Cleaner shrimp eaten alive by nassarius snail?

[ryguylears]

I came home today to see my large cleaner shrimp being eaten alive by a nassarius snail. I have had him for about 2 weeks, he was doing great. Would come out to greet me, when I dropped pellets or food in he would come running.
Then the past day or so he started hiding like he did when I first got him. Came home today and he was being eaten alive by a snail they had its Tentacle all the way into the shrimps body. He was still flicking his tail and wiggling and very much alive. What gives? All my parameters were perfect.

Are nassarius snails known for attacking something that's not dead? Maybe my cleanup crew was just really hungry? I have no fish yet, 2 clowns are in qt for another few weeks, but I have been ghost feeding 10ish pellets twice a day for the cuc. I did slightly up the salinity from 024-025 over the course of a few days, could that have weakened the shrimp to the point where a snail could kill him?

 

[pagojoe]

Nassarius are meat eaters. There are multiple reports of the large species being found eating other animals that are still alive (though they may have been ailing, or injured). Then again, there are thousands of people who will tell you Nassarius won't kill anything.

Cheers,



Don

 

[Betta132]

Nassarius eat anything that can't get away. They don't directly kill things, but they'll finish off anything disabled. If one was eating the shrimp, the shrimp was already dying.
The 'tentacle' is the snail's mouth.
I don't think a minor salinity change over a couple of days would kill the shrimp. Look into copper contamination and such.

 

[ryguylears]

Yeah he looked like he wai ailing a bit, i dont know from what. He seemed to be doing so great for like a week. Could I have overfed him? It looked like he was getting 1 or 2 pellets a day.

 

[Code4]

My cleaner shrimp eats a ton. Clams, pellets, black worms, baby brine shrimp, you get the picture. He is a big bully over food. Steals it from my send to when I try to feed it. I have several nassarius snails. They come up from the sand when they sense food. Oh and the cleaner loves red algae sheets also. It eats anything. I have had it for almost two years. I do not think you over Fed it. Get a little one next time and watch it grow up. I would feed it more also. Just my opinion.

Shelley