Assassin snails eat live shrimp!

[Ebichua]

Originally Posted by HOLLYWOOD

A while back I saw your post and will totally agree that they do infact eat live shrimp..... I lost a nice growing colony of Orange Eye blue tiger shrimp.... grrr..... tough lesson to learn.

I'm sorry to hear that huge loss

Although, I'm glad people are finally coming around after more and more people are sharing their experiences! When I first posted it, everyone thought I was lying!
"wtf? how can somting so slow eat somting so fast?!!?!!11"
Well people, there you go. It's still okay to keep them together, people just need to be informed that the possibility is always going to linger.

[Sounguru]

We never thought you were lying just that there were some questions as there is in a lot of these cases and still are. So far I have only 15 or so of these reports that I find crediable and only one did the person actually see the capture itself. So you can see how those questions do come up. It was because of the open debate that your post started that had a lot of us trying to recreate it and got us looking deeper into the whole thing. So on that note we owe you a hearty thank you Ebichua...

So Thank You Ebichua...

I never denied it could happen just that the cases were rare and actually because of yours and a couple of other reports that I found highly crediable I added that warning to my article.

On a side note I have come to believe that assassins have some kind of nero or paraylitic(sp?) toxin that would make it easier to caputre critters like shrimp and small fish. This belief comes from attacks I have seen and other reports from experienced keeper of how larger snails react after being attacked by assasins and then surviving. Some have shown signs at the point of attack of muscle deteroiation and also the amount of time required to recover is quite long. But I am no microbiologist just an highly motivated assassin snail freak....

[bigshrimpin]

[quote=Ryzilla;829692]hey northsider, welcome to the forum. Its nice to have a north Chicago suburb represented. I am in Skokie and get to buffalo grove every now and then. If you are looking to trade anything let me know. I have a butt load of mini pellia with a slight staghorn problem I want to get rid of.[/quot

mini pellia, I have always wanted some of this stuff.
all I have is corkscrew val, duckweed, java moss, X-mas moss, and riccia. I have a buttload of cherryshrimp and am working on breeding more yellow, snowball, and minami dwarf shrimp. I just got some assassin snails as you know and want to see if I can breed these as well.

let me know if you want any of this and we can work something out.

[Sounguru]

@Bigshrimpin - any questions on breeding the assassins I will be glad to help I seem to have it down to a science and have about a 85% hatch rate and a 80% survival rate which is high from my studies.

[bigshrimpin]

Originally Posted by Sounguru

@Bigshrimpin - any questions on breeding the assassins I will be glad to help I seem to have it down to a science and have about a 85% hatch rate and a 80% survival rate which is high from my studies.

Sounguru,
Thanks for the offer and I am going to have to take you up on it.
1. How active are your assassin snails?
2. I have a few that just hang out at the waters edge, is that normal?
3. I just put in 100 MTS, should I be supplement the assassin's diet with anything else?
4. The 10 gallon tank has only a sand bottom and a sponge filter, should I put some fake plants in there so they have a place to lay their eggs. I do not have enough light to support live plants in that tank.

[Sounguru]

Originally Posted by bigshrimpin

Sounguru,
Thanks for the offer and I am going to have to take you up on it.
1. How active are your assassin snails?

They go thru periods of real active to being a rock. Usually after eating they take a long nap

2. I have a few that just hang out at the waters edge, is that normal?

Hanging out at the top is not check all normal. Check water parameters and if need boost the oxygen level I had them doing the same in my 29 but I addded a powerhead to move the water more and down they went.

3. I just put in 100 MTS, should I be supplement the assassin's diet with anything else?

No need unless you want to add Rams which sem to be my assassins favorite snail to eat.

4. The 10 gallon tank has only a sand bottom and a sponge filter, should I put some fake plants in there so they have a place to lay their eggs. I do not have enough light to support live plants in that tank.

Yes the more hiding and laying places the more comfortable they are that also may account for the hangin out at the top. I would add a few larger rocks and a lot of plastic plants. I do grow my plants in my tanks on less than 1 watt in some cases just have to be selective on the plant choice. Java fern and Amazon Sword have worked well for me.

Other than that:

temp 78
PH 7.4 or higher
GH 4+
Add a plaster puck one every 2 weeks to give the feeder calcium and put some into the water column. Assassins get their calcium from their kills.

Any other ?s please feel free to ask...

[ramawo]

I have large group Assassin Snails and RCS together in big tank. I don't find any problem.
After few months all pond snails gone, I start feeding all kind commercial food. The population's still growing. But one thing I observe, they get more reproduce when they eat live snails as compare they only eat commercial food.

[purgatori27]

A thought just occurred to me...

I agree with the the reasoning that Assassins may eat healthy shrimp if they are very hungry upon arrival, or hungry in general. Then, there's always a chance you got a crazy one in there!

I do not think a happy, healthy NORMAL Assassin snail would harm a shrimp. Seems to me, they'd much rather be eating things that are normally on their menu and are easier to catch, plus they got other things to do...like mate, lay eggs, eat Ramshorn, and nap. I think there are always a few rogue ones out there (look at people, for instance once they get a taste for something).

