snail eaters

[scotteim]

Just curious. Are corys known to be snail eaters? I have four C. gossei in a 20 gallon aquarium, they're all alone in there. I always seem to be vaccuming up empty snail shells when I do my weekly water changes. Does anyone know if they eat snails?



Scotteim

[jar]

I have never actually seen them eat snails personally. I have had a similar experience to you, i had a bunch of snail shells appear on the bottom of the tank over a few days to a week. I wondered if it was somethign to do with water quality or smail food source more than anything else.

[corywink]

interesting, when I tore down my planted tank, that had plenty of snails, and switched to a mix cory tank, the snails eventually disappeared. I always assumed it was because of the corys efficiancy in eating all the food and therefore no leftovers for the snails.

[MatsP]

I would suspect that corys also eat the eggs or newly hatched snails, but not the more mature ones - the shells are more likely to be "natural causes".

--
Mats

[jac]

I have placed a topic about snails and corydoras some time ago.
It was a personal experience with big snails and young corydoras. The snails always died in the tank with the young ones. Maybe the toxin, released when corys are stressed (during feeding or waterchanghes), is to high for some snails.
Now I've got shrimps in with the young corys and they are doing fine.

I have never seen corys eat snails.

[Richard B]

Look at the mouth of a Cory - it is not equipped to deal with snails (eggs orhatchlings might be a different story though).

In short snails are not likely to be eaten by Corys, unlike, for example,

Megalodoras uranoscopus

or

Synodontis multipunctata

which will eat snails

[Atlantis Child]

I keep my snails under control by squishing them when they come to the top. The bodies go down, and my corys do seem to enjoy eating the insides. No surprises. Nice meaty flesh.

Recently found a large snails colony under my driftwood pieces with a gap for cat hidey spots. First time I lifted it up and saw of hundreds of little snails I was totally shocked. They were so many compare to how many wander my tank. Now I lift it them regularly to flush 'em down.


- Atlantis

[Atlantis Child]

Intesting. Now I've found empty snail shells. A whole lot of them.


- Atlantis

[jar]

Can you speculate as to why you think they are dead? ie water quality, underfeeding cories (so they eat snails), etc... ?

[apistomaster]

It stands to reason if the snail population is substantial that their naturally death rate would account for most of the shells. The lighter empty shells also tend to segregate in roughly the same areas.

I had noticed that Sturisoma do kill and eat a fairly large number of common pond snails as part of their regular diet. Too many empty shells to be explained by the snails' naturally death rate. I don't think Corydoras directly affect the snail population but they may help restrain the number of snails through direct competition for food. None of the light weight Catfish are very serious threats to snails and MTS are imperious to even a little competition since their niche is so different from pond or rams horn snails.

Watch out for any chance to buy Assassin Snails, Antemone helena. They have begun appearing, rarely, for a cost of about 10/$60. They superficially appear similar to MTS but these are specialized predators on other snails. I am hoping they prove possible to propagate and become well established in the hobby. These snails have a slow reproduction rate, and are relatively uncommon despite their extensive range over much of SE Asia. They could prove to be a real asset to the hobby where we presently have a limited number of fish that may be useful as biological controls of snail populations but nearly all also have a draw back such as large size or fin nipping. Best prospects to date are the Botia, Chromobotia and related loaches.