setting up a 2.5 gallon MTS breeder tank... help please!

Okay so I discovered assassin snails (bumble bee snails) when looking up how to help get rid of them in his 2 75 gallon tanks... I already have nearly 100 at my home in the tank and though its small I never see them... so so the plan is to take a jar and put a slice of cucumber inside and trap them that was seems to be working but maybe there is something else we can try before I have to head home?

Anyways like I said the tank is 2.5 and I have about 100 already and will be adding about 50-200 more from my brothers tanks... I plan to get a 5 gallon long I have a small air filter ( when the water is pumped through with a weak air pump) they have been eating some left over food from the 8 minnows I keep in the tank as well. They seem to want to starve before eating the plants in the tank... now for a few questions...

1 what would be a good food supply for them?

2 should I stick with my little filter or get a slightly stronger one?

3 do they need a bubble or should I just buy some plants?

4. Heat or no heat? My brotherrs tanks 1 is tropical the other is chiclid(sp?) So can adding heat cause them to breed more? The group at my house has no heaters but seem to do fine...

5 gravel or sand? Or does it really matter?

I think that's all I can think of... if you can add more info please do so... this is my first go with snails and I'd love for them to flurish for when I get my assassin snail breeding program started

 

mts are very cool snails unless forced most won't destroy plants and will eat algae and food that sits on the bottom of the tank of the 3 potential pest snails they are some of the nicer ones ramshorns reproduce about the same speed as assassin but if you want a food source for your assassins I would say pond snails assassins will eat the eggs any lay and let me tell you as someone who needs a pair of assassins pond snails if left unchecked will multiply exponetially I currently have 3 species of snail in my tank ramshorn mts and pond snails mts I have seen 1 ramshorns I have seen 1 pond snails uncountable numbers now exist in my tank.

And if this tank is just going to be a farm for growing them bare bottom or crushed coral you will want a better filter as your talking about a breeder tank and feeder tank it will be your goal to over populate the feeder tank so you have enough food to feed your assassin breeder tank. For the feeder tank I would pick up pond snails to use in addition to your mts. You will also probably want to put a cuttle bone or 2 in your filter as your snails will need it to make the shells they will deplete the water very quickly.

 

well the mts are the only "pest" snail we have here. And we have A LOT of them lol but heck if I can find some I may make a ramshorn and pond snail breeder tanks as well I love snails much to the dismay of my brother.

 

you won't have enough mts to feed the assassins for more than 1 month and assassins burrow in the substrate just like mts honestly I hate pond snails I like ramshorn somewhat and I love mts I just introduced about 7 to my new sand bottom 29 gallon tank immediately they dove into the sand I'm hoping they get into the hundreds in number I also took my 2 CAE I had stuck in a 5 gallon temporarily till I brought up or found them a new home for now at least they seem to enjoy the space they I also have a black apple snail that my guppies were picking on to the point he had a hole eaten into his side so he is enjoying the 29 gallon with no guppies atm.

I have heard apple snails are very prolific breeders and leave calcerous masses of eggs but I have not seen it.

As for where to get pond snails go to petco ask them if they have any you can have they will likely give them to you same with ramshorns alternately mine were hitchhikers off plants I bought there hornwort and some anubias... At first I saw one the size of a bb then I saw a clutch of eggs then I saw 10 the size of a pin head then I saw 30 now 60 and now I can't count how many I have I keep blinking and more appear...

 

I went to my local Walmart and saw they had bb size pond snails in their tanks so I plan to call them and the petsmart and ask them as well... and as for the amount of mts I currently have could easily pass 1000+ in my brothers 3 tanks plus the ones I have now... I also went out and bought some tetra brand algae wafers so the should have plenty of food I dropped 4 in (1 in each corner)...

Now when I go about getting the pond snails and ramshorn's are they able to be housed together or would it be best to keep the 3 seperated?

 

Welcome to FishLore!

Finally, something I am an expert in! ;D I had too many pond snails and ramshorns in my 55 gallon tank, so I bought a pair of assassins. Now, I breed snails in all my other tanks just to feed them!

