# Assassin snails eat shrimp.



## mikeb210 (Oct 17, 2007)

Got some pictures of my assassin snail killing a nice looking shrimp. I liked the shrimp, kinda bummed that it got taken down, but its also pretty cool that it happened. The shrimp was still moving when I took the pictures.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Alot of people on here have questioned whether assasin snails would go for shrimp and the concensus has been that the shrimp are too fast for them. If I lost one shrimp a month to a snail that would be too much IMO. And when you have densly populated shrimp tanks the snails are likely to get more than one. Especially a CRS! Thanks for the photo, its helped clarify my decision to avoid them in my shrimp tanks.


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

:icon_eek: Damn Nature You Scary!


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## mikeb210 (Oct 17, 2007)

I had 5 snails in a 5 gallon. And now I have one. I assumed the others had died, I actually forgot about the assassin as its usually buried. Now I know haha...


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## non_compliance (Dec 1, 2009)

Yeah, but are there other snails for the assassin to eat, or was he forced to take out the shrimp?


Seems if there are other snails for them to snack on they will not try for shrimp (at least adult shrimp)


P.S. cool pic.


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## fishsandwitch (Apr 20, 2008)

Are you sure the snail was alive when it was atacked? I know you said that it was still moving but that shrimp looks like it has been dead a lot longer than a few minutes.


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## blissskr (Oct 9, 2007)

fishsandwitch said:


> Are you sure the snail was alive when it was atacked? I know you said that it was still moving but that shrimp looks like it has been dead a lot longer than a few minutes.


I agree the color on that shrimp looks like a shrimp that has been dead for awhile. I've seen my snails eat dead shrimp but it would be near impossible for them to catch a live shrimp unless it was dead or dying; I've watched shrimp perch all over there shells and the snails never even seem to care.


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## Nue (Dec 27, 2009)

Ive witnessed a assassin grab and eat a healthy BT shrimp. I've been keeping assassins for almost 2 years, and only witnessed it once. And I used to be a strong believer in assassin snails being shrimp safe. Now I would say not so much.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

i've had assassins kill shrimp, even when there were baby pond snails in the tank... It comes down to them getting what they can catch.

I had one that would just sit at the food dish and eat the algae wafer when i put it in, and then if shrimp came up, it would try to grab em. But that was when I had about 20 in a 20g. 

Most of the time, it's not a problem, but they do take out shrimp more often than people think.


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## mikeb210 (Oct 17, 2007)

Sorry, I meant to say I had 5 shrimp in a 5 gallon, 1 assassin. Now its 1 and 1. I can't say for sure that the snail killed them, but I don't know why they'd drop dead all of a sudden and this shrimp was alive and well yesterday morning at feeding time. Came home an hour or two later and took that photo.


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## the planter (Jul 8, 2010)

EntoCraig said:


> :icon_eek: Damn Nature You Scary!


LMAO family guy xD haha cool picture BTW i always wanted assassin snails.


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## shrimpo (Aug 2, 2009)

mikeb210 said:


> The shrimp was still moving when I took the pictures.


The snail stick a tube like organ inside other snails/shrimp...while the tube is moving inside the body of the shrimp it looks like the shrimp is still alive and moving.
This is just my own opinion, i kept snails and shrimp together for months, never seen a snail eat live shrimp.. but again this just my own experience with the assassins.


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

the planter said:


> LMAO family guy xD haha cool picture BTW i always wanted assassin snails.


YEP! Love that show. I want some assassin snails too, but not going to keep them with any shrimp, at least, no CRS or anything that is more expensive then RCS.


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## bigboij (Jul 24, 2009)

witnessed this last night, i saw a juvenile assassin take down a perfectly healthy RCS (was still nice and red as it got ate). I did notice the shrimp looking like it was still moving, thought it was just the start of the attack so i chased the assassin away but found it was to late, the above statement of them crawling inside to eat is true, left it there to let him finish. Then I watched other RCS eating on the unlucky RCS at the same time the assassin was consuming it.


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