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Pretty sure my assassins have bred… don’t know much about them

Magnum Man

Magnum Man

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Seeing these little guys this morning… these are at best, 1/4 the size of the 2 that I put in this tank 4-5 months ago… still a lot of pond snails in the tank for them to eat… 1st picture includes the tail of a mature albino Cory for size comparison
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Seeing lots of them this morning… looks like the African tank is going to be a snail battle zone over the next couple months… maybe should move my big white mystery snail out so he doesn’t become collateral damage… probably my zebra nerite snails as well??? any idea how many babies they have at a time??? Are they male and female, and don’t charge sex as needed??? Surprised that I only added 2 and got lucky??? enough to get a pair… a couple from church have a 70 gallon, and they started breeding in their tank… they have sold 400- 500 over the last year, to a big fish shop 100 miles away
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Reading on the www. They lay one egg at a time, not a mass… it was unsaid, but I assume in batches, as all the babies I’m seeing are roughly the same size… ok I take that back, I’m seeing 2 right now
, and one is half the size of the other

But still assuming they lay in batches, sounds like they take a couple months to hatch, and spend a good amount of time in / under the substrate… would be nice to know how big the batches are, as I have no idea how many there are… they have bigger feet than the pond snails… this baby with it’s tube out… don’t think that’s the mouth???
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They aren’t very aggressive hunters at this point… they must literally have to bump into another snail… these 2 passed with in a 1/2 inch of each other, with no contact
IMG_4705.jpeg
 
Assassins don't usually breed quickly or overpopulate, but they will breed. Expect your pond snails to gradually disappear. Not sure if they'll go after a mystery snail; they seem to prefer smaller prey IME. But I would move out the nerites if you want to keep them.
 
They don't over populate?
assassinbanquet1.jpg

Are you sure. I started with 15 - acquired as 10 and 5. They started in my 45 gal. planted community tank.
assassinbanquet2.jpg


Since then I have spread them across about 8 or 9 tank. I have sold 100s. At every monthly meeting of my fish club I usually bring from 26 to 36 to sell at the regular auction at the end of each meeting.

They like to go down into the substrate and like sand especially. The young go to ground after they hatch and stay there for about 6 months. They are less likely to be prey for something and can grow well hidden.

I just shut down my 125 gal. tank. I had to re-home about 50 assassins. I am sure I missed some in the sand I have only begun to remove. I turned it over a bunch, unearthing snails, but I never manage to get them all.

Incidentally, they are all piled up on Hikari Algae Wafers in the pics above. The plants are vals.
 
TwoTankAmin said:
They don't over populate?
View attachment 334219
Are you sure. I started with 15 - acquired as 10 and 5. They started in my 45 gal. planted community tank.
View attachment 334220

Since then I have spread them across about 8 or 9 tank. I have sold 100s. At every monthly meeting of my fish club I usually bring from 26 to 36 to sell at the regular auction at the end of each meeting.

They like to go down into the substrate and like sand especially. The young go to ground after they hatch and stay there for about 6 months. They are less likely to be prey for something and can grow well hidden.

I just shut down my 125 gal. tank. I had to re-home about 50 assassins. I am sure I missed some in the sand I have only begun to remove. I turned it over a bunch, unearthing snails, but I never manage to get them all.

Incidentally, they are all piled up on Hikari Algae Wafers in the pics above. The plants are vals.
Click to expand...
Wow, that is an impressive collection! I've never had them go crazy like that.
 
The couple from church had them go crazy in their 70 gallon… in reading on the www. It sounds like there are a few actual varieties, maybe some are more prolific???
 
Assassins were the bane of my life, and led me ultimately to tear down my tank and start afresh.

I started with just 3 in a 60L tank, over a year they bred so prolifically that they were everywhere. When I tore down my tank, I had already cleared out several times, but I sold about 60 to the local fish shop. They ganged up on any nerites I put in there and took them out, so I ended up with algal issues that I couldn't control.

I wouldn't have them in the tank now. Scrupulous pond snail control prior to adding any plants is how I deal with that situation now.
 
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