# crushing snails with a spoon



## i love planted tanks (Apr 27, 2008)

iam currently still fighting a snail problem iam having in my 60 gal.i do set traps with blanched cucumber and etc,that was working for a while,still does but not nearly as many go feed on the cucumber.anyways at night i see snails on the glass and i crush them a with a spoon and it realy crushes them realy good like a pancake even smaller.my ? is would this crush the eggs in them to because the spoon just flattens them.or is this a bad thing by crushing the snails?it is so much easier crushing them than trying to pick those tiny bastards out..thanks

ps:i had a site to tell you what type of snail pest you had but lost the site.do you guys have a site to tell you what type of snails you have


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## paludarium freak (Jan 26, 2010)

I'm a newbie so by snails you mean bad snails (I hope)?


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## snowdrift2001 (Apr 18, 2006)

When I was a kid I used to squish up the snails in my tank and hand feed them to an angel fish I had. He/she loved them!


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## Firestarter (Dec 28, 2009)

I crush them with my finger but if there is nothing that is eating them you will have a lot of rotting squished snail in your aquarium. Once ghost shrimp get a taste for snails they will just grab live snails and eat them right out of the shell. I don't even feed my ghost shrimp much they eat snails algae and dead plant leaves and any food I add just goes to waste. Maybe a treat once a week.


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## eaunaturale (Feb 2, 2010)

Gotta say, that is possibly the least humane method of snail culling I've ever heard of! 

All I can say is that those poor snails are most likely there due to your overfeeding. Try cutting your feeding regime, since leftover food is mostly what snails live on. 

Also, you may consider the benefits of allowing a moderate population of these snails to remain, especially if they are Malaysian Trumpet Snails. Those little fellas can benefit the aquarium a great deal. I urge you to research the type of snail you are dealing with before you attempt to eradicate a vital part of your mini ecosystem.


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## Rooted (Feb 8, 2010)

Usually to keep the snail population in check you want to avoid overfeeding.

Before I had snail consuming fish in my tank (my yo-yo's do a great job), I would just toss them in the trash when I found them on leaves (I'd prune off the leaf). Or if you see eggs, just scrape or prune them off and toss them.

edit: sorry to repeat what eaunaturale said! and +1 on the rest of that post, too.


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

+1 (or is it 2?) on the overfeeding suggestion, I had a MAJOR snail outbreak a while ago, I cut back my feeding regime and I've had the snail population in check ever since. A good "clean up crew" (shrimp and / or bottom feeding fish like cories) will help also, but cutting back on the feeding really does the trick, if the snails have nothing to feed on they'll die off / not breed as much. 

However to answer the "is it ok to squish them" question, when I DID have the overpopulation, I would just squish them with my finger and the fish would feast on the snack, so yes, as long as there are fish cleaning it up, it's ok for the tank to do that. 

And keep in mind, having some snails in the tank is actually a good thing roud: *edit* my bad, i failed to read the end of eaunaturale's post, it was already mentioned that snails can be beneficil, so I guess I'm just seconding (or thirding?) that!


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## Stasiu (Sep 9, 2007)

Hmmm....instant death by crushing.....or slow death by starvation. Who's to say which is more humane. I have no problem with either method and would not criticize something that works. Proper feeding, and a good cleanup crew make a tank run smoother and prevent outbreaks. Eventually the population will check itself if you keep those two points in mind.


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## MoonFish (Feb 12, 2006)

ditto. and a dwarf puffer is money well spent.


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## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

Firestarter said:


> Once ghost shrimp get a taste for snails they will just grab live snails and eat them right out of the shell...


Ethics issue aside... has anyone done this with red cherry shrimps or cories? I'd love to try this with those two species in my tank but I'm afraid it might just pollute the water if it doesn't get eaten (it's very hard to tell because they rarely go for any treats I provide them right away).


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Snails probably aren't sentient, so suffering is a non-issue. Snails only have a few small ganglia. They have nociceptors and a withdrawl reflex, which are probably adequate from an evolutionary standpoint given their station in life (slow moving, not capable of learning much to take advantage of pain perception). Many nonsentient organisms have a withdrawl reflex. This tricks us to thinking they feel because it 'looks' like they feel but don't. This is true of all mollusks (small brain and probable non-sentience) with the notable exception of cephalopods. So, just crush the snails or whatever method you please and worry about something else.


