Assassin Snail baby?

Matt,

They can survive drying out for extended periods of time. They can crawl across land. They can handle sewage and bad water conditions, and they can handle chlorine. They can handle cold, even freezing conditions. FYI, I once drained a tank and sprayed it with bleach to get rid of MTS. The MTS and the assassin snails that weren't controlling them fast enough BOTH survived it. It's amazing what a strong operculum will let you survive.

Putting them in the compost pile, all it would take would be a rainstorm, even a day or two later, and they can crawl from there into a storm drain (which is NOT the same as a sewer), and into a local body of water.

Ever seen a Sculpin eat a minnow? It's not about speed. Shrimp and other prey eventually blunder in front of the snail, and the snails nab them. (FYI, I have also seen them actively hunt them... shrimp sits there eating and doesn't notice this snail slowly, slowly, slowly creeping up, until ... BAM!). They do not actively hunt them down. However, they can (and probably would) love to find a collection of relatively immobile insect larvae, or even ambush relatively motile ones. Put them in a healthy stream, and they'll easily devour mayfly larvae, as well as eating the mayfly larvae's food.

As to them not breeding in all tanks... I've never had them not breed, myself, but that just means that most of my tanks are under similar conditions! Once an invasive species finds a niche to exploit, and once they start breeding, it is only a matter of time before placisity takes effect and they're able to breed in other habitats. It can be really, really hard to get a plant started in your garden, under relatively ideal conditions, but that same plant can, once established, become invasive and spread from the "ideal" garden into every single yard, forests, whatever. (Heck, I can't keep Brazilian Elodea alive, and that's an invasive species).

I'm not saying (at this point) that they need to be restricted or anything of the sort. In fact, it's probably too late to put any kind of meaningful restrictions on them anyhow. All I'm saying is that those of who have them should practice caution with them and avoid throwing live snails down the drain. Frankly, and bluntly, we should exercise caution and avoid throwing ANYTHING live down the drain, be it assassin snails, Malaysian Trumpet Snails (which are well established in some areas, and a major vector of several fish diseases in the wild), plant clippings, duckweed, cherry shrimp (which are also established in the wild now), and especially fish.

As hobbyists, we have a strong responsibility to do nothing less. Not only is this vital to help protect our natural ecosystems from invasive species -- a problem which is second only to climate change in its effect on our planet right now -- but we also owe it to the hobby. I've made this point many times before, but several years ago, an irresponsible "hobbyist" released several pet fish into an ecosystem, which rapidly reproduced and can now be found throughout the Potomac River system and others. As a result, our government responded by banning the entire Snakehead family, which includes many beautiful, small fish that stand no chance of surviving north of Florida, and precious little there. Part of this was a result of panic and media bloat, but we've seen similar reactions for other species. Indeed, because irresponsible hobbyists released the beautiful, easy to cultivate plant, Hygrophila polysperma, we can no longer buy/sell/trade this plant legally between states, nor any of its cultivars. In some states (Virginia) it is illegal to by or sell it at all. Some states further restricted the sale of any plant in the genus "Hygrophila," or any that even had the word "Hygro" in its name, including plants like "Giant Hygro" which is noninvasive (and terrestrial, but that's another topic).

Snails are actually REALLY tough to get into the US via import because of some problem children, particularly the apple snails. Personally, I strongly suspect that the only reason Nerites get in any numbers is because their genus is primarily tropical marine. (A LOT of snails are imported under the Nerite and Neritina genera, including those that are not -- Rabbit Snails for example, usually come in as Nerite spp.). It wouldn't be a big jump for the FWS to ban the import of all types of snails without special permit as a result of a new invasion, particularly one that could cause such widespread havoc as the Assassin Snail.

We all know that politicians aren't particularly well educated -- anyone with half a brain knows better than to get into politics! -- and particularly in the biological sciences. Knee jerk reactions rule. Do you really want to see entire genera or families banned from the hobby -- even ignoring the impact they could have?

Many years ago, the Province of Quebec entertained legislation banning the sale, purchase, import or trade of any species of Carp (Cyprinidae). This was quietly moved along until someone pointed out that it would make it illegal to sell goldfish, zebra danios, red tail sharks, etc. It was intended to protect against <i>CARP</i>, but....

Similarly, Virginia has made the sale or trade of all species of Crawfish illegal, mostly because of the Rusty and a few other invasives. This includes the Electric Blue, Dwarf Craws, etc. (It is sporadically and irregularly enforced).

Taking a "I'm not concerned" attitude is a really irresponsible move, for the hobby and for the planet. We've only got one Earth, and it's not Uranus, so keep it clean.

Josh,

To respond to your post to me:

My compost bins aren't "piles" and nothing gets washed out. They're closed, more to keep four legged critters out, but that also keeps the snails and aquatic plants in until they're composted. Probably less risk in those than disposing of snails in the trash.

As your point about how they catch shrimp, I don't think we disagree. They occasionally catch shrimp. I just don't think they catch very many.

As to your post immediately above, I'm not sure why you're posting about "a 'I'm not concerned' attitude" about invasive species, because I don't think anybody said they weren't concerned. In short, I don't think anyone in this thread (or likely in the club) disagrees about invasive species.