Is It Normal For Assassins To Bury Themselves Into The Sand For Ages?

[elisew]

I got 4 Assassin snails a few weeks ago, they were really active until about a week ago, when I say active I mean all over the tank and even giving each other piggy back rides
Over the last week or so I`ve noticed while cleaning the sand in the shrimp tank that they`re in, 3 of them seem to have buried themselves quite deep into the sand, the other 1 is still quite active so I`ve put him into my other shrimp tank now.

Is it normal for them to bury themselves?

 

[kiriyama]

Yeah, it's perfectly normal, they will eat for a while then sort of hibernate for a bit, you might get a fright one day and find you have more than 4 in the tank lol

 

[elisew]

Thanks kiriyama, at least I now know it`s 'normal' for them to disappear for a while.

The way they`ve previously been 'going at it' with each other, babies would not surprise me in the slightest

 

[kiriyama]

Thanks kiriyama, at least I now know it`s 'normal' for them to disappear for a while.

The way they`ve previously been 'going at it' with each other, babies would not surprise me in the slightest

I stripped the tank down the other week (to much rockwork), I found tons of babies on the lace rock and slate, the next few days I would examine the basin and more had falen out of all the nooks and crannies,I just chucked them in the tank, once the metabolism had warmed up so to speak away they went, cool looking wee things

 

[elisew]

Thanks kiriyama, at least I now know it`s 'normal' for them to disappear for a while.

The way they`ve previously been 'going at it' with each other, babies would not surprise me in the slightest

I stripped the tank down the other week (to much rockwork), I found tons of babies on the lace rock and slate, the next few days I would examine the basin and more had falen out of all the nooks and crannies,I just chucked them in the tank, once the metabolism had warmed up so to speak away they went, cool looking wee things

Cool!!

I do have baby snails on the walls of the tank at the moment but I think they`re baby pest snails, they have rounder shells than I would expect to see on Assassin babies

I just wish the Assassins would get their backsides into gear, unbury themselves and sort out the pest snails (if that`s what they are)

I`d be pretty happy at Assassin babies though

 

[mbsqw1d]

elisew i think you got some the same time I got mine (Rickster23 was selling some) about 2 months ago. I got just 2 in my 125 litre. they were roughly 2-3mm big when I got them.

I popped them straight in and never saw them again! I was a bit gutted at first thinking they may have died. Only now have I seen them 'crawling' up and down the front glass! And theyre so much bigger Only they know what lurks beneath the sand maybe lots of tasty grub

 

[kiriyama]

elisew i think you got some the same time I got mine (Rickster23 was selling some) about 2 months ago. I got just 2 in my 125 litre. they were roughly 2-3mm big when I got them.

I popped them straight in and never saw them again! I was a bit gutted at first thinking they may have died. Only now have I seen them 'crawling' up and down the front glass! And theyre so much bigger Only they know what lurks beneath the sand maybe lots of tasty grub

they eat a lot of leftovers, you should see what they do when there's frozen bloodworm or brine shrimp in the tank

 

[mbsqw1d]

they eat a lot of leftovers, you should see what they do when there's frozen bloodworm or brine shrimp in the tank

OH! yesyerday when i saw them both was just after id fed frozen brine shrimp! cool

 

[saltynay]

It takes about 5 months for assassins to breed so your not going to wake up one day to a ton of them. They hibernate after a large meal for 3 days usually however should be seen actively hunting every day if only small snails are available they eat mainly in mornings and evenings when light levels are low.

 

[the_lock_man]

I do have baby snails on the walls of the tank at the moment but I think they`re baby pest snails, they have rounder shells than I would expect to see on Assassin babies

If they were baby assassins, you'd recognise them straight away - their shells have the same style stripes as the adults.

 

[elisew]

Thanks for the replies

Well I`ve had a bit of a change around with the 2 shrimp tanks in the living room and I eventually found some of the snails under the sand. One had in fact died, the others started mooching around the tanks when put moved so I know they`re ok. I`ve since bought 3 more Assassins so there`s a few mooching around now, I would say that out of the 6 I have left, 4 of them are out and about most of the time, 2 just bury themselves for days at a time......not sure that they have a big meal as the greedy shrimps seem to eat whatever food goes into the tank. I add a couple of decent sized flakes or half of a small algae wafer every other day so they`re not being fed loads, far from it really.

No Assassin babies yet but I can hope