Assassin snail breeding

[Betty]

Anyone here keeping assassin snails or having luck at getting them to breed?  Any tips or advice on keeping the young alive?

I discovered the cutest little assassin last night (already taking down a baby Malaysian trumpet snail). I have about six adults in the tank, but was surprised to find a baby.  There are two leopard frog plecos and one bristlenose in the tank.

 

[KaraWolf]

Did some reading cause this sounds interesting I'd heard they don't really breed in tanks but was apparently wrong. XD Mostly tips to keep babies alive was to make sure they have enough food; other baby snails, sinking meaty-fishy foods or fresh meat (someone would feed an oyster half to his tank every 2-3 weeks). Apparently they are cannibalistic if the population doesn't have enough food. and of course don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

 

[bassetman]

Mine breed easily and all the time. The litters are smallish, about ten at a time. The young hide for a couple months then start appearing as yellow and black spots on the glass.

 

[pbmax]

Mine breed in 2 or 3 of my tanks without any intervention on my part. They lay single eggs on various surfaces in the aquarium and take a while to grow out. While I do see them on the glass from time to time, I never know how many I have... I have to dig around in the substrate to find them.

After they run out of other snails to munch on they'll eat what all other snails eat - leftovers.

 

[jettej]

I do keep em. They breed naturally. I mean unlike other fish/shrimp you can do some conditioning and alternative to trigger their mating sense. And i dont know any technique for the snails. I see maybe 10+ of the eggs and most of them are empty. Only thing is i never saw babies. Its been like a month now since it got emptied. I have a generous amount of ramshorn snails/ feeders from tiny to adult size. So food is not a problem. I also put some cuttlefish bone to supply calcium. I have shrimps there. I usually do a 5 minute close up look on my tanks and i have never seen any babies. I bought 6-8 adults and i only saw 2-3  since last week. They're weird just like my shrimps. U can never know whats going on until you least expect it.

I saw on one of the forum that if u want to make a suitable set up for assassin snails. Make it kind of planted with woods. Substrate is aragonite sand cuz they bury theirselves. Calcium and feeder snails or othe meaty food.

 

[plaamoo]

Mine won't stop multiplying and I don't do anything to facilitate them. They even crawl out and into surrounding tanks. Check your bucket if you siphon gravel aggressively you may find them at 1-2mm size. When all other snails are gone they'll eat each other if need be.

 

[Betty]

Okay.  Thanks.   

I have some driftwood in the tank and anubias.  The substrate is Tahitian moon sand. There are plenty of MTS to eat.  I've never noticed any eggs, but I haven't been looking for them.  I'll start paying more attention.

 

[Betty]

A quick update...  I found a few eggs around the tank in various places -- rocks, anubias stems, heater, and on the strainer for the filter intake.

 

[pbmax]

Congrats!  :cheers:  With some luck you'll have more assassins soon

 

[jettej]

Look what found today!





It's tiny!

 

[Betty]

Cute, jettej!

I found this one in my water change bucket!  I usually siphon right out the window, but from advice above, used a bucket this time.  I don't want to think of how many I might have siphoned into the yard.   

That's a 1mm nls pellet for size reference.

 

[jettej]

Omg they are adorable aren't they!? See thats one thing that keeps me from shiphoning the tank very often. But i use to breed guppies plecos and other livebearers so i have been doing the bucket thing since. What i also do is put a net in the bucket and just use it as an after filter and check it occasionally for possible frys or baby snails.

 

[Anonymous]

Omg they are adorable aren't they!? See thats one thing that keeps me from siphoning the tank very often. But i use to breed guppies plecos and other livebearers so i have been doing the bucket thing since. What i also do is put a net in the bucket and just use it as an after filter and check it occasionally for possible frys or baby snails.

 But you have siphon the tank, bro. Cause of that you got planaria bug. Remember you can always put a stocking or fine mesh on the siphons tube to prevent shrimplets or baby snails from sucked out.

 

[jettej]

Omg they are adorable aren't they!? See thats one thing that keeps me from siphoning the tank very often. But i use to breed guppies plecos and other livebearers so i have been doing the bucket thing since. What i also do is put a net in the bucket and just use it as an after filter and check it occasionally for possible frys or baby snails.

 But you have siphon the tank, bro. Cause of that you got planaria bug. Remember you can always put a stocking or fine mesh on the siphons tube to prevent shrimplets or baby snails from sucked out.

Thanks bro!. Haven't had a chance to redo the tank. But next month i will. I am actually will visot sompe fish stores in the philippines and learn stuff from them as well.

 

[LuminousAphid]

I have not gravel vac'd my tank in months and I don't have planaria, so I don't think you can say that no gravel vac caused planaria. It was more likely continued overfeeding and not enough cleanup crew to take care of it. That's why my tank is LOADED with snails of all kinds, they eat all the leftovers and keep unwanted critters to a minimum.

edit: on topic, I have just started keeping assassin snails, and haven't seen babies yet, but I expect to find some soon. They have been going to town on some of the bigger ramshorns, I have found quite a few shells without snails around my tank, but I just leave them because I figure the calcium is probably good for the rest of the snails.

Like everyone else said, I you probably don't need to do anything special to get them to breed, but I think if you had a dedicated snail tank you could probably get them to breed faster. Keep it dirty, feed lots of meaty foods, and don't gravel vac and you'll probably make them pretty happy

 

[pbmax]

I have not gravel vac'd my tank in months and I don't have planaria, so I don't think you can say that no gravel vac caused planaria. It was more likely continued overfeeding and not enough cleanup crew to take care of it. That's why my tank is LOADED with snails of all kinds, they eat all the leftovers and keep unwanted critters to a minimum.

 lus1: 

Spot on. I don't gravel vac any of my tanks and I don't have any planaria that I've noticed over the last year. Sure, if you're significantly over-feeding on a regular basis then gravel vac'ing might help keep them at bay, but it's the over feeding that causes the problem.