Assassin Snail Babys

[lisaw]

i bought 5 assassin snails to deal with my pest snails which they did they went through them in no time

i have noticed today that i have now been overtaken with baby assassins lol im not worried about it as ill probebly sell them, but what i want to know is if the adult assassins will eat the babies ???

thanks in advance

 

[saltynay]

They don't cannibalise unless another assassin is near death from illness or death. I highly doubt you are inundated with assassin snails they lay 1 egg per day and the babies then burrow into the sand and won't emerge much for six weeks living off micro-organisms in the substrate. Are you sure they are not MTS or DTS, they have a similar shell shape and breed rapidly but aren't very palatable for assassins, they could quickly overpopulate a tank with little competition.

Assassins are an awful way to get rid of a snail problem they eat very few, they need to be directly fed after they have depleted the snails and they prefer excess fish food over snails to eat. They are good to control populations not to eradicate them.

 

[lisaw]

They don't cannibalise unless another assassin is near death from illness or death. I highly doubt you are inundated with assassin snails they lay 1 egg per day and the babies then burrow into the sand and won't emerge much for six weeks living off micro-organisms in the substrate. Are you sure they are not MTS or DTS, they have a similar shell shape and breed rapidly but aren't very palatable for assassins, they could quickly overpopulate a tank with little competition.

Assassins are an awful way to get rid of a snail problem they eat very few, they need to be directly fed after they have depleted the snails and they prefer excess fish food over snails to eat. They are good to control populations not to eradicate them.

mine must be special then cos they have totally eaten every pest snail in my tank, it is littered with emtpy shells so i know im not imagining it ;-)

and the babys are exactly the same as the assassins in shell shape and colour and again i am not imagining the amount in the tank ;-)

 

[saltynay]

What pest snail did you have in the tank? What substrate?

 

[thefubar]

I've had a similar experience to lisaw. 10 Assassins have cleared the snails i have in my tank. I just need to let them loose on my filter now

I also have eggs, but i con't see they have laid one a day, there are quite a number. How long before they hatch and head for the sand?

 

[Amerce]

I've got the same problem, I was wondering who was laying those eggs as I can't find the image on the web.

Same eggs have appeared on plants and side of my smaller tank (got around 3 adult snails in that tank).

From what I have read it could take months before you actually see young snails in the main tank as the babies bury themselves in the gravel/soil and when big enough will emerge and should be safe from the adults at that stage.