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A. Agazzisi eating pest snails ?

Oslor

New Member
Messages
3
Hey! Anyone Else experienced their A. Agazzisi eating snails, in particular pest snails(bladder)?

Noticed my male acting a bit wierd and sat stil watching as he stalked a snail and in a quick motion rushed it, grabbed what I asume was the fleshy parts outside the shell and did 3-4 sideways headshakes, before the shell went flying and he startet "chewing" or rather working down something. Went in and collected the shell and indeed, it was emtpy. Have anyone of you also seen this behaviour in their agazzisis?

I've noticed a few empty snail shells of adult bladder snails in my tank, but always though it was a result of the ph being about 6 and them dying off due to that. Kinda fun to watch!
 

FishMonkey

Member
Messages
50
I had a male Macmasteri that cleared my tank of snails pretty rapidly and what's even more unusual is adult shrimp got left alone
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
My A. cf. ortegai and A. hongsloi also went for snails and freshwater limpets. But only the smallest 1-2mm specimens. That way I got rid of snails completely.
The A. hongsloi also gets baby Neocaridina shrimp as live food. My neighbour always has some surplus for me. But adult Neocaridina are left alone usually.
 

Oslor

New Member
Messages
3
I've also gone the way of keeping my neocaradina culls with my apistos, while it seems the adults survive as you guys say, their numbers dont increase. Handy way of supplying free live food, even if it is frowned on in some circles and forums. My growout tank with neo culls in it seems to benefit the growing fry, as they are constanty on the Hunt for baby shrimp the culls produce.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
This is really interesting. I wondered what happened to all the snails in my hongsloi tank - the tank with cockatoo and nannacara still have plenty of snails but the one in the hongsloi tank have mostly vanished. They do leave the 3 larger mystery snails alone as well as the two nerite.
 

nuimom

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
51
Location
Naalehu,Hi
I was wondering if anyone else had the snail feast going on with their apistos. My female Ortegai sucks them up faster than I can drop um in. I had a good snail population to keep all algae in ck before I added the pair of Ortegai to this tank, now NO snail of any size. The female eats ALL day, (and night? ) She has the same behavior, stalk, shake and eat :) I need to get some larger snails maybe but I am afraid she may just pick them to death? I feed them well, but think she has a thing for snails.
 

nuimom

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
51
Location
Naalehu,Hi
Oh I forgot to mention, my German Blue rams and Bolivian rams did the same thing too. Our aquarium snails that eat fish food must taste extra good to them, like fish food. The male Ortegai doesn't seem to eat as many, but I do see him shake one here and there and eat it.
 

nuimom

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
51
Location
Naalehu,Hi
Wish they would eat my little mystery snails - must have 100s in there :(
oh yaaee, so they don't eat mystery snails :) ??? I am not sure I can buy them here in Hawaii, will have to ck that out. We cannot buy shrimp, or some fish, but will be happy if I can add snails they don't eat, my other tanks stay so much cleaner with snails :) I am glad it wasn't a ph thing, so when I tested my water was relieved. This thread was a score too, thanks for sharing :)
 

nuimom

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
51
Location
Naalehu,Hi
Does anyone know if Rams Horn snails would be safe from them? So far no luck here getting Mystery or Apple snails :here ( Thanks
 

Mazan

Active Member
Messages
281
I think most or all Apistogrammas, Laetacaras etc. will eat tiny ramshorn snails so no risk of overpopulation, but bigger individuals should be fine and if you have the tank well planted a few babies should survive.
 

nuimom

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
51
Location
Naalehu,Hi
Great thanks, will get some Ram horns to try :) My pond and bladders snails are a quick snack for them, even the big ones. They beg for them now lol.
 

Eddy. E.

Member
Messages
72
Location
Germany
And this is exactly how endoparasites get into our fish, as they use snails as intermediate hosts. That's why I no longer have any snails in the aquarium, except for Neritina species.
 

nuimom

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
51
Location
Naalehu,Hi
And this is exactly how endoparasites get into our fish, as they use snails as intermediate hosts. That's why I no longer have any snails in the aquarium, except for Neritina species.
GOOD point :) I would never put snails from an outside source in my tanks, BUT what about the snails from our own tanks that have been parasite free for many years?? Neritina species, I didn't like the looks of all the white eggs they laid everywhere in my tanks ;O, AND how do you know they are parasite free, would just have brackish ones that wouldn't survive in our freshwater tanks?
I guess you could quarantine snail for a few weeks before you add them to your tank. Again, I would never put snails from an outside source in my tanks either, :) Thanks for the reply :)
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
GOOD point :) I would never put snails from an outside source in my tanks, BUT what about the snails from our own tanks that have been parasite free for many years?? Neritina species, I didn't like the looks of all the white eggs they laid everywhere in my tanks ;O, AND how do you know they are parasite free, would just have brackish ones that wouldn't survive in our freshwater tanks?
I guess you could quarantine snail for a few weeks before you add them to your tank. Again, I would never put snails from an outside source in my tanks either, :) Thanks for the reply :)
You can solve the little white egg problem by getting males.... thought he part of selecting males is in itself a challenge; the ones that aren't males you can feed to your loaches ;)
 

nuimom

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
51
Location
Naalehu,Hi
You can solve the little white egg problem by getting males.... thought he part of selecting males is in itself a challenge; the ones that aren't males you can feed to your loaches ;)
SO how do you pick out the males ??? lol. So the need females to reproducer ?
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
SO how do you pick out the males ??? lol. So the need females to reproducer ?
I read about how to tell the difference but couldn't really 'exercise' the knowledge. They need two things to reproduce - they need both sex and brackish water of a particular density.
 

nuimom

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
51
Location
Naalehu,Hi
It is really hard to sex them, I had them laying eggs all over in my 75 planted tank and only had a few snails, the eggs never hatched because the water was not brackish, but the eggs were ugly :O I got them out as soon as I could find them and then had to scrape all the eggs off everything :O
 

Eddy. E.

Member
Messages
72
Location
Germany
I guess you could quarantine snail for a few weeks before you add them to your tank. Again, I would never put snails from an outside source in my tanks either, :) Thanks for the reply :)

Since different parasites also have different incubation times, it obviously makes sense to keep snails in a separate aquarium for several weeks as well before moving them to the main tank.

Whether Vittina spec. or Clithon spec. or Neritina spec. remains, from my point of view, the same. The eggs do not bother me in the least, since I do not have so many snails. However, I am also a firm opponent of keeping Melanoides tuberculatus, because they multiply completely uncontrollably and they also migrate into the filter and there (already happened), clog the suction opening of the impeller.
 

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