Ramshorn Snail Attack

[Fran59]

Hello. It has been a while since I have posted and due to family illness haven't had tanks going but always kept a small planted tank for my beta. Since my Mom is pretty much homebound now I have setup a 29 gallon community tank for her. My question is ..... Has anyone had ramshorn snails attack a live fish? I knew they would eat carcasses but a large one attached himself to a live pygmy Cory and it was horrible. I got him off the Cory, but sadly he died 3 days later. I had always liked the ramshorn for algae control but have been removing the ones large enough to see in fear of another attack. Thanks for any info.

 

[absolutangel04]

I personally have never seen that. But, snails are pretty opportunistic. If a cory sat still long enough to get munched, I would have to wonder if there was something internally wrong that the snail could smell.

 

[Toad]

Yeah, a healthy cory would have just swam away at the touch of the snail, my guess is that it was already sick enough not to move away and would have died anyways.

 

[Perrya11285]

I think it would be extremely unlikely as ramshorn snails are quite slow. I highly doubt that you would another problem. Any healthy fish should be completely fine. I think your dwarf Cory incident was an anomoly, and the Cory could have been sick which allowed the snail to get unto him.

 

[Fran59]

Thanks everyone. This makes me feel better about having them in my tank.

 

[TMaier]

The only thing you have to watch with ramshorn are other snails. They will gnaw on their shells or get up in the shell when young and gnaw on the snail. I have to keep them separate from my Mystery Snails.

 

[earhtmother]

Ooo does that mean I have to rehome my bladder & pond snails? I have been slowly weeding them to the hubby's tank but if there is an issue I'll get more diligent about getting them moved.

 

[TMaier]

I don’t know. Keep an eye on them. The Ramshorns are pretty competitive.

 

[Autumnsky]

Drop them a Hikari Omnivore sinking wafer (orange trimmed bag) every few days. Or they like the Hikari Crab Cuisine as well as it is formulated for additional minerals for shell growth. You could alternate feeding each, just a little bit depending on the crop of snails you want to have.

 

[TMaier]

If the ramshorn have plenty of other food sources I don’t see them on other snails.