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## eaunaturale (Feb 2, 2010)

macclellan said:


> Snails probably aren't sentient, so suffering is a non-issue. Snails only have a few small ganglia. They have nociceptors and a withdrawl reflex, which are probably adequate from an evolutionary standpoint given their station in life (slow moving, not capable of learning much to take advantage of pain perception). Many nonsentient organisms have a withdrawl reflex. This tricks us to thinking they feel because it 'looks' like they feel but don't. This is true of all mollusks (small brain and probable non-sentience) with the notable exception of cephalopods. So, just crush the snails or whatever method you please and worry about something else.


Love it  I guess too many drugs have turned me into a hippy :icon_bigg


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Bait with other things besides cucumber. Rotate just about all the the vegies and fruits that we eat. You may find that your fish eat some, and the snails gather around the others. Figure out which ones work best. 
I found that thin sliced orange was really good. Fish eat the same part we like, and snails gathered on the rind. 

Squish some snails and see if the fish come eat them. Some fish do not have the jaws to crack the shells. Some fish will learn to suck the meat out of the shell, even if they cannot crack the shell. 

The above 2 options ARE the fish food for that day. Do not feed more.

Fish that are snail predators:
Puffers will eventually nip or kill your other fish. Do not add a puffer to the tank. Get a separate tank, and harvest the snails from the one tank to feed to the puffer. 
Many Loaches are snail predators, and are fun fish, too. They are social, and do better in groups of 5+ of the same species. Many are compatible with a community tank. However, if they are not a fish that you want, then getting 5 or so of even the smallest will take up a lot of bio-room in the tank that you might want to use for another fish. Do not get Loaches _just because_ they eat snails. Get them because you like Loaches, and the snail eating is a bonus. 

Feed less. For one week, feed 1/4 of the regular amount, and only one meal a day. Remember that fruits and vegies added as snail bait are also fish food, so add these in small amounts. There should be just barely any left the next morning, just enough for some snails to group around it. 

Skip a day each week. 

After that first week of feeding about 1/4 of the regular amount, counting vegies and crushed snails as food, assess the situation. 
The snail population has not yet crashed, but are the fish OK? They probably are. If you really feel the fish are in need of more food, then add just a tiny bit more food, but remember: fish do not need as much as most people feed! The excess feeds snails, microorganisms, raises the NO3 levels, and in general is wasted. 

Try feeding this way:
2 days per week: AM TINY pinch of dry food, or small amount of frozen. Scatter it well across the top of the tank, the fish will probably have a feeding frenzy over it. 
2 days per week: AM: squish snails for the fish. PM: drop a bottom feeder wafer for your Cories, Loaches or other bottom/nocturnal fish. You might break this into 2-4 pieces and scatter it. 
2 days per week: AM: bait for snails. The fish (upper level and bottom feeding fish) will also eat the vegies through the day. Leave it in overnight, remove snails in AM. 
1 day per week, no food.


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## JennaH (Sep 28, 2009)

try posting them as a freebie on the swap n shop. some people with puffers or other snail eating fish will pay shipping to receive a whole bunch of snails


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

macclellan said:


> Snails probably aren't sentient, so suffering is a non-issue. Snails only have a few small ganglia. They have nociceptors and a withdrawl reflex, which are probably adequate from an evolutionary standpoint given their station in life (slow moving, not capable of learning much to take advantage of pain perception). Many nonsentient organisms have a withdrawl reflex. This tricks us to thinking they feel because it 'looks' like they feel but don't. This is true of all mollusks (small brain and probable non-sentience) with the notable exception of cephalopods. So, just crush the snails or whatever method you please and worry about something else.


I am sorry to disagree.... I just can't help but think that having a withdrawl reflex is a sign that they feel something. Afterall if they can not feel how would they learn to react?

From Wikipedia:

_A nociceptor is a sensory receptor that reacts to potentially damaging stimuli by sending nerve signals to the spinal cord and brain. This process, called nociception, usually causes the perception of pain_

I personally believe that all living organisms feel pain and have emotions. Albeit some of these reactions might be rudimentary....


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Ed - I agree that it is natural for us to associate the withdrawal reflex from the feeling of pain. After all, they are very closely associated in us (they happen almost at the same time). But we aren't snails. Reactions and pain/emotions aren't the same thing. In our own case, the withdrawal reflex occurs _before_ the perception of pain. Experiments confirm that temporarily unconscious organisms still exhibit withdrawal behavior (i.e., they still pull back, even though they can't feel). 

