Better to do Invertibrate-free Community tank?

About a month ago I started a small community 10 gallon tank. Yesterday I moved the community into a new 20 gallon tank. It’s currently stocked with 1 tetra, 2 guppies, 2 Dalmatian mollies, 2 black mollies, 1 assorted yellow molly, 1 sail fin molly, 1 balloon molly, 2 sword tails, 3 kahaku swords, 2 mystery snails, 1 assassin snail and 2 shrimp. During this time I think the guppies had a couple babies that I’m now raising in a separate small tank and the shrimp had babies too! I collected about 8 of them. The two mystery snails I put side by side after transferring them into the new tank because I wanted them to go into together. Not 5 minutes later I looked and found them connected. They’d never done that before after a month in their 10g. Now I’m worried they’ll have offspring. I don’t want this tank to become an infestation of invertebrates. Over night, I was thinking about removing them all before they multiply again; just doing a strict fish only community tank. I’d like to hear others thoughts and advice. Thanks.

 

Hi, it's really your choice on the invert free. In my opinion inverts are a great addition to tanks, I have a community of snails, shrimp and fish and they all complement eachother. Honestly the assassin snail should take care of baby mystery snails.

On the other hand I think it's worth to note that your tank is extremely overstocked, you need to rehome at least 50% of the fish in there and the majority of them grow too large for a 20 gallon.

 

The shrimp fry would likely not survive the presence of fish but they would be nutritious to the fish. The baby snails, as FinalFins said, would likely be eaten by the Assassin Snail and would also likely be highly nutritious.
I don't believe the inverts are at any risk of taking over.

 

I agree with both above posts. When it comes to snails, their population will remain in check as long as there is not excess food/nutrients in the tank. If you are feeding only what your fish will eat in a designated time, your snails will stay in check

 

How's the assasine treating the shrimp? I was always too nervous to mix the two.

 

Hi, it's really your choice on the invert free. In my opinion inverts are a great addition to tanks, I have a community of snails, shrimp and fish and they all complement eachother. Honestly the assassin snail should take care of baby mystery snails.

On the other hand I think it's worth to note that your tank is extremely overstocked, you need to rehome at least 50% of the fish in there and the majority of them grow too large for a 20 gallon.

Hopefully moving them to the 20 will help for the time being. I’m also removing the yellow molly because it’s too aggressive.

How's the assasine treating the shrimp? I was always too nervous to mix the two.

I originally had a 3rd shrimp in the tank and it mysteriously disappeared so I don’t know if the assassin got it or one of the fish, but the other two shrimp I’ve seen evade fish trying to take a bite. I also heard assassin snails can kill and eat mystery snails which I didn’t find out until long after I had them all together. But so far he hasn’t killed either two of the mystery snails which are both much bigger than it.

 

I originally had a 3rd shrimp in the tank and it mysteriously disappeared so I don’t know if the assassin got it or one of the fish, but the other two shrimp I’ve seen evade fish trying to take a bite. I also heard assassin snails can kill and eat mystery snails which I didn’t find out until long after I had them all together. But so far he hasn’t killed either two of the mystery snails which are both much bigger than it.

Assassins usually will work together for something as big as a Mystery, at least as far as I have read. With only a single Assassin it has none to cooperate to face off against such a giant as the Mysteries.

 

Unlike most other snails Mystery Snails don't lay eggs all over the tank. They lay them in bigger clutches right above the water line. As long as you remove the clutches of eggs there is no chance of getting over run with them. If you want to hatch them you can do it out of the tank and again prevent them from over running your tank.