Mystery snails killed by assassins

I have a 40 gallon wide tank, and had several beautiful mystery snails. In the last few weeks I've found 3 empty mystery snail shells. I hadn't missed them, they were behind things. Sometimes I do see them sleeping and watch, and they move, but it took me 2 days each time to determine they were gone. Really gone. I had 4 assassin snails in there and the pest population is almost gone (had more but moved 6 elsewhere). So last night I saw an assassin on another mystery, grabbed a net and pulled them out. The assassin was locked on, I pulled him off and tossed him into another tank. The mystery was tucked in tight, I couldn't tell if it was damaged, and floated it in a bowl in the tank all night. This morning it was still tucked in tight, but a couple hours later he was out and latched on to the bowl. I put him into the tank, sat him on a plant, and right now he's still there closed up. I don't know how bad the injuries were inside or if he will heal from the attack.

I will be removing the other assassins to a tank without snails as I find them. I'm so upset by these losses and that this little guy is injured... but glad I finally witnessed something. I couldn't figure out why I was losing them. There are a few pests around, it's not like they had nothing else to eat. I've even been tossing some pests from another tank in to be sure they had food.

So when pest snails are gone, what do assassin snails eat, if there are no other snails to eat?

 

I wouldn't keep any snails I like with assassins, you just never know.
I believe when there are no snails to eat you just feed them shrimp pellets or some other bottom feeder food.

 

Assassin snails are primarily carnivorous, so if they don't have another food source, they'll work in teams to take down bigger snails. When they finish off the pest snails, you need to ensure that they get a high protein, meaty diet.

They can eat normal fish foods like frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp or flakes and shrimp pellets. You can also put in pieces of frozen shrimp, and they'll love that. Just make sure they have some meat in their diet.

Mystery snails are very hard for assassins to attack due to their size, and the fact that they have an operculum. Those assassins must have been very hungry. They may not have had enough pest snails, or maybe they started multiplying. Assassin snail babies are rarely seen when not feeding, so they could be getting all of the pests before the adults can.

In any case, assassin snails rarely attack larger snails unless desperate. They must have been hungry to have taken down such a big snail. Try adding some shrimp pellets or frozen bloodworms in one area of the tank and see if any tiny assassins come to join the adults.

 

We feed our assassins frozen bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp but sometimes we have to target feed them as the Tetras love the bloodworms so much they will actually retrieve them off the floor of the tank. I definitely wouldn’t put them in a tank with any other snail you care about, especially if you have more than one.

 

Thank you all, I'm only feeding frozen bloodworms and shrimp once a week each. I'm watching for the others to move them back to a 20 gallon that's got alot of young HTS right now. My feeding has gotten too heavy there since it just has guppy fry and I moved the adult moms out. There's 1 mystery there but he's fully grown. The ones I lost were half to 3/4 grown. I saw this last one sleeping during the day before it was latched on to, just vulnerable.

 

Now that I no longer have ramshorn snails in my main tank I am gradually removing my assassins from that tank. I want to move my rabbit snails over to it but want to be sure all assassins are gone first. I put my adult mystery snail in there a couple of days ago but now I am second guessing that decision. since reading what has happened to yours.

Now that I finally have a healthy one I would hate for anything to happen to it. This one is already bigger than a quarter. Were the ones your assassins got that big? I've not seen any assassins in the tank for at least a week now and I am constantly on the hunt for them so hopefully I have managed to remove all of them.

 

Now that I no longer have ramshorn snails in my main tank I am gradually removing my assassins from that tank. I want to move my rabbit snails over to it but want to be sure all assassins are gone first. I put my adult mystery snail in there a couple of days ago but now I am second guessing that decision. since reading what has happened to yours.

Now that I finally have a healthy one I would hate for anything to happen to it. This one is already bigger than a quarter. Were the ones your assassins got that big? I've not seen any assassins in the tank for at least a week now and I am constantly on the hunt for them so hopefully I have managed to remove all of them.

My smallest was about like a quarter, and the other 2 were about 3/4 grown. I have a large brown male I realized today is missing, probably for a week. Ugh, I hate digging around but will make time tomorrow. I'm also unable to find the other 3 assassins. Have been feeding either shrimp or bloodworms every day to give them something. I think we all have times we want to scream, this is one. Yes, guard your snail!

