Snail Eating Fish

[brooke]

I briefly mentioned this in someone else's thread a while ago, but I am not sure anyone noticed and thought I would share:

My tank was pretty overrun with snails (not as bad as some I have seen, though) and I was trying to decide what to do about it when I noticed my danios and gourami trying to eat them. I thought it was so strange because I didn't know they did that, but they managed to suck them right out of their shells. I kept watching and noticed my nannas doing it... and my catfish trying to eat them, too!

Now I don't have ANY snails... just lots of empty shells! Is this normal?

[Amidicus]

I'd say your fish figured out the solution for you! And they got to have a hardy helping of escargo.If you have tiny snails,make sure the fish don't eat the shells.I had the same problem with snails many years ago.I used to crush those tiny snails and the fish would feast.Then I found out they can not digest the shell.I had a zebra danio that eventually died from it's stomach rupturing(believe it or not).In your case,if there are only eating the snail it's self,it seems pretty natural.Fish love live food!

[CrazieEddie]

I'm not sure if the fish were able to suck the snails out of the shells. I would have to think the fish were picking off things growing on the snail shells. The dead snails you have seen could have been from something else, like maybe copper in the water.

[brooke]

I actually saw it happen! I was watching snails crawl along the glass, then a fish would come up, suck it in and spit it out over and over until the empty shell fell to the ground. I was thrilled, but it does mean I lost my puffer's supply of snails.

[Tonto57]

at one point i had tons of snails in my 20, and then my
mollie had tail rot, so i used melafix.
well the mollie lived but it tottaly wiped out all my snails.

[crazyred]

My angelfish love to pick and poke at my snails, but I still have tons of them so they must not have figured out how to get them out. I need a loach, but have no room for any, so I'm just stuck with snails. :cool:

[brooke]

I kind of miss my snails. They were fun to watch, and were a good supplement for my puffers. I think they miss them, too. They look no where near as fat. I was hoping some would be able to start breeding in their tank, but if they can't even escape a gourami, they won't escape them!