They/we don't _learn_ to react, we just react. Much behavior is stereotyped (genetically programmed). Stick an infant's hand on the stove (no, I'm not suggesting actually doing this!) - they will retract it even the first time. So, this is not the result of learning. 

You're entitled to your beliefs, but it's an odd view to think all organisms feel pain and have emotions. Best we can tell, these phenomena only occur in brains (and maybe collections of ganglia), and most organisms don't have either. In fact, the term "nociception" was coined specifically to distinguish the physiological neurological processes for registering noxious stimuli form the psychological experience thereof (and there is lots of evidence that this neurological process can occur without the psychological state). I wouldn't exactly rely on wikipedia for authoritative statements about anything. Nonetheless, what you quoted is true in organisms that can feel pain, which is the minority of organisms. 

The best evidence suggests that all vertebrates are sentient but that most invertebrates are not sentient, and this leads to the consensus view in the scientific community. Insects continue to feed while being fed upon, use damaged limbs, etc. none of which they'd do if it hurt. Furthermore, their behaviors are stereotyped (genetically programmed) so the learning function of adapting to painful stimuli seems absent as well. Evidence for crustaceans is mixed. There was a neat study done last year suggesting that hermit crabs are sentient ("Pain experience in hermit crabs?" _Animal Behavior_). But most mollusks (again, with the exception of cephalopods) have less neural hardware and are less motile, decreasing the evolutionary functionality of pain perception. For now, I'll give my shrimp the benefit of the doubt, but not snails in the absence of any evidence.


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## Olskule (Jan 28, 2010)

Diana said:


> ...Puffers will eventually nip or kill your other fish. Do not add a puffer to the tank. Get a separate tank, and harvest the snails from the one tank to feed to the puffer...


Good advice. I once had a female kribensis turn up with nearly "half" her face bitten off, and the only thing in the tank capable of that was the small puffer. She was probably defending her nest and eggs and "angered" the puffer when he got too close. Being that she was a nesting mother, I was more than a wee bit upset, and removed to puffer to other realms. (No, not spiritual "realms".) I am now wary of puffers and their appreciable biting abilities. Remember, they are called _Tetradon_ because of their four teeth formed into a beak-like structure, and it is specifically for biting very hard.

Also, even assuming the snail does "feel", I fail to see how a sudden death by "squishing" would be less "painful" than the more natural means employed by either shrimp (pulling them out of their shells piece by piece) or puffer (consuming them live, bite by bite). As sentient beings, we sometimes don't want to feel responsible for the death of a living creature, but the fact remains that we are responsible, either directly (via spoon/tank glass) or indirectly (via "sic 'em, fish!"). Actually, we are responsible for their existence in our aquarium in the first place, as well as their proliferation, to one degree or the other. Unless you get a microscope and pick every single snail and egg from new plants or kill them by dipping the plants, you will have them and must either accept them or take responsibility of dealing with them. Any other mindset leads to the extreme of the vegan (no offense meant), and even then there are many who say, and claim evidence, that plants actually do "feel", so what then? Starve? Accept your place in life and the food chain as a human and the responsibility for your choice of hobbies, along with the responsibilities it requires. Either that or give up aquarium keeping and develop a taste for algae (or Soylent Green). 

For your tastes in what's acceptable in your tank, smush 'em. For your fish's delight and "live" (fresh) food diet, smush 'em. For quasi-zenistic peace of mind, don't feed 'em so much that they overpopulate and have to be smushed so much. Find your peace, Grasshopper.

Olskule


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## Strick (Apr 6, 2009)

eaunaturale said:


> Gotta say, that is possibly the least humane method of snail culling I've ever heard of!


Less humane than what? Staving? Bleach dip?

I agree that the best solution would be to avoid overfeeding and to not encourage growth in the first place.

But that's not as easy as it sounds. I have snails in my 6 gallon shrimp tank. Usually they don't bother me unless they become so numerous that they distract from the beauty of the tank. When they do, I crush every one I can reach. I even attached a small eraser to a stick to do it with. My shrimp and endlers gobble them right up.


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## Strick (Apr 6, 2009)

TLE041 said:


> Ethics issue aside... has anyone done this with red cherry shrimps or cories? I'd love to try this with those two species in my tank but I'm afraid it might just pollute the water if it doesn't get eaten (it's very hard to tell because they rarely go for any treats I provide them right away).