 

My smallest was about like a quarter, and the other 2 were about 3/4 grown. I have a large brown male I realized today is missing, probably for a week. Ugh, I hate digging around but will make time tomorrow. I'm also unable to find the other 3 assassins. Have been feeding either shrimp or bloodworms every day to give them something. I think we all have times we want to scream, this is one. Yes, guard your snail!

I hope you find the big guy alive and well. I have been keeping a very close eye on my big guy and am constantly on the look out for assassins. I don't really want to put any more ramshorns in the tank for them just in case there are no more in there. I don't want to get over run with ramshorns in there if there are no more assassins.

I have lifted and checked everything they normally hang out in along with putting food for them where I can keep a close eye on it. I've not seen any for well over a week but will still be constantly on the look out for them in case some try to slip by me. I want to be 100% positive there are none before I will put my rabbits in there.

 

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I hope you find the big guy alive and well. I have been keeping a very close eye on my big guy and am constantly on the look out for assassins. I don't really want to put any more ramshorns in the tank for them just in case there are no more in there. I don't want to get over run with ramshorns in there if there are no more assassins.

I have lifted and checked everything they normally hang out in along with putting food for them where I can keep a close eye on it. I've not seen any for well over a week but will still be constantly on the look out for them in case some try to slip by me. I want to be 100% positive there are none before I will put my rabbits in there.

I looked all over for my large one, didn't finish nd him, but at least not an empty shell! 2 days later I walked in the room and he was on the front glass! I think I had 4 assassins in there but hope ding well. Saw one in the sand Saturday and took him out. Every time I see a mystery sleeping, I get nervous! I've been adding more frozen protein just to be sure they're safer.

 

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I looked all over for my large one, didn't finish nd him, but at least not an empty shell! 2 days later I walked in the room and he was on the front glass! I think I had 4 assassins in there but hope ding well. Saw one in the sand Saturday and took him out. Every time I see a mystery sleeping, I get nervous! I've been adding more frozen protein just to be sure they're safer.

I am so happy to hear you found him alive and well. I've not found any more assassins in my tank but still don't feel it is safe enough to move my rabbits over from the small tank. I could be wrong but I am thinking the reason I've not seen any baby rabbits is because of the space limitations of the 5.5 gallon tank they are in. They may be holding off on breeding knowing there is not enough room for a bunch of them. I am hoping once I move them they will feel more comfortable.

You are in a catch 22 situation. You want to feed the assassins to keep them from going after your mysteries but lots of food will prompt them to breed and before long you will have more to worry about.

I am in the same situation. In my case I would like to put a few ramshorns in my tank to see if I draw any assassins out but if there are no more assassins in the tank I will have reintroduced the very snails I got the assassins for in the first place. I've not seen any assassins for about 2 weeks now but I still don't feel comfortable moving my rabbits over. The assassins might not bother the adults but I feel sure they will go after babies.

 

I am so happy to hear you found him alive and well. I've not found any more assassins in my tank but still don't feel it is safe enough to move my rabbits over from the small tank. I could be wrong but I am thinking the reason I've not seen any baby rabbits is because of the space limitations of the 5.5 gallon tank they are in. They may be holding off on breeding knowing there is not enough room for a bunch of them. I am hoping once I move them they will feel more comfortable.

You are in a catch 22 situation. You want to feed the assassins to keep them from going after your mysteries but lots of food will prompt them to breed and before long you will have more to worry about.

I am in the same situation. In my case I would like to put a few ramshorns in my tank to see if I draw any assassins out but if there are no more assassins in the tank I will have reintroduced the very snails I got the assassins for in the first place. I've not seen any assassins for about 2 weeks now but I still don't feel comfortable moving my rabbits over. The assassins might not bother the adults but I feel sure they will go after babies.

That's very possible. I'd like to find the others and get them out. I've been dropping some HTS in now and then so there's food. I'm not worried about baby assassins, they'd be harmless for awhile, I think I'd see them and pick them out.

Sorry for typos, I type on my Kindle before falling asleep. It seems to pick up a couple letters and fills in... bad guessing!