becomes defenseless against helena, although this happens very rarely, because the shrimp move very quickly and catch up with them snail of course can not. If there are no other snails in the aquarium serving as food for Anentome helena, they can be fed artemia, daphnia, as well as finely chopped pieces of protein of boiled chicken eggs.
Reproduction
Anentome helena become sexually mature when they reach a size of about 10 mm. They usually reach this size by 6 months of age.
Spawning occurs in fresh water. Their eggs are laid on various decorative elements in the aquarium (snags, rocks, etc.). The female lays 1 egg enclosed in a square-shaped shell with sides of about 1 mm. Incubation period is, depending on water temperature, about 3-4 weeks. Immediately after birth, tiny snails burrow into the soil and if there is food in it can stay there for a long time.
It should be said that one pair of Anentome helena, under favorable conditions, can bring offspring up to 300 individuals.
Life expectancy of Anentome helena in aquarium conditions is about 3-4 years.