White Assassin Snails?

[Aubrey]

I guess I never really looked that closely in one of my tanks, but I have some assassin snails that are white/cream colored. The tank they are in is also over run with Malaysian trumpet snails that are a similar color, I guess thats why I haven't noticed them before. Is this common? I don't think it's a calcium deficiency. I mean they do have some pitting at the point of their shells, but all of my snails do.

[Cory]

I hadn't seen that, I wonder if it's like an melanistic form or if it's calcium deficiency? 

[Aubrey]

@Cory I would not think it's a calcium deficiency because the tank is littered with the breaking down remains of their Malaysia trumpet snail victims. Not to mention my water tests at 300 gh and 80 kh out of the tap. I think any pitting they have is from burrowing in eco complete. Although I suppose there are enough snails reproducing in the tank that the calcium could be depleted quickly. I don't know if another deficiency or perhaps a disease might cause the coloration or if it is a color morph. I only saw one article mentioning white shells as a rare color variant and only a handful more mentioning an all brown variant. I've counted around 5 in that tank with varying age/size and there are many more that are just normal colored. I guess I will have to remove some and try to selectively breed them to see if they will produce more.

[Lycramosa]

That's pretty interesting. I have a breeding colony of Assassins that have been going for a few years and I've seen some lighter brown and darker brown but none that light of a color.

[Alesha]

Wow. I've got tons of assassins in my tank, but I've never seen that coloration either. I'll be interested to see if you find a concrete answer. They are really something!