question about feeding snails

[Ursus sapien]

Every tank I vacuum gives me dozens of baby snails of the usual species.
These, when pinched to break the shell, are devoured by almost every fish species I keep. The shrimp happily pick over anything leftover.
In my cory tank, one fish has taken over, devouring almost every snail that hits the water. I have to do a number of snails at a time for the corys and other species to get any.
She's a very gravid SAE, and she dominates snail consumption. Well, consumption in general, really, she eats like a horse...
With 16 tanks, I have snails for feeding available every day.
So, can an diet heavy in escargot cause probles for a Simese Algae Eater? Or is this a case of mama knows best?

[Pamelajo]

I think it would eventually cause some health problems. The same as in humans if we are eating all the wrong stuff or too much meat etc.it eventually catches up to us.

[Melody]

They're primarily herbivores, but also eat insects and scavenge in the wild. I wouldn't suggest a diet that is more than 25% 'meat' protein.

She may be having digestive issues rather than packing eggs. Herbivores have a long digestive tract that needs a lot of vegetation to function properly. If she is packing eggs, she'll be at risk for binding if she produces more than normal due to the high protein diet. They don't normally spawn in captivity without hormone treatments, or that's how it was the last I heard anyway.

Good question!

[Ursus sapien]

I'll tell her the experts have put her on a diet:-)

[CACAdmin]

I'll tell her the experts have put her on a diet:-)
:laugh: Let us know is she has some sarcastic retort for the experts when you tell her. :wink:

[Melody]

To me it would probably be "Yeah and 25% of your diet shouldn't be ice cream - we're all in this together honey :rolleyes:."

[Ursus sapien]

^^^she does lord it over her clump of sword plants; seems likely she'd be sassy, too:-)

maybe I'll just drop in some left over brstlenose cale- she loves that. vegetable slurry, mmmm. :Eeewww:

maybe she won't notice it's a diet...

[CACAdmin]

Tell her it's the latest trend and the 'everyone is eating it'. :wink: :laugh: Don't let her near Melody, or she'll be demanding ice cream. :wink:

[Pamelajo]

Tell her it is not a diet just a change in lifestyle.

[CACAdmin]

Just curious. Is you SAE still devouring snails like there's no tomorrow, or have you convinced her to try some veggies?

[Ursus sapien]

oh she likes her veggies alright. the mushier, the better. and I must say, the black beard algae has been drastically reduced. (this is the tank that was carpeted in the stuff. looks pretty cool on the rocks, but not so much on the plants. and man, does it ever plug up the prefilters!)
Much to the corydoras annoyance, I cut back on snail feeding to this tank. Over in my other 33, the one solitary baby puffer is totally liking the change:-)

[Laura]

My SAE love zucchini and bloodworms - actually they love anything - they're piggies.

[Pamelajo]

Since I got mine I have never noticed him eating anything but the algae until recently when I put some shrimp in. He was going nuts.

[Ursus sapien]

I started off with six, but have lost all but two, the gravid female and another who never strays far from her. Can't say absolutely, but it seems that those two pushed the others away from food often enough to compromise their health. I'd love to give them a tank to themselves, to see where it goes..
There really isn't much husbandry info out there, that I've been ale to find. They seem to feed on the same things cory like, with extra greens.