Assassin Snails...RCS safe?

[eco23]

So the wife was being nice and went to get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails to stir up our new sand substrate...problem is the guy at the lfs gave her Assassin Snails instead.

Since the tank has no snails for them to hunt...I assume food sources will be scarce since there's also Corys, Amanos and RCS in there cleaning up the place.

The Internet seems to be split on whether hungry Assassins will hunt juvie RCS...have you kept them both together? Any issues?

 

[librarygirl]

Do you know if they were tank bred or wild caught? That might be a factor. Also the short answer is yes there have been instances of Assassins eating RCS but it seems like it might happen only if there isn't anything else for them to eat and they are very hungry (given your tank is pretty clean and has no other snails....it might be a risk). Of course I have no experience, just relying on some research to try to help.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/s...es/85765-assassin-snails-eat-live-shrimp.html
http://socalaquascapers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11048
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_6/volume_6_4/clea.html

But I've also found tanks where the two live together (although again it might depend upon whether there are enough snails for the Assassins to feed on).

Good luck.

 

[eco23]

Oops, nevermind....editing post....gave wrong info (info on MTS which you don't have lol)

Thanks anyway . They're sitting in a bag while I decide what to do, lol. Btw, the other pond snail "Charlie", went to my neighbors pond to have a nice life and make lots of babies...just not in my tank.

 

[librarygirl]

Thanks anyway . They're sitting in a bag while I decide what to do, lol. Btw, the other pond snail "Charlie", went to my neighbors pond to have a nice life and make lots of babies...just not in my tank.

I edited my post above. Not sure the info will be of much help one way or the other. Hopefully others will have some experience and chime in. What is it with you and snails lately. lol

 

[jetajockey]

I keep both together, no prob. Mine suck at killing snails, and any shrimp slow/dumb enough to get caught by a snail should be sacrificed to Darwin anyway.

 

[eco23]

Somewhat related question...since the purpose of getting the MTS was to aerate the sand, and assassin snails are apparently also burrowers...will they serve the same purpose...or (potentially) simply prevent MTS from being a useful tool (if I were to still need them)?

 

[jetajockey]

I wouldn't worry about the substrate thing too much, they do burrow, but you probably won't get any anaerobic areas if you have a good mix of rooting plants in there.

I dunno about how effective assassins are, mine are kinda just hiding all the time, I never saw any babies for months then out of the blue a few weeks back I see a tiny assassin going along the glass.

 

[eco23]

Thanks man. Since I'm on top of maintenance I'm assuming a couple fingers through the sand during pwc's does the same trick.

The assassins are pretty cool looking...now I've just got to decide if a freaking snail needs to be QT'd. It seems every topic on the Internet is divided 50/50. They were in a tank with only plants...but maybe they'll meet a Tupperware container for a couple weeks. I'll be darned if I'm gonna set up the 10 gallon QT for a few snails, haha!

 

[jetajockey]

I've never bothered QTing them, I don't think there are many diseases that inverts transfer over, possibly something residual on the shell, but the odds are pretty low IMO, especially if you are getting these from a somewhat trusted source. Someone with sickly/diseased tanks should not be selling anything (although it sure does happen sometimes unfortunately)

 

[eco23]

The "trusted source" is a mystery. You turn the wife loose with her friend, your credit card and a mall an hour away...anything is possible. The surprise snails were a nice touch...we'll see when I get the credit card bill from clothes and shoe shopping how much my new little snails were worth, haha. I think I might just chance it on this one...we'll find out in time, but yeah, I wouldn't envision much of a threat. I appreciate your help.