A. Helena

[szidlon]

Re: Help!..Snail eating snails did too well a job......

It takes a long time for the eggs to hatch and only a very small portion of the eggs laid reach maturity.  The babies are tiny, tiny, tiny and hide in the substrate so you probably won't be able to see them until they are at least 1/32nd of an inch in length, and they grow at a snails pace.  I have some very small ones that are just now starting to roam about in the open but they are way too small to rehome.

Edit:

Here's a pic of an older baby and a group of newly hatched babies feeding on a piece of ramshorn snail one of the adults drug out of the shell.  You can barely tell by the photos, but the little blobs are indeed baby assasins, you can barely see the stripes on them.  I'm guessing the larger one, if you can call it a larger one, is about a month or so old.

[armthehomeless]

Re: Help!..Snail eating snails did too well a job......

and they grow at a snails pace.  

:think:

[fshfrk]

Re: Help!..Snail eating snails did too well a job......

somedody please bring some of these to me on the 14th. i will pay. i hate mts! they are like maggots.  

[nacra99]

Re: Help!..Snail eating snails did too well a job......

Well.... now i know what they have been eating....
Seems like they have a taste for "Expensive" foods...

[nacra99]

Re: A. Helena

Shrimp protein must be good for them ... i see babies!

[armthehomeless]

Re: A. Helena

8O Great pictures!

The shrimp wasn't already dead, was it?

[armthehomeless]

Re: A. Helena

Here is some on aquabid:

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwsnails&1227481988

...I'll split the order with someone...

[szidlon]

Re: A. Helena

Congrats on the babies, I have a bunch myself, aren't they cute  8) .  They also like bloodworms and beefheart in the event you run out of MTS's, but I thought they were safe with shrimp.  I can never get pictures that turn out as good as yours   .  I should have some available for the next auction, but that won't be until next year. I'm going to turn some of my larger babies loose in a couple of other tanks.  They seem to do just fine without human intervention.  My largest babies are now about half an inch in size.

[nacra99]

Re: A. Helena

Half an inch? that's pretty good.
Mine are like little specs. I have to look real hard to even find any.

Mine seem to love hikari carnivore pellets. I'll try out some bloodworms and see how they like it.

I didn't see the snail snag the shrimp, but i'm willing to bet the shrimp was already dead. It was fascinating watching them devour the shimp. It seems like they insert their "mouth" under the shell and suck up the flesh, leaving behind a perfectly intact shrimp exoskeleton... intriguing.

[szidlon]

Re: A. Helena

I try to keep mine on MTS's with Ramshorns, beefheart or bloodworms as a treat once a week or so.  I don't want them to become too domesticated and lose their most endearing quality, that of hunting MTS's   .  Tossing an algae wafer, or just about anything else for that matter,  in the tank draws out the MTS's so I can see if it's time to replenish their live food supply.  The Assassins can make really short work of Ramshorns so the only ones they get are ones I pull from another tank.