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If your Rabbit snail is way much bigger than the Assassin snail, it should most probably be safe but the Assassin Snail will killed all Rabbit Snail's babies.
I just bought myself 2 assassin snails... in hope they will include limpets in their diet. Well.... they do!! However, this is in my sulawesi tank and I was wondering if it will also make a meal out of my rabbit snails?
If your Rabbit snail is way much bigger than the Assassin snail, it should most probably be safe but the Assassin Snail will killed all Rabbit Snail's babies.
Last edited by hyun007; 29th Dec 2011 at 17:29.
When you say limpets.. you're talking about the transparent little things always on the glass right? If you are.. I'm going to buy some assassin snails.... haha!
Thanks hyun. It is bigger.... and now I'm wondering if I should take the risk!Originally Posted by hyun007
Yeap... those little buggers with transparent shell on on side.... My sulawesi shrimps will feast on them when I crush them but after my 10 days holiday away... tank is filled with them. They stick on glass, plants, rocks and everything else. I took a big one and placed close to the assassin snail... and lo and behold, got swallowed whole! Not sure if its a one off or it was really hungry. I will try to find the other snail and see if that one takes the bait. If it does.......
wahahahahaha
Add a 1 Assassin to your tank, removed it after it got rid of the limpets. (I am sure people will get them from you if you are giving it away free.)
The reason I said 1 is because Assassin do breed(at a slower pace than most snail) and you do not want that to happen if you prefer Rabbit Snail more.
I think your Rabbit Snail should be okay.
Do a head count on them regularly and you should be fine.
How about the smaller limpets that are constantly on the glass tank? Do we have to feed them to the assassin snail, or will they go and hunt them?
I don't know yet as the assassins are in another tankI think I will put the assassin in the sulawesi tank in the morning and observe closely.... just to make sure my rabbit snails are ok. I'll be able to tell if they hunt limpets are not.
Thanks. I think I'll keep the assassins around as they are cute to watch. The Rabbit is fun to watch as well as I've seen it use its "leg" to hold on to food while eating... like this!
Assassin snails do not attack those limpets. Smaller snails like button snails are ignored. They will go after Physa, Ramshorn, MTS snails. I would not advise you to keep them with your Rabbit Snails.
Rabbit Snails are Tylomelania species, and are related to the MTS. If the Assassin Snails regard MTS as prey, they might go after your Rabbit Snails when their primary food source is exterminated.
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Just wondering , do assassin snails attack apple snails even though the apple snails are at around 4cm in diameter? I tried puffer , even though the apple snail was bigger than it , it still attacked the snail.
If their prey species is gone from the targeted tank, they may attack apple snails.
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Assassin snails hunt randomly. I notice they like to burrow in the soil and come out once in a while to hunt. Sometimes a weak shrimp can become a meal too... but definitely it helps removing those pest snails like limpets or other unwanted snails. Usually bigger snails are not feasted upon. They do lay eggs all over also it looks like this.
I have a couple of Assassin snails kept for almost a year. So far only manage to see 1 baby one. Think the hatching rate quite low thou I see eggs all over.
That is correct. Their hatch rate is low in normal tanks. Either conditions are not right, or perhaps this species needs alkaline water to hatch out. Either way, it's hard to find young Assassin Snails in the tank. Most often, the prey snails would have been wiped out before the adults start to spawn.
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My few cents:
Assassin snail adults will not eat limpets but their babies should.
Assassin snails will attack bigger snails if they team up, I've lost zebra nerites 5 times the size of the assassins. And nerites have an operculum, the "trap door" that's supposed to protect them from assassins. Rabbit snails have the operculum too, although how useful that is against the assassin I'm not sure.
Assassin reproduce painfully slow. They lay many eggs and are constantly mating but very few youngs appear. I suspect its not the water conditions only, but whether the female snail had a good meat meal. They eat leftover shrimp food and practically fight over crab food (which is meaty), but I tend to see baby snails after some big fish or a few shrimps died and got eaten.
Like this one
which makes assassin not just good for killing pest snails and eating up leftover food. They're great for disposing of dead bodies that would otherwise foul up your water.
In fact, a near dead shrimp or fish somehow gives off a "smell" that the assassins pick up with their "trunk". I had thrown dead shrimps into the assassin's tank and the reaction is almost instant. They appear out of the soil and all home in on the dead body, waving their trunks.
Their mouth part is also very weird, it looks like another trunk that only appears when eating and can flatten and squeeze into the body of its prey, then reopen and start to eat. I used to think they inject digestive fluids to dissolve the insides of their prey until I finally saw a bunch of them eating the dead otto, from inside, scraping the meat off with their long mouths like how other snails scrap algaes off the tank glass.
Best snail ever.
I've never seen a fish cleaned out like that. When my Assassins were still alive, they would make short work of any carcass. The proboscis is extremely sensitive.
Nava, I think in your case, the bunch of Assassins decided to gang up on the Nerites, by boring holes in the Nerite's operculum or on the shell surface. Since these predatory snails are related to the marine Whelks, this is probably the way they penetrate the Nerite's armor to feed on it.
In short, these critters will attack other snails, irregardless of species.
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Oh so basically if you run out of snails in the tank , you can feed them protein based food such as frozen bloodworms and frozen brineshrimp? If so , then I don't have to worry about not having enough snails.
In the past I seen one of my assassin snail attack a weak shrimp.
Quite good at finding fresh food or dying prey.
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"if he cant be bothered to take the time to write his question properly, why should I take the time to answer him."
My observations on the assassin snails are after feasting on either other snails, carcasses or weak/ live shrimps which i suspect so as my cherries population drop drastically, will dug into the substrate for some days before emerging for another feast.
My guess for adult assassin feasting on limpets or button snails is that if they are hungry, they don't mind the size of their food.
After my cherries population dropped, i'd picked them into an internal breeding tank and feed them with ramshorns or freeze dried bloodworms.
As of laying of eggs, they will lay all over the main tank on my DW, stem of plants, substrate...etc and the little assassin will emerge about a month or so. I had let go about 40 plus of them a few months back.
If you have snails other then the pest snails, my advise is to remove them and let the assasin do their job before putting them back to your tank. I would not want to risk the precious snails in the same tank as the assasin.
~~Steven ~~
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2ft Tank ~~~Terappin Moonlight Gourami~~~
4ft Tank ~~~Oto Nerite Snail Platy Zebra Danio Glass Bloodfin Cardinal Tetra Albino Cory Khuli Weather Loach Rainbow Shark~~~
I think they need alkaline water to hatch.
Reason is because they took out every other snail available in my mud base water pot and the population is growing because they were feeding on the left over Tetra Bits.
PH is about 7.5
I recall you selling alot of them.
I actually didn't notice the eggs due to nature of tank and now I see babies every week.
I only started with 2 grown adults to curb ramshorn population. Now i've got more then I bargain. Namely dozens of empty old shells.
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"if he cant be bothered to take the time to write his question properly, why should I take the time to answer him."
Hmm , so is best to remove my apple snail before adding the assassin , even if it's just 1 assassin. If it lays eggs , will other fishes eat them?
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