Ramshorn Snails As Assassin Snail Food - Have I Made A Mistake?
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I have to say that once the assassin snails breed you will be really excited about it. The young are just like the adults, tiny little yellow and black snails. They hide really well, then you get a glimpse of yellow and it's really cool.
When I put the assassin pair in the 60L tank they seemed to be "smooching" almost immediately.
Will have to investigate their breeding habits as I'm totally unaware of what happens.
I believe the RH snails are hermaphrodite which explains why they are so prolific!
Am wondering whether to set up a RH snail only tank and pop 1 or 2 every so often into the fish tanks with the assassins.
Look out Google here I come!
Will have to investigate their breeding habits as I'm totally unaware of what happens.
I believe the RH snails are hermaphrodite which explains why they are so prolific!
Am wondering whether to set up a RH snail only tank and pop 1 or 2 every so often into the fish tanks with the assassins.
Look out Google here I come!
Assassin do breed, but only if there is a pair, and only one egg is laid at a time.
They cannot reproduce on own like some snails can.
Here is a pic of an assassin snail egg from my tank, and yes, its a SQUARE egg! Well, a square transparent pouch with a yellow egg inside.
Once eggs are hatched, the tiny assassins will quickly hide, usually in the substrate and you won't really see them until they grow a little larger.
But fascinating to see these eggs and TINY assassins, although assassin will only really reproduce when they are happy in an established tank, it took a few months before i saw the first eggs in my tank.
Very best of luck with this, and DO write a journal about this if you want to, I for one, would truly be fascinated to see how you get on
BTW - they do 'smooch' for days at a time!!
They cannot reproduce on own like some snails can.
Here is a pic of an assassin snail egg from my tank, and yes, its a SQUARE egg! Well, a square transparent pouch with a yellow egg inside.
Once eggs are hatched, the tiny assassins will quickly hide, usually in the substrate and you won't really see them until they grow a little larger.
But fascinating to see these eggs and TINY assassins, although assassin will only really reproduce when they are happy in an established tank, it took a few months before i saw the first eggs in my tank.
Very best of luck with this, and DO write a journal about this if you want to, I for one, would truly be fascinated to see how you get on
BTW - they do 'smooch' for days at a time!!
Oh wow! Thanks for the assassin egg picture I wouldn't have known what to look for!
The tank is well established but this pair haven't been in there that long really only 3-4 weeks so I'll keep an eye out for egg pouch/es. They've got rid of the common snails (either that or they've gone into hiding to avoid the assassins!)
The lights are currently off in the tanks but when they come back on later I'll have a good look and see what's happened to the new additions.
The tank is well established but this pair haven't been in there that long really only 3-4 weeks so I'll keep an eye out for egg pouch/es. They've got rid of the common snails (either that or they've gone into hiding to avoid the assassins!)
The lights are currently off in the tanks but when they come back on later I'll have a good look and see what's happened to the new additions.
They probably will, nightsun!nightsun said:
I had to do a 3-day blackout for BGA so no light and no food and the platies were all fine afterwards. They grazed on other algae around the tank and on plants so that might be a good idea.
UPDATE: Both tanks seem to be coping with the Ramshorn (RHS) added 2 days ago - water parameters haven't changed apart from nitrAtes which have risen from 5 to 10-25 ppm (Salifert tests) due to adding NPK ferts (APF brand) There are a few RHS visible tho no empty shells that I've spotted as yet so they are probably in hiding or the assassins were so hungry they've eaten the shells too or they've blended in with the gravel!
I got the algae wafers yesterday and added the first ones this morning. They are HUGE so I think I'll have to break them up a bit. In the smaller tank the shrimp had a feast for about 5 mins then abandoned the wafer whereas in the larger tank the platies were hogging the wafer and pushing the shrimp out the way and no snails attempted to eat either tho to be fair I removed the wafer from both tanks after about 10 mins.
Am still contemplating starting a snail tank but I'll wait and see what happens over the next few weeks re RHS population.
EDIT: Changed wafers plural to wafer singular
I got the algae wafers yesterday and added the first ones this morning. They are HUGE so I think I'll have to break them up a bit. In the smaller tank the shrimp had a feast for about 5 mins then abandoned the wafer whereas in the larger tank the platies were hogging the wafer and pushing the shrimp out the way and no snails attempted to eat either tho to be fair I removed the wafer from both tanks after about 10 mins.
Am still contemplating starting a snail tank but I'll wait and see what happens over the next few weeks re RHS population.
EDIT: Changed wafers plural to wafer singular
Well I've got a micro tank that I'm in the process of cycling and I'm thinking it would make a good snail tank since it's too wee for any fish (at 11.5 L actual water maybe a single male betta but to be honest I feel it's just too small for fish)
It's not going as expected in that the water test results aren't following the expected path!
If you are interested here's the thread link:
http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/432894-12l-micro-tank/
It's not going as expected in that the water test results aren't following the expected path!
If you are interested here's the thread link:
http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/432894-12l-micro-tank/The assassins seem to have gone to ground after a really good feast - there's a single RH snail ventured out in the small tank and a couple visible in the larger tank. Haven't seen any empty snail shells yet so I'm assuming they are in hiding. Or they are camouflaged against the gravel!
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