At first I thought the same thing, but it was just the snails growing up that was fooling me. After the bigger pond snails went to feed our turtle, I pretty much stopped seeing them.
lampeye wrote:
Ghost shrimp, IME are VICIOUS with snails.
This thread gets pretty complicated. I think we should have it in the "other inverts" section as it is snail related and not specifically shrimp or crayfish related. I'm getting dizzy with it weaving from one forum to another.
Yes, ghosts are great snail eaters, but in my experience don't play well in the sandbox with other shrimp. They would likely have the same effect on baby crays. Same goes for Triops which are excellent small snail eater once they get to be about 2" or so.
Most crayfish will eat snails...the bigger the crayfish, the larger the snails they tackle. My dwarf crays also eat all kinds of baby snails, including MTS. They also tackle semi-adult to adult pond snails once in a while if they feel like it.
FISH WORLD ERIE wrote:If you crush their little snail bodies it makes eating all the easier.
True. I have also found out that snails can be trained. The cherries in my mini tank have been eating so much ramshorn escargot lately, that the remaining snails all drop to the bottom of the tank the moment my fingers break the water surface.
Yes indeed. When they drop to bottom it becomes even easier to crush their little snail bodies. My tool of preference for this is a thick dowel rod. It crushes them real nice. Everyone in the tank swarms when I do this.
I've been occaisonally crushing the larger ramshorns to feed to my trio of patzcuarensis. If they will eat small ones, I don't have to worry about them going hungry. There are loads of baby ramshorns and MTS in the tank. Much easier to catch than shrimp too.