# OOH assassin snail eggs!



## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I have a plastic canvas basket with a papyrus in it... and the snails laid a load of eggs in it. the put a single egg into each square.










I am gonna experement... I will put in some plastic canvas and see if they prefer to use it. Might mean one can take them and move them somewhere else.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

congrats on the eggs.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

Oh interesting! Do you plan on selling any if they grow up?


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## juanitow (Jun 21, 2008)

Congrats! It will probably be another 3 months before you see the babies because they grow so slowly.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Saw eggs in my tank this morning


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## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

I know they are reproducing, but I have never seen the eggs, and grats there Eric. Glad to see they are working out for you


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Yeah - my tank is littered with empty shells 

I'll take a few home to the old man's 75g - he had thousands of MTS cause he likes to overfeed them plecs.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

wow a lot of people with assassins.

congrats Eric.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I am an assassin.

Yeah, hopefully with all the people they're breeding for they'll be much more accessible.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

Hitch said:


> wow a lot of people with assassins.
> 
> congrats Eric.


Ya...I feel left out


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

There will be lots in the coming months I'm sure.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

From the looks of it yes. I'm in no rush anyways. I just like how they look and how useful they can be.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

considering my population of rams and MTS are sorta crazy, I can use the killers. I was wanting to have killers.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Oohh grats sunstar!


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

WTG and nice picture!!


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

Thank you
if they grow, expect them to be in the market, as soon as my tanks get their share...


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

They appear to be hatching. I see a couple empty egg sacks.


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

Congrats  I've nearly eradicated the snail population in my tanks with the exception of the heavily planted ones but I may want to get some of your offspring just to watch one snail envelop another lol.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Sunstar said:


> They appear to be hatching. I see a couple empty egg sacks.


I noticed a few days ago that many of mine no longer have that yellow blob in the middle too.

Hopefully they grow fast


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

there is oodles of foodles in my tnak.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

my first Assassin baby has made his/herself seen.









Sitting on the plastic canvas.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

How many are you expecting to grow to adult size? I could use a few


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I am not sure. my 29 gallon needs some. I may transfer the adults over and let them breed... but if I do, I will never see the adults again


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

OOhhh, I should go look to see if I can sees any babies!!


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I saw another one.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

You're trying to make me jealous. I can't see any - it's dark in there


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

turn on some lights... but I admit, it is a lot bigger than I had expected.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Hmm, I'm probably mixing them up for MTS babies, which also run rampant.

I'll have a better look tomorrow hopefully.


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

I want some ! Lol. They could have a party in my planted tanks.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

I would love some as well!


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

not to jump on the band wagon....but if you guys have quantities for sale in the future....I would be interested in some also. 

since the only other store that i have heard that has this stuff is under reno right now :/


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

If I have extras, I may beable to supply when they are at about 1/4 inch minimum.

I moved 4 of the youngsters into my DT I have a MTS issue there, finally. lots of babies.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Sunstar said:


> my first Assassin baby has made his/herself seen.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Woah, that can't possibly be those that you took a pictures of. My assasins laid their eggs 3 weeks before you post your pictures. However, I have yet to see a single baby assasin. My cherry shrimps have been very healthy lately ... hmmm ... I have wonder ...

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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I had only got my colony of assassins a couple days before I had noticed the eggs. So these are definately them. 

I also saw one hitching a ride on a kill from an adult.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I hav edozens of baby snails but I can't tell if they're just MTS babies or Assassin babies...


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I just took a look again, and they're there 

Little babies with the tell tale brown/yellow swirl - they're tiny though - about 2mm in length. I saw 3, but with all the eggs laid in the past few weeks, I'm sure there's many more of them.


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## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

as long as you keep them fed with protein foods (snails and carnivore pellets) they will continue to breed. I have heard that if their diet is reduced to algae and other vegetable based diets they will no longer reproduce.