It's very possible that you could limit the loss of shrimp being eaten by hungry, newly acquired snails by quarantining them a week or so. One of those "Ten Commandments" most of us don't follow. Of course, you'd be feeding them during quarantine (they love Ramshorn snails), so they may not be as likely to eat a shrimp after release. I guess they're gonna get protein one way or the other. Now, how much is it gonna cost ya?

I'm curious how many instances where a healthy shrimp is eaten, occur within the first month of snail introduction to the shrimp colony. I just want to know if placing them in a holding tank for a week or two and feeding them would decrease chances of attacks.

So, to be clear...I believe it happens...but why?

[bigshrimpin]

Originally Posted by Sounguru

They go thru periods of real active to being a rock. Usually after eating they take a long nap



Hanging out at the top is not check all normal. Check water parameters and if need boost the oxygen level I had them doing the same in my 29 but I addded a powerhead to move the water more and down they went.



No need unless you want to add Rams which sem to be my assassins favorite snail to eat.



Yes the more hiding and laying places the more comfortable they are that also may account for the hangin out at the top. I would add a few larger rocks and a lot of plastic plants. I do grow my plants in my tanks on less than 1 watt in some cases just have to be selective on the plant choice. Java fern and Amazon Sword have worked well for me.

Other than that:

temp 78
PH 7.4 or higher
GH 4+
Add a plaster puck one every 2 weeks to give the feeder calcium and put some into the water column. Assassins get their calcium from their kills.

Any other ?s please feel free to ask...

Sounguru,

Nitrites 0
Nitrate 10
GH 10
KH 4.5

Looks like I could do a water change to lower the nitrates but everything else looks fine to me.

I boosted up the oxygen by opening up the valve on my air divider that I have connected on my 110 liter per minute air pump (I love this thing! The air divider allows me to run 8 air pumps at the same time with only one pump!). There is a good current flowing in the tank now.

One assassin is still sitting at the top of the water edge and I will keep an eye on it to see if it moves. I knocked it down today and it went right back up there after a few minutes.

Let me know if my parameters are off and I will do my best to get them right.


Thanks again!

[bigshrimpin]

forgot to add the temp which is 78 just like yours.

what is plaster puck?

[Sounguru]

Originally Posted by purgatori27

A thought just occurred to me...

I agree with the the reasoning that Assassins may eat healthy shrimp if they are very hungry upon arrival, or hungry in general. Then, there's always a chance you got a crazy one in there!

I do not think a happy, healthy NORMAL Assassin snail would harm a shrimp. Seems to me, they'd much rather be eating things that are normally on their menu and are easier to catch, plus they got other things to do...like mate, lay eggs, eat Ramshorn, and nap. I think there are always a few rogue ones out there (look at people, for instance once they get a taste for something).

It's very possible that you could limit the loss of shrimp being eaten by hungry, newly acquired snails by quarantining them a week or so. One of those "Ten Commandments" most of us don't follow. Of course, you'd be feeding them during quarantine (they love Ramshorn snails), so they may not be as likely to eat a shrimp after release. I guess they're gonna get protein one way or the other. Now, how much is it gonna cost ya?

I'm curious how many instances where a healthy shrimp is eaten, occur within the first month of snail introduction to the shrimp colony. I just want to know if placing them in a holding tank for a week or two and feeding them would decrease chances of attacks.

So, to be clear...I believe it happens...but why?

90+% have been within a few days of introduction from what I have been able to gather time line wise. And the few others have been when the pest snail population has dropped and they are not getting a good protien based replacement or stupid shrimp syndrome....

Originally Posted by bigshrimpin

forgot to add the temp which is 78 just like yours.

what is plaster puck?

Parameters look good....

Plaster puck is a puck made out of DAP brand palster of paris and a very small amount of low fat fish food for flavor. The weekend and 7 day feeders you see in the store are basically the same idea I just make my own for pennies. They are nothing but a calcium block that disolves real slowly over time in which the pest snail will feed on to get more calcium in their diet. Which is then transfered to the assassins when they feed on the pest snails plus some disolves into the water column. Nice thing is I haven't had any PH increase using a puck where with Tums I have.

Originally Posted by ramawo

I have large group Assassin Snails and RCS together in big tank. I don't find any problem.
After few months all pond snails gone, I start feeding all kind commercial food. The population's still growing. But one thing I observe, they get more reproduce when they eat live snails as compare they only eat commercial food.

What are you feeding them exactly that info would be a big help since you are still seeing egg laying going on.

[BrianO]

If there is anyone willing to sell around a half dozen or so assassin snails please let me know. I live north of Houston.

Brian

[amano101]

Originally Posted by ramawo

After few months all pond snails gone, I start feeding all kind commercial food. The population's still growing. But one thing I observe, they get more reproduce when they eat live snails as compare they only eat commercial food.

I would also like to know what commercial foods your feeding them.

[ramawo]

I am not speicify feed the snails alone, I just feed whatever (Tetras, ottos, shrimps and snails) they take.
Here's list:
Tetra fish flakes
Hikari Algae Waffers
Hikari Sinking Waffers
Hikari Carb Cuisine (first food they will pick, they love it)

I feed Waffers and Carb Cuisine couple times a week and flakes two times a day.

Temp 75 or above
ph 7.0 or below

I don't take much time to do maintaince.
25% WC once a week.

Note: sometime I saw they eat death fish.

Hope it can help !

[Sounguru]

Crab food is where they are getting most of their protien... Thanks for the info..