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I bought a snail a few months ago, at the start of summer, to live in my ten gallon tank while I unsuccessfully bred bettas To make a long story short, the bettas moved to one gallons and I got a nice community tank. The fish thrived for awhile and my little gold snail (thimble size when I got him) became very big in a very short period of time. He apparently liked my guppies, because he attacked and devowered all four within a week :#( I moved him out of the tank and in with my male betta (who is fairly big due to his age) and he has been fine since. Was what I experienced a fluke or does that happen alot? I'm tempted to move him into my new 46 gal tank, but I wouldnt want him to get my other fishies

Inky

i do hear about snails luering in guppies and other small fish, then snapping down on them, breaking their backs, then they begin to eat them..its sad thats why i keep snails with goldfish and other larger fish

It sounds like you have an Apple Snail, which are comletely incapable of catching live, healthy fish. The only piscivorous snails I'm aware of live only in saltwater.

I'm willing to bet the Guppies died first, and then the snail was simply "cleaning up the mess". Apple Snails are scavengers and will not pass up a perfectly good meal when they find one (in this case, a dead fish).

What are your water parameters? Did the guppies look sick before they died?

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I also think that the Guppy's dies first & the Apple Snail ate them later, than the Apple Snail killing the Guppy's.



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Chances are extremely high that you have a cana applesnail which can reach the size of a baseball and really won't fit in a betta tank unless your tank is 20g or so. Canas almost always come in gold and are sometimes sold as gold inca snails. They are also plant eaters and have been known to attack guppies. Rarely any other small fish but they seem to have a liking for guppy snacks. Usually they gang up to catch them but there are a few good hunters out there that can snag one by itself. I've never heard of brigs catching guppies which is why I'd bet it's a cana. Brigs are the smaller snails around 2" that don't eat plants and despite being known as more carnivorous than canas don't seem to care for live fish or maybe they just aren't smart enough to catch them.

i read on applesnail.net that snails commonly killed and then ate their guppies just so you know where my sourse was

I have kept Apple Snails with Guppies on many separate occasions, and I have never seen or heard of this happening.

I won't believe that an Apple Snail can catch a live, healthy fish until I see solid visual proof of it.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

There are tons of posts on applesnail.net of people who have witnessed cana applesnails corner and capture live swimming guppies. I know there's one that really stick out in my mind because they watched 3 of their canas climb up the glass and decorations to form a ring and herd a guppy into the corner where it got eaten. It's not really all that rare but I've only heard of canas doing it to guppies. No other applesnail species or fish. That's not to say it will happen everytime and there are more people that have kept them together safely than have seen them get eaten.

She's quite right. However, I've heard of P. maculata and gigas (synonymous?) doing this as well.


Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 08-Dec-2005 17:36

I don't have an apple snail. It is a gold snail from WalMart. The guppies were indeed healthy. There tank mates are: 3 Mollys (different colors), 2 Zebras (Danios?), and the snail. Since I removed the snail I added 5 "feeder" guppies, which are very pretty, and all of them are doing fine. I also have a baby tank of Mystery Fish (Im pretty sure there guppies, but my dolmation molly is female so they could be mollys, there too young to really tell) and they are doing fine. As for the snail, I will probubly move it to my 50 gal tank once I get it set up (It was so Pricey I could only affort to put gravel and some plants in it for now )I am planning to put angelfish and gourmis in there, so they should be fine.

Inky

I don't have an apple snail. It is a gold snail from WalMart.

That is an applesnail and being gold increases the chances it's a cana applesnail. Applesnails are large snails with a door on the bottom of their shell and are often labelled as mystery snails. They also have a breathing siphon that allows them to suck air from the surface. See [link=http://applesnail.net/]http://applesnail.net/" style="COLOR: #C000C0[/link] for pictures and care info.

Angelfish will most definitely attack applesnails and nip off parts of their body. Gouramis are also not usually combatible with applesnails although the larger species such as 3spot/blue and snakeskin aren't as bad. Those gouramis can get along with a few snails in a large tank without picking on them enough to kill them off. Dwarf gouramis and smaller gouramis will nip at applesnails. If the snails don't die from loss of body parts they will stay in their shell so much they slowly starve to death.

Would the angelfish hurt my snail even if it is a cana applesnail? I didn't think that angels would do something like that... especially since I'd be getting quarter sized ones (same size as my snail)?

Inky

Angelfish almost always nip at snail antenae and eyes. Mine attacked 50 brigs of various sizes from tiny babies that looks like little colored dots to 2" diameter. Whenever they came out of their shells or tried to climb up the glass to get food they were attacked until they closed up and fell down to the bottom again. That's why it got moved from my 55g to the 29g where the rest of the snail eating fish were(mostly yoyo loaches). Loaches and angelfish will go after snails of any size and harass them to death. It's very rare that it works out long term. Once they notice the snail and that it's a potential source of food they won't leave it alone. Maybe if you got a very tiny angel and a big snail it might work for awhile but probably not.