I'm a little confused about what you're trying to do. Can you try to clarify a bit? It seems like you had too many MTS, so you got some assassins? I guess I'm confused because when you talk about "them," I'm not sure if you mean MTS or assassins!

Either way, 100 of anything in a 2.5 gallon tank is way too many. They'll be crawling all over each other! I can't really answer your questions specifically until I know whether or not it's about MTS or assassins. So, I'll just describe what I do a bit, since it seems to maybe be what you're trying to do.

So, my assassins are in my 55 gallon community tank. They surprisingly quickly ran through all the ramshorns and pond snails that were in the tank. I'd rather they have their natural food of snails rather than shrimp pellets, so I raise various snails in other tank.

In my 5.5 gallon betta tank, I have MTS. (I'll start with this since I saw you mention MTS.) MTS like to dig in the substrate, so I chose sand for this tank. I had one MTS in a tank with gravel, and he would always try to bury himself, and usually wasn't too successful. If it's MTS you're trying to raise, I would definitely suggest sand. Half the time I can't see any of the larger ones (the babies like to hang out all over the plants) because they're completely buried in the sand. This tank stays at about 78 degrees. I feed them algae wafers and shrimp pellets, alternating every other other day (IE feed a shrimp pellet, skip a day, feed an algae wafer, skip a day, etc).

In my 10 gallon tank, I have pond snails and ramshorns. (I used to have just pond snails, and I kept the ramshorns in my RCS tank, but I'll be getting red ramshorns to go with them soon, so the pond snails will have to share their humble abode ). I don't purposely feed them anything. There is a bit of algae in the tank, and I'm currently quarantining cory cats, so I put in a shrimp pellet every night, which I assume they pick up the leftover bits. Oh I also put in cucumber; I don't think the cories really eat it, but the snails are always all over it, so I do that roughly once a week or so.

I'm still actually in the process of increasing my numbers before I start transferring them over to the tank with the assassins. I'm hoping that I can put in a large enough amount so as to establish a colony in the main tank. Though if that happens, then I wouldn't need to be raising them in other tanks! I was moving a half dozen or so pond snails over daily for awhile, and never saw any of them, so I'm assuming they got ate before they were able to reproduce. I also want them to be a decent size when I put them in, as it would seem silly to put in itty bitty snails, and I've read that assassins will pass up baby snails and wait for them to get bigger anyway.

I hope that answered some of your questions! I love assassin snails; even if I didn't originally have a pest snail problem, I think they look awesome. And tiny stripey baby snails are so adorable!

 

He seems to be wanting to breed assassins and is now setting up a food farm.

All 3 species can be housed together pond mts and ramshorns can all be in the same tank and I would use several 1gal jars lit by the sun as my goal would be to grow as much algae as possible. Or a 10-20 gallon tank to do this with with coral sand bottom.

 

Well right now I'm just wanting to breed MTS I haven't purchased the assassin snails as of yet I wanted to be sure I have a decent number of snails and I went to my local Walmart and they said they sale pond snails which confused me because I saw no sticker thing for them and they couldn't tell me the price? Idk dumb people lol. I forgot to ask my petsmart and the pet shoppe (that the other pet place here in town)

Do you guys know where I can look for some pond/ramshorns online? Free or cheap, my budget really sucks lol...

 

Do you have any other pet stores near you? Most stores will gladly give pond snails away for free.

If you're using small jars to breed, you won't be able to house very many. Snails are actually pretty big waste producers, as they eat all the time and what goes in must come out

 

Nope I'm using a 2.5 gallon for my MTS and I have 3 two gallon critter carriers that I plan to use for the pond snails and ramshorn snails. And I have a filter in the MTS tank and a few bamboo plants that have grown a ton since beeing added... and I do a 25-50% water change weekly to help the bass minnows in there as well.

As for pet shops we have petsmart, the local mom and pop one and Walmart... no other that I know of... and the mom and pop store is moving to a new location next week so I'll be stuck with petsmart for about a month for crickets and mealworms, lol sorry off topic there.

 

I've seen pond snails at Petsmarts before, especially in the plant tank (if yours still has live plants, a lot are switching to those plastic tubes). You don't need too many either; with a couple clutches you'll have plenty of snails to raise.

