Will this snail eat my cleaner shrimps?

[litebrite]

Hitched a ride on a coral in the LFS. Region unknown. It's in the family of cone snails, color red. It's actually eating holes in my sponge and eating live astreas snails of equal size clean out of the shell. It's got a big appetite for a 1-1/2" snail. Venomous that shoots a spear from it's mouth or nose, told not to touch because it can turn and shoot it's stinger almost behind it's shell in defense. Quick mover. Currently feeding it frozen brine shrimp. This thing will really clean a tank. Most of my snails are up on the glass safely away, so it's the shrimps I'm worried about.... and my fingers! This snail doesn't like to climb the glass since it hunts for food on the bottom.

Debating keeping it or giving it to the fish store. I'm worried it will eat my cleaner shrimps as they investigate. Right now I have the snail separated since it's been carnivorous.

What do you think. Will my cleaner shrimps become a meal? Shrimps are 4x larger right now. But this cone will be growing fast. Maybe too dangerous to have in my tank all together because of accidental sting to me maybe? My girlfriend picked it up unknowing it could sting. Just hid inside it's shell and made no effort to sting.

It pushes around a sponge coral as shelter to get to it's food, leaves the sponge grabs it's food, returns to the sponge and pushes the sponge back. Right now it's sleeping (or feeding on it) buried like a tick deep in the sponge.

But totally cool snail. Advice?

 

[divedeep1689]

wow lol interesting snail..... how do you have it seperated from everything if its in a separate tank from wat your worried about i would say keep it cause it sounds like you have a really cool snail.... lol

 

[austinsdad]

Shrimp move entirely too fast for a snail to eat'm. No worries there.

 

[litebrite]

Shrimp is in QT tank with 1 sponge coral.

Worried if shrimp play or investigate the snail it will fire it's venom spear at the shrimp and kill it. Not sure if the snail is a threat to cleaner shrimp?

I've been reading about them, can't see if shrimp are on the diet.

The one that I have seems to prefer eating snails. How far is a shrimp from a snail when a cone gets hungry?

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Diet and FeedingCone snails are divided into three groups according to their diets:

• piscivores - fish eaters,
• molluscivores - mollusk/snail eaters, and
• vermivores - worm eaters

The radula of these snails vary both by species and diet specialization. Piscivore radula are elongated with a long smooth shaft tipped in long curved barbs. Molluscivore radulas have heavy barbs near the base and are serrated over most of the length of the shaft. Vermivore radula are short, broad, and strongly serrated with strong barbs near the middle.
When catching prey, cone snails first scent it with chemoreceptive cells on the proboscis, gently touch it with the proboscis, and then, lightning fast, sting the prey with the radula, (which is attached by a thread), and inject the venom. Within seconds, the prey is immobilized. The thread is then retracted and the prey engulfed through the expanded proboscis and moved to the stomach to be digested.
ReproductionAlthough reproduction in cone snails has not been widely studied, it appears that most of these snails have separate sexes and fertilization is internal. Egg capsules of various shapes are laid and attached to substrate. Each capsule contains a varying number of eggs. Two types of hatchlings have been described, the veligers (free-swimming larvae) and veliconcha (basically baby snails).
BehaviorMost cone snails are normally active at night; however, some species hunt at dusk and dawn.
AdaptationThese slow-moving snails evolved into one of the fastest known hunters in the animal kingdom in their efforts to catch prey. Their average attack lasts only milliseconds. They use stealth and deliver paralyzing venom using stinging harpoons. Cone snail venom is very complicated chemically, varying widely in its makeup from species to species, whether a piscovore, the most toxic, or a vermivore, the least toxic; and with each individual sting or attack.
Cone snails are mong the most toxic creatures on earth. Over 30 cases of envenomation have been documented worldwide with some fatalities. The venom, which has hundreds of active components, inhibits transmission of neuromuscular signals in the body, initially causing numbing and/or tingling at the site, which spreads to the affected limb, then to the whole body.

 

[austinsdad]

Oh, I see. You've got a Rambo snail, huh? Shoots stuff/venom, huh? OK, Ignore my previous post,

 

[litebrite]

This is the snails colorings above.

Below is another photo of a similar snail. But the markings above are the identical color pattern. But different snail soft body inside the shell from mine?

 

[litebrite]

But mine has a long tail and a wide mouth below the nose. Mostly anything on the bottom of the tank is food. Once stung the fish or snails become unable to move and the snail slowly eats them whole. I'm not sure how the snail eats them whole and still fits in it's sell. But it does some how. After a full meal my snail is having a little trouble staying in its shell. I think the last snail was more than it could handle. I've removed all the other snails from QT. They were not meant as food.

It sounds a little dangerous to keep? Worried I'll be cleaning my tank, not looking and get stung. I'd have to keep it in a separate tank for my own personal safety.

 

[Jaybird]

I would get that out with a net! Not your hands. Some of these snails can pack enough venom to do serious damage to you as well.

 

[litebrite]

YouTube - Cone Snail_Eating_Fish
YouTube - Poison in a Cone
YouTube - cone snail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMTbpP_9rPU

Kind of scary.