Breeding Snails?

barbuto

barbuto

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Nov 28, 2008
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Fort Lee, NJ
So I am thinking about putting 2 assassin snails in my 10gal. If I were to get some ramshorns or MTS, would they be able to breed and keep a stable colony going to feed the assassins in the same tank? or would i have to breed them elsewhere?

thanks!
 
I think with Assassin Snails you have to have a male and a female... they are not hermaphrodites like some other snails. If you put in any two snails you've only got a 50% chance of them being sexually compatible.

That said- yes- putting a male and female in with lots of fresh food is probably a good start.


If you meant would the other snails breed in the presence of assassins... Snails breed when their is an abundance of food- your problem will be having enough snails that they can breed faster than they are eaten... there are several people on here who regulary ask for "pest" snails because their assassins went through their own snails too fast.

If you want snails to breed fast... overfeed.
 
So I've heard from other people is that assassin females have thicker yellow lines on their shells. While the males are a bit smaller. Mine have been going great for the past month my 4 killers, they do seem a bit scared still but hopefully they will come out to play more. Just make sure their is an abundance of rams, cause they love em and they will start producing babys in no time. Also don't be scared if you see two assassins stuck together. That's how they mate and it can last a very long time. And they do produce babys in eggs so have some driftwood with some little crevices or holes, since they just love laying them in there.
Good Luck!
 
My question was worded terrible.

If I get ramshorns, and put them into my 10gal tank, will they be able to reproduce fast enough to keep a stable colony, with the presence of (2) assassin snails in the tank eating them?

OR

Would I have to have them reproduce somewhere else in order to keep a stable colony to feed my assassins?
 
If you had enough ramshorns to start with and fed them enough then they would reproduce at a fast enough rate to sustain their population- if you didn't they wouldn't! ;)

I've read on here, I think by Songuru that they will on average eat a snail a day- that snail being between 1/2 to 1/3 their own size- although on occassion they will team up to take down prey larger than themselves. Because they prefer to eat the bigger ramshorn snails- if you give them the choice they take down the sexually mature snails that are capable of laying eggs rather than the small ones which arn't- which would hamper their breeding.


If you keep your ramshorn breeding tank seperate you can ensure that some adults are always kept alive to ensure more eggs.

How long does it take a ramshorn to reach sexual maturity? I'm guessing 5 or 6 weeks? So- about 50 days... times 2 snails. I'm guessing (pure guess) if you start with 100 sexually mature Rams in your assasin tank they would be able to maintain a population without being wiped out by the assassins.

You may be able to get away with fewer in a seperate breeding tank by not continually giving them the biggest snails/egg layers.


(that's a complete guess- based on 5 or 6 weeks for ramshorns to reach sexual maturity... I'm far from an expert).
 
I suggest a separate tank, for the reasons listed above, and because a tank dedicated to snail production gets messy. You may not want it out on display. I've got a 29 gallon that I'm using as a physid and planorbid factory; it has a gentle in-tank filter of the type sold for amphibian tanks, lots of structure, and I feed heavily with algae wafers and vegetable scraps.
 
FasterShrimpo said:
So I've heard from other people is that assassin females have thicker yellow lines on their shells. While the males are a bit smaller.
Click to expand...
I have not observed this one with my own 9 adult assassins. The males are similar in size to females in my case and the bands all look the same to me, no matter how I try to look harder for differences and still confuse their genders except when they copulate.:rofl:
 
Abit off topic, but will assassin snails overbreed and eventually take over the tank like other snails? I put in 2 assassin snails in my tank about 4 months ago to take out the ramhorns and MTS. Now i see a bunch of little snails crawling around. It's hard to guess how many there are since plants cover some of my aquarium, but i'd guess at least 10 babies now (probably quite a few more). They seem to have killed off other snails now, but they're still growing and increasing in numbers.
 
Oh nice too see this thread still alive! Yes the best option is too overfeed assassins in their main tank and keep another tank with "feeder snails" to reproduce. That's what I'm trying to do if I can set up my new 15 gallon.
 
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