General assassin snail breeding

[fish wrangler]

I'm making this so that anyone who does or wants to breed assassin snails has somewhere to come for info.

My set up for breeding is a 10 gallon tank for the adults, and a 20 gallon long for the eggs to hatch in/babies to grow out. Both of these tanks have play sand, are heated (10 gal is 78* 20L is 81*), and have a filter.
I have found the snails seem to lay most of their eggs on decor like fake rock caves and fake logs, so I just take out a piece thats covered in eggs and add it to the 20L.
I currently have 5 adults and ~6 juveniles, 2 if the adults are ones I bred.

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[Autumnsky]

So far one voracious Assassin Snail - AS, only and since you need a pair to mate, I don't think I could support enough for several AS.

I had one come to my tank as an egg or like a grain of sand size, accidently from a friend once before but I think it may not have had enough to eat (it died), though I understand they eat meaty based fish foods too which it would have had enough.

What do you feed yours? Anything other than snails?

The one I have presently ate all the snails in the 3G tank and I had to add some more for him.

AS are beautiful snails. I love snails!

 

[brennae]

Somehow I have some in one of my tanks. I'm thinking eggs came in on some plants. I went away for 6 weeks and when I came back I noticed 3 or 4 of them. My tank is over run with pond snails as my stand-in over feeds like mad so I went and bought an adult. They can't keep up with the pond snails. I'm still picking them out of the tank. I think they are pretty also and neat to have in a tank.

 

[fish wrangler]

So far one voracious Assassin Snail - AS, only and since you need a pair to mate, I don't think I could support enough for several AS.

I had one come to my tank as an egg or like a grain of sand size, accidently from a friend once before but I think it may not have had enough to eat (it died), though I understand they eat meaty based fish foods too which it would have had enough.

What do you feed yours? Anything other than snails?

The one I have presently ate all the snails in the 3G tank and I had to add some more for him.

AS are beautiful snails. I love snails!

I started with just one, and I think as long as it mated before you buy it there is a good chance you'll end up with eggs. Its having a tank of all female guppies and ending up with fry.

Right now I try and feed mine pond snails I have to culture in a small bin, but I also feed them Omega One Shrimp pellets. I found they eat these after feeding them to some loaches I had in quarantine, the QT is the snail grow out tank.

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[fish wrangler]

For those who want to separate the adults and young look for little 1mm snails with 2 black lines. I found 4 that look like that this morning in my 10 gallon.

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[Minato]

For those trumpet snails is the best food for them, they are livebearers and reproduce like rabbits


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[fish wrangler]

For those trumpet snails is the best food for them, they are livebearers and reproduce like rabbits


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For the new born babies? I think I have ~18 new borns floating now.

Anyone else having success with breeding?

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[Minato]

Well neborn trumpets are not more than half a millimetre, but assassin snails eat anything from derbys but they much on snails but mine eat algae and everything never had a problem, I brought 2 many years ago forgotten about them brought dozen apple snails and always wondered why they keep on dying ahahahahhaha now both are dead it's been like 4-5 years since I brought them 2cm size

 

[missmonday]

Has anyone done any sort of experimentation to see what other commercialized/prepared fish foods they eat? I have a few unwanted pond/bladder snails and I figure getting a single assassin would help, but I wouldn't want it to starve :c

 

[Minato]

Has anyone done any sort of experimentation to see what other commercialized/prepared fish foods they eat? I have a few unwanted pond/bladder snails and I figure getting a single assassin would help, but I wouldn't want it to starve :c

They won't be starving at all all species of snails eat leftovers of food, algae or anything they find appetising but mainly they love to munch on snails if any present otherwise mine lived over 2 years with no other snails in

 

[fish wrangler]

+1 like I have said earlier mine love Omega One Shrimp pellets

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[Autumnsky]

Hikari omnivore bottom feeder sinking wafers with the orange color package. Or Hikari Crab or Shrimp Cuisine.

 

[Firelily]

I had a bit of a snail graveyard of shells thanks to my two assasins, However when I was tidying the tank up a bit to my delight I found the cutest surprise, see if you can spot my new assassin sqwee...

 

[cebalrai]

I was actually coming here to make a thread about assassin snail breeding and saw this thread going. I too have the bleached snail graveyard... the thing is, I have too many assassin snails now (or do I?).