I feed my RCS crushed shrimp once in a while (see my above post) and they love it. But I've never seen one go after a live snail, even the tiniest snails.


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

when i cull snails, i crush them with my fingers and yell "hulk smash!" just for effects..


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## Olskule (Jan 28, 2010)

Strick said:


> I feed my RCS crushed shrimp once in a while (see my above post) and they love it. But I've never seen one go after a live snail, even the tiniest snails.


Isn't that cannibalism? Feeding shrimp to shrimp- is there a danger there of developing "mad shrimp disease"?:tongue:

Olskule


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

F22 said:


> when i cull snails, i crush them with my fingers and yell "hulk smash!" just for effects..


Lol, reading that made soda come out of my nose.


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

macclellan said:


> Lol, reading that made soda come out of my nose.


Hahahaha I laughed really hard at this too, if i'd been drinking something, it certainly would have come out my nose!

Also, props to you for taking the time to write out the science of why snails (more than likely) don't feel pain....I was just going to write "snails don't feel pain" but was too lazy to write out the whys and wherefores so i decided to leave that part out of my reply :tongue: I've gotta go find that hermit crab article though! Very cool.


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

haha im glad ya'll enjoyed


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

Olskule said:


> For your tastes in what's acceptable in your tank, smush 'em. For your fish's delight and "live" (fresh) food diet, smush 'em. For quasi-zenistic peace of mind, don't feed 'em so much that they overpopulate and have to be smushed so much. Find your peace, Grasshopper.


Also, I love this.


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## mmfish (Dec 24, 2008)

I've tried a snail trap which works somewhat. The best method I've found is to lower the pH by increasing CO2. Snails seem to poorly tolerate a drop in pH.


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

mmfish said:


> Snails seem to poorly tolerate a drop in pH.


I wish my pond snails got that memo. :icon_roll
I just smash them and my angels eat them. In the future, I will 'hulk-smash' them too. :confused1:


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## Lindo (Apr 12, 2009)

I squish, but make sure that they are squished - I had a fail once and had to go back and do the deed again - now that was cruel. My RCS tank has a few unsquished empty shells so maybe they have got the idea as I rarely have to go in that tank and 'reduce numbers'.


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## Nate McFin (Mar 19, 2009)

Assassin snails cleared my pond snail problem in a few months. They are like the Roomba of bad snails. Put them in and forget the squishing. I did that (and yes it does foul the water) for months and got nowhere.


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## McGornel (Aug 3, 2009)

F22 said:


> when i cull snails, i crush them with my fingers and yell "hulk smash!" just for effects..


hahaha


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Hermit Crabs can be taught to do simple things, like pull a string for food. 
Karen Pryor did this. The string was attached to a bell, but the Hermit Crab knew nothing about ringing a bell, it just pulled the string. 

Now, the method that she used has since been shown to trigger a response in the most primitive part of mammal brains, when that method is used to teach dogs, cats, horses, and just about every zoo mammal. This is the part of the brain that is present in reptiles and fish, too. She has some videos at the site I linked below, including teaching an Oscar to swim through a hoop. 
I am not sure what this says about the intelligence of the species being taught; it is more like the teaching is going through the same route used by our body to pull our hand away from the flame before we even register the heat.
However, once the animal catches on to what the teacher is doing the more intelligent animals become very easy to teach, participating in ways that almost make it seem like a 2-way communication. I do not know if the hermit crab is at this site, it was in her book of the same name. 

http://www.reachingtheanimalmind.com/


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Back to snails:
Escargots for the fish!


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## Burks (May 21, 2006)

Crush them and feed them! Except the blue ones. I've been saving all those to breed my superior race of snails. Blue body, white shell. If we can have blonde shrimp..... 

