Assassin Snails Question.

[PrairieSunflower]

I love assassin snails. I've, so far, bought them off 3 different ebay sellers. But, I am having a problem with some of them... as in... they died within 2 months. So, I'm wondering what is the life expectancy of a snail... I am sure it has to be longer than 2 months! Not all of them died.. but I'd say half of them did.

I just received a new batch from a different seller this morning... and I have to say, I'm already seeing a difference in these. None were hiding, they were crawling around the container when I opened it and none of them hid when they got introduced to the tank.... all previous ones from other sellers were jammed in their shells and took up to 24 hours to come out.

Just wondering what other people's experiences are.

 

[UKSPEED]

Do they snails get any food? Any pest snails for them to eat? Perhaps it's malnutrition. I've had my original 6 for 2 years.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I have plenty of pest snails for sure! I do get evidence that some pest snails are being eaten as the empty shells get sucked up during a gravel cleaning... and there are plenty more. So, surely they must be eating enough.

I did recently medicate one tank and I would have blamed that for one or two deaths... but a few died in my other tank too and there was no medication there.

Do you feed something to yours on top of pest snails or random flakes they might get?

 

[UKSPEED]

They've eradicated my pest snails. I haven't seen one for about a year. They just scavenge now. I've seeen them nibbling on sinking algae wafers too.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

My pest snails seem to drop in numbers but before they are gone some of my assassins die and then I no longer have enough to keep things under control and more pests start appearing.

 

[UKSPEED]

If your pest snails are a real problem, perhaps you are over-feeding?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

You'll never guess what! I just spotted 3 baby assassins! Maybe maximum of 2mm big (thereabouts!) with the stripes and everything!

Way happy now!

Here is one of them.

Oh, and about overfeeding... that could be... thing is I often have guppy fry and feed them that powdered food... hard to portion that one out right.

 

[UKSPEED]

Nice

I'd try cutting your feeding slightly, you may find it makes a difference.

 

[Animal Lover 2000]

aoaoaooaow its so cute i want some babies from my 2 does there have 2 be a boy and a girl or doesnt it mater