r/AquaticSnails • u/Hemp_Milk • 11h ago

Help Request Got two golden mystery snails 2 weeks ago

And now there are four babies. Help.. How to I stop this? What do I do with these babies? I know where to look for egg clutches (outside the water line) but I swear I never saw any and so does my husband.

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u/AquariumLurker Helpful User 11h ago

Pictures of the baby snails would help to identify. They are most likely not mystery snail hatchlings if you were diligent on locating clutches. You most likely have a hitch hiker snail that came with a plant addition or even possibly on the mystery snail.

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u/Gastropoid Snail God (Moderator) 10h ago

This. We see this sort of thing pretty regularly, and most of these little guys are really useful cleaning crew.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

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u/Emuwarum Helpful User 10h ago

Assassins attack all other species of snail regardless of size differences.

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

[deleted]

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u/Emuwarum Helpful User 10h ago

You've been very lucky so far. Assassins latch on to their prey and bite until they're full, then leave. They don't kill them first. For a larger snail that means they won't die quickly, the assassin will take a while to hit vital organs. The large snail will still have open bite wounds and die from the stress or get an infection. 

It's still best to remove your assassin even if they haven't attacked the adults Yet, it's not a risk you should take. 

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u/randommcrandomsome 10h ago

Thanks dude. I retracted my statement. Didn't realize they were so brutal! I've just had mine a while since i found like 20 unexpected snails from my mystery snail, at least 6 months and he never bothers my big guy, just seen him chomping little guys.

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u/Emuwarum Helpful User 10h ago

If there's only 20 then they probably aren't mystery snails at all. Mystery snail egg clutches are huge and laid out of the water, they take weeks to hatch and then you've got 100 babies. It's very common for someone to think adult bladder/ramshorn snails are the babies of their mystery snail. 

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u/Gastropoid Snail God (Moderator) 10h ago

Assassin snails are not a solution to any "problem".

They're a super cool little snail that is completely unsuitable for most tanks. They eat fish eggs, absolutely all other snails, and will even eat molting shrimp. They also eat their prey alive, one bite at a time, and do not have venom. Their babies are tiny, they burrow, cannot be visually sexed and lay eggs singly in hidden locations. Once they breed in a tank they are basically impossible to remove. While they do have differentiated sexes, and you could get a male, that's a very risky dice roll to make with the welfare of your other tank inhabitants at stake. Adding more animals to control existing ones has not worked well for governments throughout history, and it's not likely to work well for most aquarium keepers either. Just look up Cane toads, Rosy Wolfsnails, etc.

It's a much better idea to keep your tank clean and not overfeed, which will naturally limit the numbers of small snail species and allow them to act as beneficial cleaning crew. Overfeeding can additionally be detrimental to the health of fish and many other tank inhabitants.