 

Okay I'll check with petsmart tomorrow. They do have the tubed plants but some other kinds are placed in the tanks as well so I'll never know...

And how fast do pond snails breed? And how lond for eggs to hatch?

 

Minutes seconds well let's put it like this I did not have any then I bought 2tube plants and some horn wort and another that got mixed in with the horn wort I had 1 then about 4 days past and I saw 2 then during my cleaning I found 3 had not yet seen the ramshorn but then the next week I had over a dozen now it is less than a month later and I have more snails than gravel.

 

They do breed quickly. Within a couple weeks of putting the two large ones in my tanks, there were already a few clutches, and each clutch has a whole bunch of little babies.

 

If Walmart told you they sell them they are either not pond snails or are lying

 

If Walmart told you they sell them they are either not pond snails or are lying

I believe I have a dumb Walmart... they won't give them to me and won't sell them either... i'm kinda confused, lol. Anyways I was looking at some other tanks on here and I love te idea of sand for my snails. They are in a graveled tank now... how to I go about switching to sand and not lose any snails in the prosses.. I've aded maybe 100 MTS since posting this thread ( mix of breeding and brother giving me his unwanted snails)

 

Pick out the ones you see, but it's inevitable you'll lose some. I surely lost many pond snails switching from gravel to sand in my 10 gallon, but they've laid four clutches already so I'm sure I'm back to where I was.

 

I like how my bladder snails swim they don't just crawl on walls they let loose swim across the top of the water go up and down they outnumber my guppies I am hoping a pair of assassins puts a stop to that my 29 g though I'm going to be very careful not to let any pond snails into unless I get some loaches but in my 29 gallon I'm hoping to get a good strong colony of mts going

 

I'm glad I wasn't the only one confused.

Lots of information above, I will only add if you want your assassins to breed, you really should go with a sand substrate. When the young are born, they burrow into the substrate and stay there for the first few months of their life. It will be a lot easier for them if you have sand.

 

So I just ordered 10 assassin snails on eBay its cheaper than getting them from my lfs and free shipping so 29.95 not bad ... I'll post some pics of my mts setup and the tank the assassins will be heading to as well in the morning...

 

So here I what 22 days and 100 or so snails does




The waters looks foggy because of the picture the water is actually clear I do 25% water changed ever 7 days and they eat 2 algae wafers in 3 days so I feed them like every 3 days (ie. Feed today wait til their gone and wait 3 days then feed again)

 

You probably don't have to feed that much. Save some food/money and keep your water cleaner. I aI'm to feed every 2-3 days.

 

that is what my 10 gallon looks like but replace all of those with pond snails... THEY ATE ONE OF THE ASSASSINS I PUT IN...

 

Pond snails don't eat assassins silly

 

What if the pond snails were really ninja snails..

And then the assasin snails bred with the ninjas...

To create NINJA ASSASIN Snails

 

KinezumI - that's what I had meant. It takes them about 2 days to eat 2 wafers then I wait about 3 to feed again.

Linas - I finally got Walmart to give me some pond snails... big guys too lol... I have abut 10 mixed with the MTS I'm thinking about getting a 10 gallon for the snails so they aren't on top of each other...

Tigress- I want a ninja assassin snail would be epic lol

 

Name it Ryson

 

Yes, Ryson seems like a ninjastic name!!!

 

If you know what I am hinting at, then yes, it is a VERY ninjistic name

 

Nope not a clue what your hinting at.

 

:'(

 

It happens... sorry..

 

Pond snails don't eat assassins silly

then they are using its shell for a new home cause about 5 small pond snails crawled into it and eventually came out...

 

I would assume the assassin died and the pond snails went in to scavenge.

 

Logically speaking it possibly died as kinezumI suggests... but the funner option is the pond snails revolted on their agressor and rose up the tanks food chain

 

Okay so I was staring at my tank and realized like I have a billion tiny cones floating everywhere ( sign of lots of breeding) but I don't seem to see any of my larger snails anywhere... my biggest at 2 in even disapearred and they aren't around the outside of the tank or in the small bubble filter... I find this strange...

Also should I turn this into a blog? Like a snail breeding blog that includes my pond snails and assassins? I still need to find ramshorn snails... no one has any around here :/