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so that's how the assassin snail kills it's prey. Thanks for sharing.
Hello,
Wanted to share my experience of my Assassin Snail killing a live shrimp. I have 7 assassin snails in my 43L Fluval Edge tank. The tank is an invert only tank with all kinds of dwarf shrimps plus a few otos. The snails have done a good job killing all the pond snails in my tank, so I do like them alot and feel the benefits outweigh the risks in having them. (if any at all)
I do feed my shrimps a varied diet, and sometimes i do feed them algae catfish pellets that sink to the floor. Thing about these catfish pellets is that all the shrimps will cluster around and try to feed on the pellets. I have on occasion seen the assassin snails also joining in the cluster feeding frenzy, but they never seemed too interested in the pellets. So i was kind of puzzled what were they doing there. On one occasion, I turned my attention to the tank and was shocked to see the assassin snail devouring a CBS. From the bright coloring of the CBS, i could be certain that it was alive just a few mins ago as their body coloring rapidly deteriorates after death. It however was not struggling anymore and the entire head was engulfed by the assassin snail in an awkward position. I quickly tried to pull the assassin snail out but it was too late as the CBS was dead. I managed to capture some shots of the event as below.
20150217_000220.jpg 20150217_000031.jpg
A typical cluster feeding frenzy in my tank...
http://oi61.tinypic.com/34np7jk.jpg
I did not actually see the kill, but from my observation of the snails and what i saw, i deduce that the snails routinely try (intentionally or unintentionally) to climb over the shrimps. and when their slimy undercarriage manages to wrap around a shrimp's head, it can actually prevent the shrimp from escaping and snuff it out entirely as it slowly starts to suck out the shrimp's innards. I do believe the chances of this occurring are very small, and are probably higher when the shrimps are clustering to feed on a pellet as they are less likely to be scared off while their guard is down. So unless you are rearing some thousand dollar pure red line CRS, dont be afriad to keep them in your tank!
As a side note, i also manage to catch my assassin snail sucking the juices out of a pond snail in the video below. Watch it in HD to see its tongue in action! =P
from 14L to 8L tank.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing
I would also like to add that i have 5 adult bumblebee nerite snails and one adult zebra nerite snail in my tank. If you buy the smaller sized assasin snails, (i got mine from C32, they will leave the nerites totally alone and only eat up the smaller pond snails. In the unfortunate occasion when i spotted one adventurous assassin snail trying to take on my zebra nerite snail, it attached itself to the snail for almost 10 mins. However in the end it was...
Nerite Snail-1, Assassin Snail-0. The nerite snail was able to walk away unscathed and uninjured.
IMG-20150215-WA0010.jpg
As i understand, nerite snails are able to close their trap door when intimidated, and this trapdoor has a very tough covering that the assassin snail's tongue is unable to penetrate. Whether this is true or not, so far it is in line to my observations.
Very cool video! Great info
Cheers,
JJ
They live up to their name,so you have a league of assassin snails in your tank,yes, the eat and attack but you
yet have to see them breed,their eggs are very unsightly and tough to remove.
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