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Assassin snails eat live shrimp!

108K views 47 replies 26 participants last post by  Khaleeka 
#1 ·
I know that there has been controversy on whether assassin snails eat shrimp or not. Well, I am here to tell you that they DO!:icon_cry: I received 8 assassin snails yesterday and I put them in my red cherry shrimp tank. This is a breeder tank and it has over 150 shrimp. I have just as much pond snails in there as well. I decided to try and reduce the pond snail population by adding some assassin snails. I put the assassin snails in the tank at 10pm and this morning there were 3 adult red cherry shrimp that were dead and one still being eaten. The night before all the shrimp were alive and healthy. I haven’t lost a shrimp in over 2 months so I know that they were all healthy. One assassin snail was still sucking out the meat of a red cherry shrimp :icon_evil. I just wanted everyone to know that if you have a high population of shrimp and you want to add assassin snails to your tank be prepared to loose some shrimp.
 
#40 ·
I was doing a google search for assassin snails killing shrimp and came across this thread. After reading through it i thought i would add my own experience.
I bought a group of 10 assassin snails to control the number of mts in my 180l planted tank. I have had these snails about 3 months and there are hundreds of snails in there to eat.
About a week ago i went to my lfs and bought a bag of ghost shrimp. I put about 20 in the tank as a cheap alternative to rcs, they only cost £1 for 10 and would add some interest in the tank, and boy was it quick. I was watching tv when i saw out of the corner of my eye a shrimp struggling to pull away and when i looked there was a assassin snail grabbing hold of his tail. After about 2 minutes the shrimp managed to break free losing half his tail in the process. It didnt get far it was like the shrimp was paralyzed and the bottom of his tail had turned a white colour. All of a sudden the snails started coming out of the sand en masse and attacking any shrimp that was near it. The shrimp didnt help themselves, it was like they were being drawn in to the snails, walking over them as if they were trying to clean the snails and then getting insnaired on the assassins death tube. Over the course of about four hours the snails must have killed about 10 shrimp,it was like watching a horror movie in slow motion. That evening i decided to remove all the assassins i could find. It was still easy because most of them were gourging on dead shrimp. I managed to get 8 snails out. The next morning i looked in to find an assassin clung on to another shrimp.
I know most people have had no problems with assassins and shrimp but i witnessed them chasing down and killing shrimp time after time.
I have all the assassins in a small tank and might get a few more shrimp and put them in and record it so as to show people it can happen.
Sorry for long post
 
#46 ·
FWIW, I had a half dozen of these whelks in a heavily planted 20g long tank that was heavily populated with, (at the time), as many different species of shrimp, (actually more, I had a couple of the less common Neocaridina sp. that don't breed in fresh water, as well as some Green Lace Shrimp and Amanos in there), already heavily populated with MTS, pond snails, gammarus, etc.

I never noticed the assassins munching on any shrimp, (though it's entirely possible that they may have given the density of the plants and fauna). The tank also had four of those Clithon Nerites, though I never introduced any Ramshorns. Anyway, the Assassins never bred, so perhaps they were all the same sex, and though I was concerned about losing some of my Horned Nerites, they actually outlived the Assassins more or less, so it seems that Assassins prefer Ramshorns > MTS > pond snails > Nerites > shrimp. Please correct me if I'm wrong, or missing something.

It's fascinating watching nature balance itself. The transformation from what the tank originally looked like, with its myriad of plant and invertebrate species, to what it has become now. Overtime, left alone, the plants became an ever-changing under-water jungle, which has seemingly finally settled into what is essentially a massive thicket of (primarily) Subwassertang, though I did move a year ago and the tank is under significantly lower lighting than it used to be. It seems the flora in the tank were waging a war of their own, just as the fauna in the tank were/are. I wonder what it says about me that I find observing the behavior of snails so fascinating, especially given the fact that there are always fish/shrimp/crays/whatever that move around the tank at a much quicker pace! Any thoughts? I know I can't be the only one on this forum whose spent hours with their eye balls glued to the sides of their aquariums staring at their snails lol :nerd:
 
#48 ·
I know that this is highly out of date, but my assassins are particularly fond of Betta pellets. Either they (the snails) are hanging out at the top of the tank, or the pellets swell with water and drop down, where they ingest them. In figuring out what to feed them (I don't have pest snails, but am breeding them), I would find a lot of the food uneaten at the bottom and have to siphon it out for hygenic reasons, but have never spotted any sunken pellets.
 
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