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Can snails eat dwarf cory eggs?

Posted: 03 Jul 2006, 07:10
by upikabu
Hi,

This might be a silly question, but can snails eat cory habrosus' eggs? The reason I ask is because ever since the beginning of last week I've been seing some cream-coloured, oval specks at various spots on the tank's sides daily, usually in the morning hours. However, when I checked the same spots at night or the next day, the spots were not there anymore. The tank's only inhabitants are 8 cory habrosus & snails (ramshorn & MTS). I wonder if the ramshorn snails (which I noticed have been more visible on the glass in the past week) have been consuming these specks.

I'm not even sure if the specks are cory eggs, as I can't find much information on what cory habrosus eggs would look like anywhere.

Thanks in advance!

Posted: 03 Jul 2006, 08:22
by Mike_Noren
If by ramshorns you mean these:
http://www.applesnail.net/content/speci ... rietis.htm
then yes, those will eat fish eggs (and plants, other snails, sick fish...).

Posted: 03 Jul 2006, 09:19
by upikabu
No, I'm talking about the very small snails (few mm) that usually get introduced with new plants.
http://www.applesnail.net/content/snail ... lanorbidae

They're not much bigger than the "eggs" in question.

Posted: 03 Jul 2006, 09:56
by Mike_Noren
OK, no those are, to the best of my knowledge, "egg-safe".

Posted: 26 Jul 2006, 17:13
by mona o
In my Cory adolfoi tank, where the fish breed every week, there's always some eggs placed around the tank and on the glass at all times. The small snails you mention never touch the eggs.

But if I see a white egg (not fertilized) the snails soon find it and eat it. I have never seen the snails touch a "live" or healthy egg, just the bad ones.
Actually, some breeders recommend using those kind of snails in hatching tanks. That's because the snails will eat the bad eggs, so that the fungus aren't allowed to spread to the healthy eggs. It actually works:-)

After the eggs have hatched, there's often left an empty eggshell on the glass. The snails soon finds this too and eat the leftovers:-) Quite useful little creatures in my opinion:)

Posted: 26 Jul 2006, 17:48
by I_Xeno
I have the same experienses as mona o.
But than with my corydoras paleatus.