# Assassin snails eating one of my RCS



## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

So I have family over right now for thanksgiving and someone points out that my snails are eating a shrimp. The shrimp was alive when it was attacked. I thought assassin snails only ate dead shrimp. I took a crappy pic with my phone (didn't have the time to set up my dslr with macro lens and lighting)


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

chinamon said:


> So I have family over right now for thanksgiving and someone points out that my snails are eating a shrimp. The shrimp was alive when it was attacked. I thought assassin snails only ate dead shrimp. I took a crappy pic with my phone (didn't have the time to set up my dslr with macro lens and lighting)


are you sure?


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

camboy012406 said:


> are you sure?


yes i am sure because now i have a red shrimp head sitting on the bottom of my tank. the shrimp hasnt even had time to turn white after death yet.


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

probably they are so hungry. btw what substrate are youusing?


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

camboy012406 said:


> probably they are so hungry. btw what substrate are youusing?


That tank has fluval ebi


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

If the assassin snails are really hungry, they will try and attach shrimps.
I found that my assassins will always try to attack my shrimps so I took them out of the tank.


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

Jaysan said:


> If the assassin snails are really hungry, they will try and attach shrimps.
> I found that my assassins will always try to attack my shrimps so I took them out of the tank.


im thinking getting assasin snails but now I chnaged my mind


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## someguy (Sep 7, 2009)

theyre used to a lot of protein in their diet naturally, keep them well fed with snails and frozen foods every few days and it wont be a problem 
btw i think they only go for molted shrimp because of how easy they are, from what ive noticed


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

someguy said:


> theyre used to a lot of protein in their diet naturally, keep them well fed with snails and frozen foods every few days and it wont be a problem
> btw i think they only go for molted shrimp because of how easy they are, from what ive noticed


hmm them being hungry could be the key here.
i used to feed my shrimp daily but i recently cut down to feeding on monday, wednesday and friday so the the assassin snails must be starving. i have tons of pond snails in the tank (probably hundreds) but they are all still babies so i havent seen them get eaten yet.

what frozen food would you suggest that i feed them with?


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## someguy (Sep 7, 2009)

for me bloodworms works, obviously find something your shrimp like too, brine shrimp is probably also good. mine also go nuts for colorbits, and some stores will give you free snails to feed them it doesnt hurt to ask 
if in doubt remove them as every tank is different, but for me it works


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

i fed them bloodworms this afternoon but i just witnessed another assassin snail eating an RCS. ugh this is getting annoying.

i think i should pull out all my assassin snails and put them in a dedicated tank until i need them to clean up pond snails again. how should i set up a snail tank?

edit: im thinking a 2.5gal with a mature sponge filter (from an existing tank) and some akadama. a little bit of moss and a piece of driftwood. that should be good enough right?


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## someguy (Sep 7, 2009)

sucks to hear, ya that sounds fine snails are even less demanding than rcs you probably dont even need the substrate although they do like to dig so its up to you, i guess it depends how long you keep them there
hopefully they learn from their time out, good luck!


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

i ended up grabbing a 5.5gal from big als because they had these on sale for the same price as the 2.5gal at the kennedy location.


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