carnivorous nasarius snails??

[trigger05]

So i just bought a cleaner shrimp today and i placed him in my tank. Within the hour, i see that my nasarius snail is munching on him. Are nassarius snails known to be predatory?

 

[iamwhatiam52]

They are carnivores, but I do not believe they are able to subdue healthy prey. They are pretty quick and have a great sense of smell, but remember, they are SNAILS.

 

[charlesr1958]

I would first suspect that the shrimp died from an acclimation issue and the snail was just simply doing its clean up job.

Chuck

 

["Umm fish?"]

Detritivores. They will pass by living creatures. There are some whelks that look a good bit like them, though.

 

[pagojoe]

They're not really detrivores, but Chuck is right, the most likely scenario is that the shrimp died and the Nassarius were doing their job. However, depending on the species, Nassarius will sometimes attack shrimp, and other animals, when they are first introduced into their tank, and it doesn't seem to depend much on how healthy the new introductions are. Maybe just a result of "new smell" stimuli.

Cheers,



Don

 

["Umm fish?"]

Hey Don, you're the expert, but I've also heard tales of them starving to death right next to living creatures when there wasn't enough dead tissue. Does that make sense?

 

[pagojoe]

Absolutely. If nothing triggers their feeding instinct, like the smell of body fluids, blood, decay, or stress chemicals, or something that smells like something they've eaten before, they would starve to death. Even then, some species are probably much less capable of killing their own prey, and couldn't do so even if they realized the food was right beside them. Other species, like the large Nassarius arcularius, are fully capable of killing lots of different animals, but may only do it when exposed to the correct stimuli.

Cheers,



Don

 

[BlastoEric1589]

+1 pagojoe

 

["Umm fish?"]

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification!

 

[trigger05]

yeah this was one of the larger nasarius snails, not those 1/2" varieties