# Can assasin snail hunt Shrimps ?



## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Hi

I have a few assassin snails in my tank. As well I have a colony of RCS and CRS. Very few times I found that my assassin eats a dead shrimp (mostly cherry). And usually an adult (I know it dead because it already turned pink). 
I have some small regular white snails in my tank but I don't see assassin actively eating them.My question is: Can it hunt alive shrimp or it will only eat the dead one that it found ?. 

Thank you for any help


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

they are usually too slow to catch them....but given the opportunity (found a molting shrimp or luckily caught one, or found a dead one), they will eat them. you will see empty eaten shells once in a while.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Hitch said:


> they are usually too slow to catch them....but given the opportunity (found a molting shrimp or luckily caught one, or found a dead one), they will eat them. you will see empty eaten shells once in a while.


Well I actually saw assassin eating a full size dead Chery shrimp a few times. My worries if it was cut alive or was already dead. I do see a lot of shells in my tank but most of them I think due to molting not because eaten by assassins.
So what I'm trying to figure out if I should be worried about my shrimps and specialty Cristal ones (since they reproduce slower than Cherries) ?


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Ya those sound like just molted shells. When you see an actual eaten shrimp, you can tell. 

In terms of your shrimps, it will happen, but it's not a very frequent thing


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Hitch said:


> Ya those sound like just molted shells. When you see an actual eaten shrimp, you can tell.
> 
> In terms of your shrimps, it will happen, but it's not a very frequent thing


At the moment i have a colony of 50 and counting RCS and colony of about 30+ CRS. Also I have about 15 assassins+ 3 adults and about 12 jevilies and some babies. I can see jevlies being somewhat aggressive. I don't want to lose my colony of CRS (as i don't care much about RCS as they growing faster then they are dieing).


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Never witnessed ANY shrimp - assassin snail troubles. The assassinsnails are highly specialised in snail hunting imo. But they are scavengers, and would take interest in a free meal if its easy.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Will Hayward said:


> Never witnessed ANY shrimp - assassin snail troubles. The assassinsnails are highly specialised in snail hunting imo. But they are scavengers, and would take interest in a free meal if its easy.


Do you have shrimps and assassins together in the same tank ?


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Yeah. Not CRS mind you, but TCS and C.japonica


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

I've run into issues with assassins eating my shrimps but its not that they actively hunt them, rather they get lucky with a recently molted or a unlucky shrimp gets swarmed.

One of my tanks has over a hundred assassins and I underfeed it because I don't want to change water that often so they are aggressive. If you have a well feed tank and low numbers of assassins, it should not be a noticeable problem.


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Now there's a friendzy. Nice breeding group you've ammassed.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Well looks like my assassins are hungry for some reason. I have 10Gl tank and over feed my fish ones a day, so the flakes are pushed down for bottom feeders to eat. In addition at night I drop different type waffals including algae ones for shrimps and snails to eat, that usually fish will not pick at. This morning I found 3 assassins (2 jevelies and one baby) siting on top of the dead Cristal shrimp. What was strange is that shrimp did not turn pink yet as they usually do, when they dead. So it was a recent kill (or death). What scars in this situation that I'm planning to go away for a weekend and will not be feeding my fish and shrimps for 2 days. Now I'm afraid that my assassins will become very hungry and will start a real hunt after my shrimps !!!


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Hmmm, odd. You must have a large assassin snail pop like arc?

The assassin snails will take frozen bloodworms. It might help tie them over?
If you have soem other tanks with badly affected ornaments covered in algae you can put it in the shrimp tank, as well as put some nori in.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Will Hayward said:


> Hmmm, odd. You must have a large assassin snail pop like arc?
> 
> The assassin snails will take frozen bloodworms. It might help tie them over?
> If you have soem other tanks with badly affected ornaments covered in algae you can put it in the shrimp tank, as well as put some nori in.


I only have 3 adults and 15 jevelies assassins ( added them to eat my small white snails) in my tank that I put in. I'm not sure how many babies I have by now but I probably seen 2-3. I do feed my fish with bloodworms one a week (not the frozen ones as I found that they contaminate my water). Should I feed more often ? I also have a huge population of small white snails that I thought the baby and jevelies assassins will pick at ? I don't have any other tanks running at the moment. What is strange that I rarely see adult assassins trying to pick up on Shrimp and when I had only my adults I have not seen them to eat a shrimp unless it was dead already and seeing in the tank for few days. And also back wall of my tank is covered in algae as this is wall I usually don't clear from it. 
And what is nori (is the one described in the link below ) ? And where to get it and why should I put it in my tank ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

For feeding frozen bloodworms, I've found it's best to thaw chunks or cubes in a brine shrimp net, letting the liquid in the frozen food to drip out, then to give them a very light and quick 2 second rinse, before putting them in your tank. This helps ride excess contaminates that you find in frozen foods, but not freeze dried. 

If the tank has lots of algae, then the nori isn't needed. It's just a good food source that lasts a couple days or so and doesn't seem to pollute the water much. You can buy it at fish shops or the grocery store (some). It's used as the wrapping on sushi.

The assassin snails are not really much interested in algae at all imo, so give them a good feeding up to the day you leave.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Looks like you guys are right. My assassins eat only dead shrimps. I found today 2 dead shrimps (one cherry and one crystal) untouched by assassins.
Now I have to figure out why my shrimps dieing on the daily bases even two a day for the past week or so. In the past week I lost 8 or more shrimps with no reason


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

That's a shame. Just some thoughts for you to thinkover;

Are you using Seachem Fluorish Excell?
Are the shrimps generally adults? Juvis?
Are you feeding foods with copper?
Are you using un treated tap water for w/c's?
Have you started using a new product recently?


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Will Hayward said:


> That's a shame. Just some thoughts for you to thinkover;
> 
> Are you using Seachem Fluorish Excell? - Yes but in very small quantities (1ml a week on the weekly water changes) and it always mixed it the big cup of water before put in the tank. Never put strait in !
> Are the shrimps generally adults? Juvis? - I have all adults, juvis, babies. The ones that dieing adults or Yong adults
> ...


Are you using Seachem Fluorish Excell? - Yes but in very small quantities (1ml a week on the weekly water changes) and it always mixed it the big cup of water before put in the tank. Never put strait in !
Are the shrimps generally adults? Juvis? - I have all adults, juvis, babies. The ones that dieing adults or Yong adults
Are you feeding foods with copper? - I don't think so. I use regular flakes from Omega one, wardleys, Hagen and Tetra (I mix them all together), Sharakura Japanice shrimp food, tetra algae waffles and Hikary bottom feeders waffles 
Are you using un treated tap water for w/c's? - Nope. Always use it with Prime
Have you started using a new product recently? - nope

I always had some shrimp dieing on me but not in that rate. I do find occasional dead shrimp once in two weeks or so. I did have an issue once where I lost 15-20 shrimps in 1 month but never figured out why. The good think is that my shrimps breading as well.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Mine don't seem to bother each other, just as I was reading this thread, I looked up and say a shrimp cleaning the back of a snail. He started to take off by the time I got the camera, and got this shot but the shrimp was just leaving.


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## missindifferent (Jun 25, 2010)

It's a shame you're losing so many shrimps 
Is it possible it's something simple like too much bio load? I've heard that the crystals need pristine water.

Getochkn: that's cute... "I'll clean your back, you clean mine!"


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## dchow (Oct 30, 2009)

What is the tank temperature? How does it fluctuate from lights on to lights off? Though this should matter less for cherries. Also which Shirakura (regular/special) are you feeding? Are you doing water changes and then having die offs?

Crystals don't need pristine water but as with most things they have preferable conditions.


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