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I have a small planted tank on my computer desk. I was working on it today when I noticed a ghost shrimp sneak up and pounce on a snail. I thought it was a hopeless cause for the hungry shrimp.

Much to my surprise I saw him lift the snail and carry to a another part of the tank. I still though it was a hopeless cause but grabbed my camera anyway.

Amazingly he suceeded in devouring the snail The shrimp had somehow managed to puncture a hole in the top of the snails shell and was reaching in and pulling the snail out and eating it. There was an empty translucent shell after about 10 mins

Just as surprising was the fact that my female betta saw what happening and decided she wanted some l'escargot. A fight ensued. Result Shrimp 1, Betta 0

I've never heard of shrimp as snail eaters, has anybody else heard of them behaving as loach wannabes ? Or have I just got one fiece ghost shimp.

bensaf attached this image:


Last edited by bensaf at 12-Jun-2005 04:07[/font]

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

This is the shrimp carrying the snail.

bensaf attached this image:

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Here's the Betta trying to sneak in before beaten back by the huge muscular shrimp !

bensaf attached this image:

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Awesome. I've never heard of a ghost shrimp doing that before, but I'm betting it isn't that uncommon. Maybe you just need big shrimp and relatively soft-shelled snails?

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I often squish snails against the glass of my tank and leave there there and my cherry shrimp clean them up quite happily, but I've never seen one carry them off and dig them unwilling out of their shells. Very cool.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

ild love to try that in my tank to get rid of my many snails it seems like every week i take out a dozon or so. however, here comes my next question? are those little snails good for the tank in anyway? and do shrimp have foes?

Those aren't ghost shrimp (Palaemonetes sp.); they're Macrobrachium sp. of some sort. I believe I possess a specimen of a closely related species (images forthcoming). Whence did you obtain them?

Last edited by Veneer at 12-Jun-2005 21:38

are those little snails good for the tank in anyway?

Snails have their uses. They will eat some algae, leftover food and rotting plant matter. Some people don't like them as they worry about the snail population becoming an infestation or eating healthy plants.They can be quite messy so I keep them to a minimum.

Personally I've never seen them ever eat a plant. The population can get out of control easily though but this is usually a sign of overfeeding. I tolerate them as they do no harm and the population stays small.

and do shrimp have foes?

Just about every fish in the tank !
I use them as food and put some in the tank every couple of weeks. Bigger fish love them, the smaller ones won't touch them. As well as being live food they give the bigger fish some excercise trying to catch them and hunt them down I don't have any really big fish so a few will always survive. They perform pretty much the same function as the snails eating leftovers etc, but add almost nothing to the bio load.
Most small fish will ignore them, bigger fish like Angels, Rainbows or some of the bigger Tetras will scoff them.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Bettas often develop a taste for shrimp, but sometimes can't eat the whole thing.

Veneer,

They are feeder shrimp. Walk into any lfs in Indonesia and they will have a huge tank of these critters. 20 cents gets you a bag full (about 50). They may very well be a local species, freshwater shrimp are very common here.

I know absolutely nothing about Inverts, so you may very well be right. Always happy to learn so if you have any info please do post

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

at my lfs, i always see some ghost shrimps grabbing and holding onto some snails, dont know if they are really eating them or not. never actually see my ghost shrimps eat anything thats alive