I started off with a pair that stayed just a pair for six months or so. I figured they just wouldn't breed and they couldn't really keep up witht he malasian trumpets, ramshorns, and pond snails. So then I got a third assassin snail on a whim.

Two months later I have an assassin snail boom. I just culled seven of the babies and I probably still have ten more in there (that I can see), plus however many are hiding, plus the three large adults. My aquarium is littered with empty shells. I havent seen ramshorn or pond snails in a while and I only see Malaysians in the morning for a brief while when I turn on the lights.

My concern now is that they'll completely wipe out all the snails in my tank and I'll be left with heaps of assassins with nothing to eat. Is this something to worry about? Or will they sort of keep themselves in check?

 

[fish wrangler]

I was actually coming here to make a thread about assassin snail breeding and saw this thread going. I too have the bleached snail graveyard... the thing is, I have too many assassin snails now (or do I?).

I started off with a pair that stayed just a pair for six months or so. I figured they just wouldn't breed and they couldn't really keep up witht he malasian trumpets, ramshorns, and pond snails. So then I got a third assassin snail on a whim.

Two months later I have an assassin snail boom. I just culled seven of the babies and I probably still have ten more in there (that I can see), plus however many are hiding, plus the three large adults. My aquarium is littered with empty shells. I havent seen ramshorn or pond snails in a while and I only see Malaysians in the morning for a brief while when I turn on the lights.

My concern now is that they'll completely wipe out all the snails in my tank and I'll be left with heaps of assassins with nothing to eat. Is this something to worry about? Or will they sort of keep themselves in check?

It takes a while for assassin snail eggs to hatch so your first pair may have bred, but you never noticed the eggs. I believe it takes ~3 months for the eggs to hatch and another month before you might notice the babies.
Feed them Omega One Shrimp Pellets. I trade the adults to my lfs fit store credit and let's the babies grow up to trade when they grow up
If I just fed snails I would run out of food for them.

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[Firelily]

Hi Cebalrai, Nice to hear from you. it is possible they might cannibalise their own species. Most species tend not to but sometimes it can happen. The options you have is to feed them so that means trail and error with certain sinking wafers designed for bottom dwelling catfish with a high protein. They will eat tank carrion (this can lead to ammonia spikes) and I have known them to try and hunt down faster prey and they will try (Unfortunately I found out the hard way one had managed to hunt down a berried cherry shrimp). You could see as it is most likely an apex predator in this case for assassin snails they will be controlled by their prey in other words nothing to eat eventually means they will die out. The last option if you do want to breed them or keep them in your tank is to breed a smaller tank just for pond/bladder/Malaysian/rams ect and drop them in at interval but this can contribute to a re-infestation of the very snails you were trying to get rid of in the first place. Or if you have a friend who has a snail infested tank pass them on. You could try selling them but most pet shops either already have them and don't want any more/decline flat out or offer to take them for free which means they get something for nothing having said that a pet shop might barter but this is rare and generally you have to know them really well and you still might not get much in return. The last option is some fish like crushed snails and not many people like trying this because it is squishy/crunchy and kinda gross even if their fish like it. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[cebalrai]

Thanks for the responses.

The problem with feeding them is that my tank has Cherry Shrinp, Amanos, White Clouds, and Rummynoses who attack any sinking food I use. The assassins would never see it.

 

[fish wrangler]

Thanks for the responses.

The problem with feeding them is that my tank has Cherry Shrinp, Amanos, White Clouds, and Rummynoses who attack any sinking food I use. The assassins would never see it.

Try feeding the shrimp and fish on one side of the tank, and drop the pellets for the assassins on the opposite side. Not a 100% guarantee but it might help

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[Autumnsky]

A chunk of sinking bottom feeder wafer. Try not to get them with wheat and corn meal stuff as the first ingredients. Some of those are pure junk, some are okay nd some are really good NLS is pretty good brand. There are better. I use Hikari as a basic food because it won't cloud up the tank. There are many things to feed them so they shouldn't eat your shrimp.

Fish stores will often gladly give you extra snails as will fellow hobbyists.

 

[Odin]

I started off with 5 or 6 assassins to control my pest snails, I now have around 50 assassins and are not slowing down breeding

I have to keep getting free pest snails from My LFS to feed them lol,