Assassin Snail Keepers!

[Lupin]

Since there is not much talk about snails lately, I think this thread may be able to encourage discussions about assassin snails. I think there are more people who keep assassins here than any other species, maybe?

If anyone's assassins have already bred, please share!

Mine have only started last week and laid over 100 eggs already. Egg in magenta circle at the bottom.

 

[ProblEmZ]

Is that one egg or many eggs(just too small to tell)? Do they just drop eggs around the tank? More info please heh

 

[Rambo85]

I bought 8 assassin's to control my ever rising MTS problem in my tanks. They work like a charm, much better sollution than adding copper to kill the snails. They tend to lay eggs quite often but i never seem to see any young

I love watching them gang up on the biggest MTS's to take em down. I never knew snails could be so bad ass!!!

 

[Lupin]

Is that one egg or many eggs(just too small to tell)? Do they just drop eggs around the tank? More info please heh

There is another egg in the pic that I failed to circle as well. That same site I took the picture of, now has about 7 more eggs there.lol The female takes about 5 minutes to deposit every egg where she wants them and usually, she chooses the rock bases and plant roots to lay eggs on.

I bought 8 assassin's to control my ever rising MTS problem in my tanks. They work like a charm, much better sollution than adding copper to kill the snails. They tend to lay eggs quite often but i never seem to see any young

But you really don't see the young until they reach about half an inch which takes apparently about 3-4 months. They spend most of their time buried underground hence this is likely why you don't see them. If you've seen the egg cases empty, then you definitely have young assassins around.

 

[jojo_nature]

Do they breed easily ? My brother has a major problem with mts in his cichlid tank there must be thousand's of them .

 

[Lupin]

Jojo, they lay plenty of eggs but this could be seasonal and the survival rate is influenced by the food abundance. I waited for two months for them to lay eggs and I got more than what I wanted as I was taken me by surprise when they continue laying eggs until today. I can't verify it myself how long the babies take to grow but from people with more experience on these snails than I do, they estimated that the growth rate of young assassins take 3-4 months until 0.5 inch. From that point forward though, growth is quick since I bought mine that size and it took me only a month to grow all my adult assassins to an inch.

 

[Will Hayward]

I found that they bred very easily in a tank with plants and driftwood. Eggs are not quick to hatch, and the new hatched snails seem to live int eh substrate eating detritus until they become a couple mm and come out onto the glass and upper environment.