Assassin snails DO eat shrimp

[Wycco]

You need to be real careful suggesting that because Marcos are often sold as ghost shrimp in places like Wal-Mart and even your LFS, and they will eat your shrimp. I have a 5 gallon that is now devoid of cherry shrimp and 2 really fat "Ghost Shrimp" as they were labeled.

Sorry to hear about that... I know it can happen- but I don't think it is common. I know mine arn't macro because they are berried and are still small.

I don't think any store is going to sell a $5- $10 shrimp for 30cents if they can help it. It's not going to be deliberate- but an accident or act of ignorence on their part.


Still, if someone is worried- look to see if the shrimp in the tank are berried. If they're an inch and a half long and berried- that's too small to be an adult macro- so they're Freshwater Grass Shrimp most likely...

... still, I suppose it is possible to have both in one batch.





Personally, were I to find out my ghosts were Macros (I know they're not since they're adults and still look like ghosts), I would be over the moon that I got so many so cheap!

- Of course- I don't have any other shrimp in the tank yet- they're coming later and I would be annoyed if my ghosts ate their tank mates.

 

[Sounguru]

I knew they were macros and I bought all 6 they had in the tank at Wal-Mart so to say that is uncommon may not be true...... and I have seen them there a couple of times since.

 

[Wycco]

I usually avoid Wal-marts fish department as my local Wal-Marts are usually full of dead fish...

... I'll have to take a closer look next time I'm there. I think I know what I'm looking for- I suspect I'll certainly know if they're different to the two variety of American Freshwater Grass shrimp I've picked up as ghost shrimp in the past.

I wouldn't mind keeping some Macro's although I don't have a spare tank- and don't think I'd trust them in my community tank. No one sells them locally- so if Walmart have them that would be fantastic.

I need more tanks... not so much for fish... for all the different inverts I want.

 

[Sounguru]

My Wal-Mart just installed all new tanks and acually all the fish look really healthy for a change.

 

[Chromes03]

I "had" a 50g tank full of adults cherrys (100 or so) and i didn't have an extra tank for my assassins so I put them in there and turned the tank into an Assassin breeder tank...Months went by and I noticed the adult population of my cherry declined...I do see babies everywhere though....I would say that they would attack and try to feed on a shrimp when the opportunity is there....I also have another 50g tank w/ assassins and I noticed the population of adult shrimps declined too....

 

[Chromes03]

Good steal Will...what species are they?

 

[calivivarium1]

I am hoping that one of these days I will actually witness the assassins catching a shrimp. I know its not from the fact that they are starving, when my prey snail population gets too low the assassins will head to the algae wafers(I just prefer to keep the tank saturated with prey snails so the assassins stay fat and happy and don't have to lie in ambush for long). I think this is a typical case that a few others posters have said in this thread: a slow moving, possibly unobservant adult RCS wandered by an assassin snail waiting for food to move past it.

Talking about other critters that help keep snail populations down, my scarlet badis absolutely LOVE bladder snail eggs. With me picking out the adults and my two badis snacking on the eggs, I have completely eradicated bladder snails in my two tanks.

 

[Sounguru]

a slow moving, possibly unobservant adult RCS wandered by an assassin snail waiting for food to move past it.

or as I like to call it Stupid Shrimp Syndrome

I personally think any shrimp that tries to steal food form an assassin, stand still while and assassin creeps up, or is just too dumb to swim away needs to be eaten. Personally if I ordered shrimp from someone and all I got was a bunch of really stupid shrimp I would be pissed. That is why I have assassins in all my shrimp tanks.

Good steal Will...what species are they?

Not real sure I didn't expect them to survive and didn't even know I had any left until a few days ago. They like to hide in the overgrown moss car and the giant moss ball up top so I rarely seen them. Guess I ought to try and find out now that they seem to be alive and kicking.