Assassin Snail diet

I'm getting the impression I may have asked this before so forgive me if I have but I can't find the old thread if there is one.

I've got Bladder Snails in my 50 gallon aquarium. Their population has been growing without any checks on it for several weeks and at any given time I could fairly easily count five or more of them in the aquarium.
I've been told by other forum members that an established Bladder Snail population in a fifty gallon could feed 2-3 Assassin Snails. I just neglected to ask about how to be sure the population was sufficiently established at that time so now I am. How could I tell if the population of Bladder Snails is large enough I could add an Assassin and not have to worry about it depleting its food supply?

 

Bladder snails are insanely prolific. They won't run out of food that quickly. I have 2 in a 3 gallon with about a bajillion bladder snails and it seems the bladder snails are winning. We'll see how this turns out.

 

They will eat leftovers from fish as well. They do not breed nearly as much when not dining on snails but they don't starve. I ran out of bladder snails years ago and had 11 assassins. I had in one tank I revamped last fall 47 assassins of various sizes and hauled most of them to the pet store in trade for a blood parrot for my son. There's more now but I couldn't give a direct count I imagine I have around 15-18 and probably kept 8-10 last fall. There hasn't been a snail dinner for them in probably 3 years in that tank.

 

I'm getting the impression I may have asked this before so forgive me if I have but I can't find the old thread if there is one.

I've got Bladder Snails in my 50 gallon aquarium. Their population has been growing without any checks on it for several weeks and at any given time I could fairly easily count five or more of them in the aquarium.
I've been told by other forum members that an established Bladder Snail population in a fifty gallon could feed 2-3 Assassin Snails. I just neglected to ask about how to be sure the population was sufficiently established at that time so now I am. How could I tell if the population of Bladder Snails is large enough I could add an Assassin and not have to worry about it depleting its food supply?

Lol! I see hundreds at any given time! Once you reach about 100 snails that means you have a well established colony.

 

Lol! I see hundreds at any given time! Once you reach about 100 snails that means you have a well established colony.

I meant five or more visible at a glance, ie spending no more than a second counting.

 

When I was without puffers I tried assassin snails to clean out tanks that were infested. They never tended to move from where they landed in the tank. So after 2-3 attempts I didn't buy them any more.
Well a recent fish purchase came with 2 assassins passengers. Assuming they'd be dead soon they got pitched into the breeder which got infested. Yesterday I noticed one happily roaming that tank.

I am wondering if the LFS has an issue with snails. We got 4 pagodas from them and only 2 moved from where they landed in the tank. Moved 3-6". I removed their empty shells yesterday.
Back at the shop I noticed that all the pagodas are empty and dead. The assassins are the same and I suspect always have been. The fish are always great so I suspect something is in the water that is good for fish but bad for snails or their RO base is missing something snails need.

 

They will eat leftovers from fish as well. They do not breed nearly as much when not dining on snails but they don't starve. I ran out of bladder snails years ago and had 11 assassins. I had in one tank I revamped last fall 47 assassins of various sizes and hauled most of them to the pet store in trade for a blood parrot for my son. There's more now but I couldn't give a direct count I imagine I have around 15-18 and probably kept 8-10 last fall. There hasn't been a snail dinner for them in probably 3 years in that tank.

Didn't know they'd eat fish food. I was thinking one or two assassins to slow down the population growth of the Bladder Snails, don't really want to get rid of them just control their population. They've been great algae control.

 

Bladder snails are insanely prolific. They won't run out of food that quickly. I have 2 in a 3 gallon with about a bajillion bladder snails and it seems the bladder snails are winning. We'll see how this turns out.

Well the issue is I don't want to run out of Bladder Snails at all. They're my algae control. I just don't want a bajillion of them so I figure an individual Assassin in 50 gallons ought to slow them down a bit.

 

Well the issue is I don't want to run out of Bladder Snails at all. They're my algae control. I just don't want a bajillion of them so I figure an individual Assassin in 50 gallons ought to slow them down a bit.

Yeah that's what I'm trying to achieve. I don't want my snailtope wiped out either. I think you just gotta start with some and see how it goes and then adjust from there. You'd be fine starting with 2.

 

I started with 2 in a 10 gallon.The bladder snails were still reproducing faster than the assassins could eat them.The assassins have reproduced and I have 4 decent sized ones plus assassin eggs everywhere at the moment.I'm like you as far as wanting pond snails but just not 4k snails.if you get a few assassins I think it's more likely that they will reproduce and adjust to the amount of pond snails that you have as opposed to wiping out your pond snails and starving.And yes they will munch on other meaty foods that aren't snails

 

I started with 2 in a 10 gallon.The bladder snails were still reproducing faster than the assassins could eat them.The assassins have reproduced and I have 4 decent sized ones plus assassin eggs everywhere at the moment.I'm like you as far as wanting pond snails but just not 4k snails.if you get a few assassins I think it's more likely that they will reproduce and adjust to the amount of pond snails that you have as opposed to wiping out your pond snails and starving.And yes they will munch on other meaty foods that aren't snails

I'm fine with them eating not-snails so long as they don't snag my guppies or eat my shrimp once I get them.
I've been repeatedly told most shrimp will evade an Assassin every time.

 

I'm fine with them eating not-snails so long as they don't snag my guppies or eat my shrimp once I get them.
I've been repeatedly told most shrimp will evade an Assassin every time.

FWIW I have them in my shrimp tank and haven't had any problem at all.They are slow and stay hidden or in the substrate.From what I've observed they are too slow to even "stalk" a pond snail that's above the substrate.They just seem to hide and munch on pond snails that they happen to find in the substrate.If they were starving and a half dead or dead shrimp landed nearby it's possible that they would eat it but so will just about anything including other shrimp