bumblebees - predators?

nancysnuwave

Premium Member
Hi

Someone gave me some bumblebees and shortly later my large turbo snail 'disappeared', and other snails have mostly gone..

Are these guys predators? If so, might they starve themselves out soon? :)
 
I had some bumblebee snails and they didn't eat my snails. I dont think bumblebee snails are predators, scavengers yes.
 
Oh I do think they are predators. I have them and I have seen them swarming a turbo. The turbo was upside down and about 10 bumblebees were feasting on it. I have also had a number of snails go missing and whenever I see a group of bumblebees, there's usually a turbo or margarita under them. I've been thinking of taking the bumblebees out because of this. First it was a coris wrasse eating all the snails, now it's these little buggers that look totally harmless. The other snails just can't get a break in my house!
 
I'm not chancing on waiting for them to starve. I have no idea how long that would take and I need the turbos, etc. to keep the tank clean and can't wait for these guys to just kick the bucket. Funny thing is I didn't know they ate other snails while the coris wrasse was in there. I never saw the bmbl's on one then, I guess the coris ate all the snails before they had a chance to get to them. I put the coris in another tank, and ever since then I've been seeing these bmbl's all over the snails. They ride on the others shells just waiting for an opportunity to snack on them!
 
catching snails:

Here's how I caught all mine and moved them from the 75 gallon to their new 200 gallon home.

Get one of those small "pet carriers" that they sell at Wal-Mart or the LFS for $2-$3, you just need a small one. Pop out the clear plastic lid, but leave on the colored lid (closed). Place the "bait" food inside, submerge in tank and place where it can't be knocked over (my clown hated the orange lid!). Check it every 1/2 hour, remove the buggers and move to their new home (LFS?).

Hope this helps?
 
They won't starve since they eat other creatures besides snails, such as worms and other small critters.
 
Photon said:
Do you know if the bumble bees will bother clams?

I don't know re: clams and bbb's.. I would suspect that there might be opinions offered on either side of that question..

My sense is that these are at least opportunistic carnivores..
 
Here's what Dr Ron has to say about Bumblebee Snails:

Engina species, including this one, are carnivores that subsist on eating carrion if necessary.

They are buccinid snails, and as such have a long proboscis that they can insert into clams, snails and worm tubes to rasp out the flesh of the prey. They likely secrete a poisonous "saliva" to immobilize their prey. Unlike the muricid snails, they do not have an "accessory boring organ." Consequently, they can not bore through calcareous substrata.

See this article for a discussion of predatory snails in general, but the article also shows the extension of the proboscis and feeding structures of a near relative of Engina that is found in temperate areas

They are preferentially predatory, that is to say they will eat living material in preference to scavenging food. If they do scavenge, they will preferentially scavenge carrion. Research on Engina species indicates, in nature, their diet preference is 1) worms, 2) snails, and 3) small clams. In a tank, there predatory activities may be obscured if 1) there are a lot of prey (such as worms) that are living in sediments (the hobbyist would simply not notice that they are being eaten, until the DSB started to fail) or a lot of snails. Additionally, as in all predatory snails of this nature, there are individual variations in dietary preferences, some individuals of the predator may prefer worms to snails, and vice versa. Interestingly, it turns out that they have to learn how to hunt, and will generally learn to eat the most abundant of their potential prey. Another point, though, they will always be predators.

Predators are not "found anywhere." Most predatory snails have both habitat and dietary preferences. The food for these more-or-less generalist predators would likely be found everywhere, and I suspect and differences in distribution would be due to other factors such as a prevalence of particular habitats or perhaps a differential distribution of their own predators. Also distributions vary through time. I have watched populations of some similar predatory snails, appear in an area, persist for about about 10 years, then vanish (in this case their predators became abundant), then after another 5 or 6 years reappear, presumably to start the cycles over.

As far as predators upon them in a reef system, I can't really suggest any that would be benign to other tank inhabitants. In nature, small buccinids are often eaten by small crabs, octopuses, sea stars, or some fishes.
 
gwrulzmylife said:
catching snails: Here's how I caught all .... Place the "bait" food inside, (LFS?). Hope this helps?


Hi gwrulzmylife,

Thanks.. this does help.. by the way.. any suggestions on bait?

Thanks,

Chris
 
I got some but took them all out because i see that they are killing my other snails and eat them.
Minh
 
J-Bass said:
Are Nassarius snails a no-no for clams too then?
Correctly Id Nassarius snails are OK. They are truely scavenger, but i am sure they don'k know something that is about to die from a dead snail.
 
CRUD!!!! SMFLFS (that would be **@#*@@ LFS) sold me a bunch of bumblebees in with my other snails and I was wondering why so many of my snails were dying. I figured it was just the water... CRUD!!!! Out come the BBs
 
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