snail v shrimp !

[swbono]

Hi.
Looked in tank all was ok.
looked in the tank 2 hours later and found the shimp ( camel )being held by the snail.
had a few of these Orange Spot Butterscotch Nassarius Snails for 6-7 months now and no problems.
Shrimp was fine earlier as i fed it.
cant find anything bad out about these snails ,they are usualy under the sand ,but do come out and go to the top of the tank every so often.
Shrimp was still alive when i pulled it away from the snail,but only just.
It did die later .
i understand that snails etc will take dead things but never saw one take anything alive.
everything else in the tank including other shrimps are fine.
Any info or ideas ?
cheers
steve

[Macca]

The snails you mentioned above is not a nassirdae family member it is actually a whelk from the babaloynia family.

It is my opinion that both these familys can smell a snail or shrimp or fish dying. I do not know the science behind this but I have seen it happen too many times to know their is in deed a link.

So yes they do eat dead things but its my opinion your shrimp was dying.

[swbono]

picture shows the sanil.
i put some food in later for the shrimp,hermits etc.
and the snail dived on it.
maybe it was hungry ?.
but to take a live shrimp , that takes some doing.
yes i agree if somethings dying they all hermits etc will take them.
but it seemed fine

[dan-dare]

I have one myself with out any problems.
I heard one chewed on a clam's mantle once non-stop. Dunno how reliable that source was though.. :confused:

[mojo_mond]

i had a nasarius snail that ate a live feeder shrimp it was not dying as it had just been introduced, i suppose in nature anything goes.(in the realms of reason of course) free meal is a free meal.......

[Macca]

i kepp around 1000 at any given time of nass snails and often keep them in beside loads of different shrimp and I must say this is the first time i have ever heard them attacking a live shrimp, are you sure its not cone snails you have :p now if you said the shrimp was pecking at the snail then this i could believe.

[swbono]

i kepp around 1000 at any given time of nass snails and often keep them in beside loads of different shrimp and I must say this is the first time i have ever heard them attacking a live shrimp, are you sure its not cone snails you have :p now if you said the shrimp was pecking at the snail then this i could believe.

Theres a picture in my 2nd post of the snail.

[Macca]

Theres a picture in my 2nd post of the snail.

this is a babaloynia snail, it is NOT a nassarius snail. It is from the indo ocean and has become a regular import recently.

Not had enough feedback on this snail but earlier reports said it would eat clams. I have never witnessed one eating a healthy animal before.

[swbono]

this is a babaloynia snail, it is NOT a nassarius snail. It is from the indo ocean and has become a regular import recently.

Not had enough feedback on this snail but earlier reports said it would eat clams. I have never witnessed one eating a healthy animal before.

Looks like a candidate for the sump then......

[Macca]

Looks like a candidate for the sump then......

In your case deffo, what we can do is gather feedback on these snails and see if we get any similar storys. No point in peeps buying a predatory snail. I will set up a poll later and gather as much feedback as we can.