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## redclove (Feb 26, 2008)

Glad this is happening for people.. My first batch of babies have grown to adults now, and I've been experimenting with the ideal balance so as to always have some 'pest' snails around but have their numbers in check.

So far I have come up with the formula of about 1 assassin per 10G, assuming that you have a healthy amount of snails to feed on. This way they will always have snails to eat, and the soil gets sifted, all without a population explosion, littering the tank..

I am curious to see what you all come up with. With my first batch, I could see about 8 of them in the first weeks of spotting them, but as I started to sell them I realized there were about 20 in that litter..


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

How do you guys keep the assassins from overwhelming you if they breed so well?


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## redclove (Feb 26, 2008)

Cory said:


> How do you guys keep the assassins from overwhelming you if they breed so well?


slow breeders. I've had them for a year and they've only bred once. They do grow up fast though.


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

Ahh ok. I got the wrong impression from the posts here that they bred quickly. I certainly wouldn't want to trade one snail problem for another.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

they do breed quickly, but if their food supply is gone, they will die off. So they won't be sustainable like MTS.

Speaking of Assassins... I moved 7 youngsters into my main tank. I do have a sort of MTS issue in there now. My young Assassins are half a cm long at the largest and tiny at the smallest. I have more, so I will move hem over as soon as I can spot and catch them.

When they get larger I will be offering them up.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

where do u get assasin snails i ,just noticed i have a huge snail prob in my tank i got a few clown loaches but i dont think they will be able to do the job
thanks tom


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Sunstar said:


> Speaking of Assassins... I moved 7 youngsters into my main tank. I do have a sort of MTS issue in there now. My young Assassins are half a cm long at the largest and tiny at the smallest. I have more, so I will move hem over as soon as I can spot and catch them.


Sunstar of the olderst/largest or say the "first batch of eggs" how many do you figure have made it to this point? The first time I noticed eggs (a little after you) I think there must have been at the very least 40 - 80 eggs, but at this point I think I see maybe 1 or 2 that are at or slightly beyond the 5mm mark.


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

I've found baby assassins in a couple of my tanks but I haven't seen the eegs yet.


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

Where did you all get the assassins to start with?


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Harold.....Menagerie


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I am not sure how many made it, but I have literally dozens. I am putting them into my main tank and hopefully they can grow out there on the baby trumpts that are everywhere. they hang out in the substrate.


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## redclove (Feb 26, 2008)

about 25 of my first batch of eggs grew up. I've got about 3 or 4 available if anyone is looking. Also have a Zebra Nerite and a Ruby Spotted Nerite available.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

they can really run down their prey. I threw in a small group of ramshorns and one took it down within minutes.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

Baby assassins taking over the abandoned kill


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## exoskeletal (Oct 12, 2009)

So these snails basically wipe out any other snails? Or do they kill fish aswell? Hm... Cool.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Nice Sunstar. I just found 2 little baby assasin snail the other day. Pretty pathetic, considering that I have at least 100+ eggs to start with 

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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

bah!! it seems thart everyone has them...I need to get my hands on a few soon...


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

the eat other snails that they can kill easily, like ramshorns or open the trap doors on. So some MTS snails may survive if they are large enough. I have an apple in that tank and a betta. 

Apparently the Assassins may, on occasion, take out a dwarf shrimp. I have not seen this myself... albeit my adult assassins arein a shrimpless tank...


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I've never seen it in person, however lately an adult shrimp will show up dead for no reason here and there - might be because they're old though, as these shrimp were first acquired over 2 years ago.

Looks like our babies are around the same age. I have tons of them crawling around now too.

@Hitch, I can probably hook you up with some next time you're back in the city.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I've had some moulting deaths. add calcium to their diet... I throw in dolomite pills.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I have been moving my assassin snails from tank to tank now. I am about to set up a "snail farm" so I can grow ample amounts of snails for the assassins. I think they have basically cleared out the trumpet snails from the one tank almost entirely. where I used to see dozens, I only see one or two now.


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