Ooo The Temptation

[Baccus]

Of late I have been so tempted to get another critter for my tanks, a little Australian Native micro crab that doesnt require any land, breeds in fresh water and best of all is shrimp and fish safe. The only down side to them is they are avid eaters of snails. Normally this would be a huge bonus for me and I would have these snails blissfully clearing out my ramshorns, MTS and pond snails, but alas I have one snail species I dont want to risk my Notopala snails.
Apparently the micro crabs will mamage to get into any snail shell no matter how big the snail is even if it has a hard trapdoor like the MTS. So for now I guess I will have to admire these fascinating little snails from afar. But for anyone else in Australia who has snail issues and bemoans the fact that we cant get assassin snails, perhaps these little micro crabs are an viable option.

 

[thrujenseyes]

Of late I have been so tempted to get another critter for my tanks, a little Australian Native micro crab that doesnt require any land, breeds in fresh water and best of all is shrimp and fish safe. The only down side to them is they are avid eaters of snails. Normally this would be a huge bonus for me and I would have these snails blissfully clearing out my ramshorns, MTS and pond snails, but alas I have one snail species I dont want to risk my Notopala snails.
Apparently the micro crabs will mamage to get into any snail shell no matter how big the snail is even if it has a hard trapdoor like the MTS. So for now I guess I will have to admire these fascinating little snails from afar. But for anyone else in Australia who has snail issues and bemoans the fact that we cant get assassin snails, perhaps these little micro crabs are an viable option.

why can't you get assassin snails in Australia?

 

[Ch4rlie]

why can't you get assassin snails in Australia?

 
Austrailia has extremely complex and stringent laws on native wildlife and fauna as well as imports of ANY live creatures.
 
This makes it VERY difficult to obtain a lot of common fish, snails and inverts that we can get in the UK and USA etc but in Aussie not so much, either simply prohibited  or at best lots of paperwork involved and stupidly expensive in many cases.
 
The simple fact if you are caught with ANY banned creatures or do not have any proven paperwork and quarantines etc mean you risk losing the entire tank/s stocking regardless.
 
Main reason for these banned imports is simply mostly to do with invasiness if released into the wild, this can have HUGE consenquences on Australia's wildlife and fauna.
 
Not a risk worth taking.

 

[thrujenseyes]

 

why can't you get assassin snails in Australia?

 
Austrailia has extremely complex and stringent laws on native wildlife and fauna as well as imports of ANY live creatures.
 
This makes it VERY difficult to obtain a lot of common fish, snails and inverts that we can get in the UK and USA etc but in Aussie not so much, either simply prohibited  or at best lots of paperwork involved and stupidly expensive in many cases.
 
The simple fact if you are caught with ANY banned creatures or do not have any proven paperwork and quarantines etc mean you risk losing the entire tank/s stocking regardless.
 
Main reason for these banned imports is simply mostly to do with invasiness if released into the wild, this can have HUGE consenquences on Australia's wildlife and fauna.
 
Not a risk worth taking.
 

I see!  That's actually a very very good reason!  Which is why your homeland is so magnificent.  We do have many idiots that release all sorts of things into the wild here and wind up with problems.  I can't tell you how many times we hear of alligators in lakes and such ... I'm in south Jersey United States.  We are NOT suppose to have them here!  Also they won't survive our winters so it's not only foolish, it's cruel.  
Also in the last few years we've been having coyotes in our back yards, which were not native to our lands originally.  I heard thru the grape vine that some farmers brought them in to "take care" of the deer population.  And now they're causing issues attacking family pets (as they're very bold and sneaky).  Not fish related, but I get what you're saying.

 

[Baccus]

Ch4rlie nailed it, many things are simply just not allowed into Australia. Some are because of the invasivness of the plants or animals and the potential to decimate our native habitats. Other reasons are the impact that imported plants or animals could have on our primary producers, just look at the problems the UK has had with the release of American Signal Crays into their waterways with the UK's native white claw crays being almost wiped out from disease. In Australia Red Claw farming is worth millions and the risk of a similar disease getting into our waterways is not worth the risk no matter how cute the little Mexican self cloning crays are.
Also Australia is one of the few countries that is Foot and Mouth and rabies free which is a HUGE environmental and economic benefit, and the only way we have kept Australia free of these diseases is strict quarantine laws.
 
I have heard of people having assassin snails in Australia but they have been smuggled in illegally much the same way that the original cherry shrimp got into the country. Its a bit of a grey area the true owning of Red Cherry Shrimp they are not technically not supposed to be here, but they are that wide spread now in so many tanks across Australia that its all but impossible to find out who the original smugglers where.
 
I may at times bemoan the fact that there are so many plants and animals I can not have where I am, but at the same time Queensland is a lot more lenient then Western Australia and even the Northen Territory.
 
On a different note, I am surprised that people "introduced" coyotes to control deer. Surely deer are too big a prey item for coyotes, that is one of the reasons they re-introduced wolves into Yellowstone. Coyotes where not a large enough primary predator to keep deer and elk numbers in check, but without wolves keeping the coyotes in check (along with coyotes smaller food sources) the coyotes bred up and put too much pressure on their usual smaller prey items. When the wolves first got released into Yellowstone they went on a coyote killing spree and returned the balance. One day hopefully humans will stop meddling and let nature follow the patterns and cycles that evolved across all of nature. When I say stop meddling I don't mean to stop cleaning polluted environments and re-introducing the original inhabitants (if they still exist) or trying to save critically endangered plants and animals that are only in such a position because of mans meddling, but rather stop killing off say wolves to " increase the human hunting quota for deer/elk/moose".

 

[thrujenseyes]

On a different note, I am surprised that people "introduced" coyotes to control deer. Surely deer are too big a prey item for coyotes, that is one of the reasons they re-introduced wolves into Yellowstone. Coyotes where not a large enough primary predator to keep deer and elk numbers in check, but without wolves keeping the coyotes in check (along with coyotes smaller food sources) the coyotes bred up and put too much pressure on their usual smaller prey items. When the wolves first got released into Yellowstone they went on a coyote killing spree and returned the balance. One day hopefully humans will stop meddling and let nature follow the patterns and cycles that evolved across all of nature. When I say stop meddling I don't mean to stop cleaning polluted environments and re-introducing the original inhabitants (if they still exist) or trying to save critically endangered plants and animals that are only in such a position because of mans meddling, but rather stop killing off say wolves to " increase the human hunting quota for deer/elk/moose".
 
I agree that it sounds like a ridiculous plan (as of course most "lets bring in this to kill this" plans) but these coyotes are very large and they hunt in packs so yes, they are easily taking out deer along with (like I said) family pets including large dogs.  We just had an attack last week on a 55lb pit bull mix.  It was only two coyotes and one was very small still but they were stalking the owner and his dog as they walked thru a trail and when the dog was ahead just enough they pounced and the owner (a grown man) had to fight them off...even still they kept coming.  The dog was critical but is ok now after a long surgery.  
 
We came across one in our neighborhood while walking one of our dobermans (on a leash always) and we just froze.  Luckily Farley followed our lead and sat at our feet and was still and silent (which never happens but I think he felt this was not a normal dog).  The coyote was the size of a german shepard and was maybe 15 - 20 feet in front of us.  He crossed the street locking eyes with us, never breaking gaze.  
It was absolutely amazing and a little terrifying.
 
I'm very sad for them and for our area that is out of whack because of human stupidity.

 

[thrujenseyes]

I "quoted" that wrong up there...sorry.  I just can never seem to get the hang of the quote reply.