Assassins not eating

[pik01]

I picked up 4 new Anentome helenas from Arakkis about a week ago and I have them in a cycled 2g hex while I get their dedicated 5g tank set up. All that's in the 2g hex with the assassins are 13 ramshorns, an HOB filter and a heater set to 75. Since they've been in there I haven't seen the assassins eat anything and I'm beginning to get a little worried. I've tried supplementing them with crab cuisine pellets but those rams are quicker to the draw and gobble everything up even when I put in veggie sticks to distract them.

Are the assassins still acclimating? I assume they should have eaten by now. I have normal parameters:

ammonia - 0
nitrites - 0
nitrates - 10

The rams are a little bigger than the assassins and are laying clutches all over the place. I've read that assassins can eat snails from 1-1.5x their size.

For size comparison:

 

[jackiomy]

They might be a little stressed. They like to hide in the substrate alot. They will eat the tiny baby snails before they eat the adults IMO.

 

[pik01]

If lack of substrate is the problem, I can fix that tonight. Thanks jackiomy!

 

[petluvr]

They will go after any meaty food available so they will choose the meaty food offered before taking out a snail. Also usually they prey on snails smaller than themselves

 

[Lupin]

Nice snails, Pik!

 

[Sounguru]

#1 No substrate or hiding places..... Sand or large pebbles is the best substrate and lots of rocks, stiff plants, and driftwood.

#2 They will eat snails .5 to 1.5 times their size and gang up and eat larger snails. They will leave the babes alone until they are big enough to eat...

#3 They can take a little while to start feeding I had some that didn't eat for 2 weeks then they started knocking off anything they could catch....

 

[pik01]

whoa, 2 weeks? I didn't know they could go that long without eating. Well, I'm gonna make them a little more comfortable and add some gravel. As far as driftwood and bigger rocks go, that might have to wait for the 5g to get up and running (I'm picking up black sand tomorrow). I'm still sweating bullets and wringing hands over the little fellas though =/

At the rate the rams are laying clutches at least I know I'll have a strong population of rams going for when the assassins finally do begin to feed.

 

[Arakkis]

Try raising the temps to 78 which will increase the metabolism and might make them hungry enough to feed. They had just eaten when you came by last time

 

[Sounguru]

Arakkis is also on track as the temp gets warmer they feed more often and just a few degrees can make the difference.

 

[pik01]

78 degrees, done and done