PYGMY CORY EATING SNAILS-Unusual behaviour?

[shrimpkeeper222]

I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw my pygmy cory push off a ramshorn snail from the glass and attack the flailing body of the snail! Im pretty sure its accidental though . Only seen this once, but the pygmies came here 2 days before, so u never know. They have not beeen aggressive to the youngest and smallest shrimplets(so far). Tehy spend time swimming next to the glass and hovering in midwater, or resting on java fern and moss. Occasionally they forage arounf on driftwood, moss, leaves and substrate, so this behaviour took me by surprise. If its repeated, I'll try to get pics.
Any explanations would be great!

[bekateen]

If you discover a Cory that routinely eats snails, I buying them! I'd really like an alternative form of snail control (besides me picking them out and squishing them), without resorting to chemicals.

But, alas, I suspect your observation may be nothing more than an incidental event and not a habit of these corys... If otherwise, I bet we would have heard of it before.

But good luck!
Eric

[pleconut]

I've heard somewhere cories eat snails, possibly when i ran a google search, something like, how to get rid of pest snails, although most fish are more likely to go for easy pickings rather than snails. Ramshorns might come in handy if they spawn though, there's currently a topic running, live tips to save cory eggs, so the odd one being picked off provides some protein for the cories and helps, albeit very slightly to keep the snail numbers down.

[shrimpkeeper222]

Well, I cant be sure if this is my batches typical behaviour, but I did find a few more empty snail shells on the substrate today, and less snails on the glass. But they cannot get big snails of the glass, only younger/weaker ones, so theres a limit I think. But they also help by knocking down snails from the glass.
Also other questions-the cories have a red tint on their belly-due to the bloodworms Im keeping them?
Also, the cories spend most of their time hovering and foraging on moss and driftwood and not on the substrate. After seeing a few pygmy corydoras vids, I realised this isnt natural behaviour. When I had C.Hastatus, they foraged on the substarte mostly. Whats going on?
Thanks for all the replies!

[MarlonnekeW]

The foraging is normal behavior. I've rarely seen my pygmaeus forage on the substrate. They eat the food of plants, wood etc. In my experience they are also not big eaters. So I guess that's nothing to be worried about.

[shrimpkeeper222]

Ah I see. So far I didnt see them feed uch at all. guess mine arent big eaters either. But i did find more knocked down snails. It seems the attacks on the snails dont actually kill the snails.

[miamimeow]

Hello to all from Miami Florida. My name is Martha and I am a recent new comer to this wonderful site. I noticed that my Albino Corys (mating pair) had an interest in the Mystery Snail and thought they were cleaning the shell, but I think they just might have been cleaning much more then just the shell. My snail died, I thought it was due to natural causes. But, now that I saw your post, I think maybe not. I introduced another Mystery Snail with the same results. No more Mystery Snails for me.

[shrimpkeeper222]

It is unusual for cories to feed on snails to be honest. However cories are always hard to predict.
Ps Welcome to the forum!

[VelcroWY]

Never seen corys eat snails and I've kept thousands of corys. Snails will climb to the top and then just let go and float down. Corys might inspect because they are always curious. Corydoras pygmaeus usually are in mid-water area, where they are even less likely to find snails than most corys. Like someone else said, if they are eating snails, I'll but a couple dozen.

[shrimpkeeper222]

Well it seems my indivisuals are ratgher special, and it doesnt happen often it seems.

[VelcroWY]

Still pretty cool

[shrimpkeeper222]

Yus