Assassin snails laying TONS of eggs!

[STS_1OO]

I have a fairly large assassin snail bloom. Tons and tons of empty non-assassin snail shells means they did their job. But now they're becoming the pest! Lol. My gf says they're constantly ontop of each other.

I hear they can go for a decent amount though?

[ownedbycats]

I was given one assassin snail, and it must have been a pregnant female, because within a month (approx.) of getting it, I saw the first pinhead sized baby. Now I have at least a dozen 1/8-1/4" assassin snails. I find the really tiny babies blend with the sand and are nearly impossible to see unless they sit on a white rock or light green leaf. Also, I no longer have a pond snail problem and am actually thinking of importing some to keep the assassins fed.

[concepts88]

Will a pond snail problem turn into an assassin snail problem?

[Crob5965]

Originally Posted by concepts88

Will a pond snail problem turn into an assassin snail problem?

I dont think they breed in the numbers that pond snails do but I'm sure if you dont do population control they could over a long period but you'd have to completely neglect you tank I think

[Casperhito]

From what I heard they won't. From most accounts online it seems they stop mating when the food supply runs low. The local PetSmart their tanks are riddled with MTS. I swing by once a month to pick up snails. One of the girls always has a bag ready for me. Think the girl likes me, she always chats me up and knows when I come in and expectantly having the snails ready. She is really cute but 10 years younger lol.

Sent using voodoo through my phone to your retinas.

[Sake]

From most accounts online it seems they stop mating when the food supply runs low.

+1 To that, mine completely stopped mating now that there isn't any live food around. They all maul the wafers I toss in there since it has some protein in it, but no eggs since there are no live feeder snails.

[tomfromstlouis]

This is an encouraging thread! I put 8 assassins into a smorgasbord situation months ago and have not noticed any new assassins. I do see a number of empty pond snail shells though, so hopefully I can export some assassins soon to another tank. It would be nice to have the no fresh food problem!

[Sake]

Tom if you ever need more Assassins let me know I've got plenty.

[AnotherHobby]

I'm posting here because I think my assassins are also laying eggs.

So I recently re-did my tank, and I've been adding plants and such. It's only been up and running with plants for 2 weeks. I noticed some MTS hitch hikers about a week ago made in with some of the plants I got. I really don't have a big interest in them, so I threw in my two assassin snails.

Two days ago I saw snail eggs on my vals. I removed them, and now today I saw them again. This time I took pics before removal. Are these from my assasin snails? The only MTS in there are very tiny, and I can't see how one would lay an egg sac 10x its size, so I gotta think it's my assasins.

Are they even snail eggs?

[Sake]

Here is what my assassin eggs looked like...


Those are probably ramshorn eggs I believe.

[AnotherHobby]

That's why I'm confused. They don't look like the pics of assassin eggs I've seen. It's only a 12 gallon tank though, and the only snails I've seen are tiny MTS. I think it'd see other ones. There isn't much space to hide. How big do they need to be to leave an egg sac like that? I'll start my own thread instead of highjacking this one.

[AnotherHobby]

Ah HA! My two assassin snails are laying eggs now! They are quite different than the pond snail eggs I posted earlier. I've found 6 eggs total

There are 3 here (2 in the lower 1/3 of the pic and 1 in the upper 1/3 of the pic):



And there are 3 here (all 3 right in the middle in a line from left to right, with the middle one just above the blurry shrimp tail)



I'll be leaving these alone.

[shloken38]

You guys have me wondering now......gonna have to check my tank when I get home. I have 5 assassins in my 10 gallon (had like 300 mts!). MTS are still having babies, but are in much better control now. I have seen the assassins doing the McNasty, but never checked for eggs.