Assasin snails and multies

[liamthecoder]

ok so are assasin snails ok with multies?, as iv been overrun with ramhorn snails (3-4 hundred atlest), and am looking for something to eat them lol.

[mmillerr]

I too have the pond snail explosion.  It's fun to watch the multies stack snails in the corner    but they're everywhere!

I had some assassins in another tank so I threw 3 of them in the multie tank.  Too soon to tell if they're gonna control the pond snails, but I don't see any problems with the multies and assassins.  Have you heard something that I haven't that led you to think there would be a problem?

Mark

[fish head]

My assasin snails are so stealthy, I've only seen one once, since I introduced them to help control MTS a few months ago.

I think they're still under the sand, doing their thing, but I'm not sure.

[kiriyama]

Hi, I also have assasin snails in with my multis, 6 originally, down to 4 now, they don't make a big impact on the snail problem though, they will eat a few young ones then hibernate in the sand for a few days, the 2 I lost were not in there shells so dont know if the multis pulled them out. I f you have a snail problem it's due to overfeeding the tank, cut down on food going in, also weigh down a piece of lettuce or similiar veg and haul it out in the morning when covered in snails, I squish any pond snail on the side of the glass, the multis gt a meaty protein snack, lol

[liamthecoder]

hi again,


@mmillerr

well iv heard of some snails that eat small fish (cant remember the name), but i wasnt going to risk it lol..


@kiriyama

iv cut down and their isnt any extra food floating around anywhere, and i have removed all the plants and turnt the light down to reduce algae growth..

but they seem to keep breeding no matter what i pull.. i even treated the water with snail killer to no effect..

im gonna buy some assasins now hopefully they will help lol.

[kiriyama]

Hi, I initally put in a few MTS to turn over the sand, within no time at all there were tons of them, everyone now and then I have the ritual clean out and either give some away or "dispose" of them. Assasin snails (technically a freshwater whelk) might eat any fish eggs, as will most other snails. The one intresting thing I noticed was almost as soon as they were enterd into the tank tons of pond snails started fleeing up the glass as did a few MTS, intersting inverts when the're out and about....
 

[Grunsven]

IF you have that many MTS, you're clearly overfeeding, reduce the amount of food you give and the number will go down.

Even if your fish eat everything you can stil overfeed. Fish have a small stomach and make room by passing quicker. This gives poorly digested poo with a lot of nutrients, on which the snails thrive.

Putting in an assasin snail reduces the number of MTS but creates a bigger problem. There is no one to clean your tank so bacteria will thrive on the food your MTS do not eat anymore.

[fish head]

With all due respect, please don't use snail killer.  If it kills snails, it will kill other "things" and we are all connected.

I believe Grunsven has the key to keeping snail populations in check.  And some manual snail removal from time to time will cause a nice dent.

[mmillerr]

Even if the Assassins could possibly wipe out all the MTS, which is next to impossible, they will scavenge like any other snail when live prey is not available.

Mark

[liamthecoder]

ok so i got rid of the snails  i just went for the dropping veg into the tank and remove them the following morning..

i didnt get all of them but i got most of them.

[kiriyama]

My assasins are active again, I have seen them locked to each other, don't know if they eat each other, maybe they were getting funky, I have also found quite a few MTS shells, some of them a decent size, have seen assasin eating from the shell, cool wee beasties, hows the Multis enjoying that big tank???

[liamthecoder]

i caught the 2 top males fighting today lol,

but apart from that their fine, lots of sand being moved hopefully some fry soon

[fish head]

this is the tank I added some assassin snails and I see one every blue moon

Young brevis is seen here nipping at the assassin!  Every time it would start to open, the brevis nipped.  I tossed in some flake food and the brevis got distracted long enough to allow the snail to bury itself in the sand.

[liamthecoder]

yes my multies done the same thing to my assains, but now the assasins just hide when the multies are round

[kiriyama]

lol, have seen my MUltis doing this with Assasins and MTS , just lifting them and dumping them away from there patch... wonder if they could do it with an apple snail?