I always wondered if my coral could feel pain as I cut them with a razor, attacked them with a dremel, or crushed them with wire cutters. I could only imagine their high pitched "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" as half the colony went flying into the wall and the other half in my face. Poor little fellas...:icon_sad:


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## pinkertd (Jun 17, 2007)

While I keep some ramshorns in some tanks, I inadvertently introduced them into my heavily planted 75G where I do not want them. In that tank, every morning when I first turn the lights on, I am on a mission to find them and crush as many as I can. It is a never ending job since this tank houses a breeding group of plecos so there always seems to be bottom food for them. I am not overrun because I smash them. But I'm sure they will be there forever now. All the tank inhabitants love to eat them....my plecos, my amanos, my red cherries, my cories, and my SAE. They can't wait until I am done in the tank to come out and eat. I'm sure it's an excellent source of protein for the fish, the snails in there eat well. Just be sure to crush them completely since the fish cannot deal with shells. In my pleco grow out tank the ramshorns help clean up extra bottom food from feeding bottom feeding baby plecos. I get to take a couple of dozen out weekly and throw them in my clown loach tank for food.


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## PRSRocker3390 (Apr 20, 2009)

I once heard something about crushing snails from an lfs but I never found out how true it was. They said they if you crush a pond snail or some other pests snails as well, the snail will die but any eggs they were holding will still come out of them when you squish them and can still hatch thus making more snails. They said it is better to manually remove the snails then to crush them for this reason. They said everytime you crush a snail you get a bunch more because of all the eggs that were inside of them. Is this true or just some rumor that was made up? Does crushing a snail really make more snails?


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## i love planted tanks (Apr 27, 2008)

PRSRocker3390 said:


> I once heard something about crushing snails from an lfs but I never found out how true it was. They said they if you crush a pond snail or some other pests snails as well, the snail will die but any eggs they were holding will still come out of them when you squish them and can still hatch thus making more snails. They said it is better to manually remove the snails then to crush them for this reason. They said everytime you crush a snail you get a bunch more because of all the eggs that were inside of them. Is this true or just some rumor that was made up? Does crushing a snail really make more snails?


ya is this true?anyone know?thats why i started this thread becasue i heard this somewhere


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

You kill 100x as many animals (insects, mostly) every time you mow your lawn. Clearly, lawn mowing is inhumane, not to mention unnatural and unnecessary.


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

I suppose if the snail was right at the point of laying the eggs, the eggs are mature, and could survive, that could happen. I doubt immature eggs would survive, though, and certainly not unfertilized eggs. 

So, no, I do not think that 'every time' you crush a snail you are releasing hundreds of eggs that _will_ turn into snails.


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## Luximina (May 24, 2016)

I know this is a 6 year old thread, but just had to comment on some of the horrific remarks that were made here. It's absolutely stunning to me that folks who devote so much time caring for animals, (hopefully) ensuring their safety and comfort, would actually derive pleasure from purposely ending the life of another creature (even one as small and "insignificant" as a snail). Snails may not have achieved a level of neurological sophistication that meets your standards, but this is no way makes it acceptable to abuse animals. Just shameful.


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## No.92 (May 1, 2016)

Luximina said:


> I know this is a 6 year old thread, but just had to comment on some of the horrific remarks that were made here. It's absolutely stunning to me that folks who devote so much time caring for animals, (hopefully) ensuring their safety and comfort, would actually derive pleasure from purposely ending the life of another creature (even one as small and "insignificant" as a snail). Snails may not have achieved a level of neurological sophistication that meets your standards, but this is no way makes it acceptable to abuse animals. Just shameful.


First post and a 1 like already. 

I got some snails accidentally when I bought some plants but so far I am enjoying them. Granted, I don't have an infestation as others have mentioned. I think they go about their business cleaning up the tank for me although at a very slow pace. I actually moved a couple of mine into a 10 gallon tank that I house baby mollies. They don't work very fast but I know they are helping to clean up the tank.


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

I use an Botia Angelicus loach. No more snails. Just cant put it in tanks with friendly snails lol
But I allow snails in 2 of my tanks.


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## Maryland Guppy (Dec 6, 2014)

Luximina said:


> but this is no way makes it acceptable to abuse animals.


On snail crushing day the fish eat well and clean up all the remnants.

I guess live brine shrimp is a big no no! :laugh2:


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## SwissCheeseHead (Dec 24, 2014)

I used to crush snails with my fingers, then I bought 2 assassins. Would I rather be instantly killed or eaten alive? A snail is a snail. Would you feel differently crushing an ant or a spider with your shoe? Of course not.


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## number1sixerfan (Nov 10, 2006)

I have three assassin snails in a 90 gallon and I rarely see live small snails. I do however see plenty of empty MTS shells that the assassins have killed. 

I also have 7 olive and tiger nerites and the assassin snails don't bother them at all.


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