# Amanos eat snails???



## Wicket_lfe (Aug 21, 2008)

So I feed my amano pretty regularly, nothing crazy, but i never thought id see one start eating a snail. Anyone else seen this?


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

Yeah, I've seen this, but it dropped it back down; it just cleaned it off LOL


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## jahmic (Jan 30, 2011)

Lol, yea mine seem to regularly clean off the nerites in my tank...haven't seen one turn into an actual meal yet though


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## blacksheep998 (Jan 16, 2011)

I've never had any of my shrimp eat live snails, but just today I saw a group of my CRS attacking my largest ramshorn snail. It seems it had died and they managed to eventually get it out of the shell and eat it.


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## StygianSteel (Apr 2, 2010)

Yeah... if the Amanos were eating a snail I'd imagine it was already dead. They certainly will eat a dead one.


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

I have captured photos and seen with my eyes, A Amano shrimp lunged at a live swimming happily guppy and held onto it and ate it. Not sure of why this happened because the tank itself has numerous different species of shrimps and abundant supply of micro algae food/film along with supplement feeding on the side. 

I still have that Amano shrimp til this day. = )


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## StygianSteel (Apr 2, 2010)

Jaggedfury said:


> I have captured photos and seen with my eyes, A Amano shrimp lunged at a live swimming happily guppy and held onto it and ate it. Not sure of why this happened because the tank itself has numerous different species of shrimps and abundant supply of micro algae food/film along with supplement feeding on the side.
> 
> I still have that Amano shrimp til this day. = )


You sure that's an Amano shrimp?... Doesn't sound like it. Sounds like a misidentification of some sort of Macrobrachium to me...


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## Victorious (Jan 23, 2011)

Jaggedfury said:


> I have captured photos and seen with my eyes, A Amano shrimp lunged at a live swimming happily guppy and held onto it and ate it. Not sure of why this happened because the tank itself has numerous different species of shrimps and abundant supply of micro algae food/film along with supplement feeding on the side.
> 
> I still have that Amano shrimp til this day. = )


Post the photos!!! :icon_eek:


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## sampster5000 (Oct 30, 2010)

I have hundreds of cherry shrimp in my 15 gallon along with a ton of dead snail shells from my assassin snail. The cherries go for the leftovers after the assassin is finished. Since I have so many shrimp I am afraid that them eating the rest of the snail is due to starvation but I cant be sure of that. Maybe they just like snail meat?  

Now my shrimp do for sure clean off my nerites shells. They also love to clean my hand when it is in the water. Very fun to watch and feel.


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## asukawashere (Mar 19, 2010)

sampster5000 said:


> They also love to clean my hand when it is in the water. Very fun to watch and feel.


Mine do this, too - it's quite amusing.  And it tickles. Someone should totally turn it into a form of therapy, like they do with the _Garra sp_. that give people "pedicures."

As for the snail-eating-shrimp thing, I've heard of it happening before, with cherry shrimp and ramshorns.


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## blacksheep998 (Jan 16, 2011)

asukawashere said:


> Someone should totally turn it into a form of therapy, like they do with the _Garra sp_. that give people "pedicures.


Someone already does it with cleaner fish for people with skin problems. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/apr/10/healthandwellbeing.health2


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## asukawashere (Mar 19, 2010)

blacksheep998 said:


> Someone already does it with cleaner fish for people with skin problems. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/apr/10/healthandwellbeing.health2


That's exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned the _Garra_ pedicures  _Garra_ is the genus those "cleaner fish" belong to - usually _Garra rufa_ but I've heard mention of other species being used. I was suggesting someone might try the same with shrimp 


As for the snail-eating shrimp issue, may I direct your attention to this old thread for your reading amusement.


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## Blax (Feb 8, 2011)

my amano eat pond snails that have dropped from the side glass or from a plant. Since pond snails done have a strong "door" like that of a malaysian trumpet snail, the amano shrimp just reaches his claws in a pulls the snail out 0_0


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## jahmic (Jan 30, 2011)

So, now I guess I'm guilty of not giving my amanos enough protein.

No lie...I just witnessed one pounce on a baby RCS as it swam from out of the moss last night. What an evil little shrimp...

I threw in some flakes last night, which the RCS seemed to ignore for the most part, and the amanos horded for themselves...so hopefully there aren't too many repeats of their predatory behavior.

and here I was claiming all they ever did was peacefully clean my nerites...


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## Wicket_lfe (Aug 21, 2008)

I'm not sure if the snail was dead, but it was a smaller snail and not sure why it would be dead. Its a pretty new population of snails, hitchhikers pretty much, but theyve kept my tank clean so i havent complained. I just found it interesting.


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