I wrote about this beauty of a snail a while ago - fight snails with snails LOL
Well here are one of mine
Kinda cute for a snail huh? I have 5 of these guys and thought I would share my experiences with them...
They are very very active and FAST! you see them constantly crawling around the glass, plants and substrate on the hunt. On the first day I put them in I sat for about 45 minutes watching them just waiting for them to grab a snail and see them in action (I had purposely infested this tank with snails for them) but it was not to be on day one..disappointed I let the guys sleep for the night.
Day 2 - the light goes on and I notice all other snails in the tank are at the VERY top of the glass looking like they are ready to leave...evil me gave them a little push back into the tank <muhahahaha> and then it happened the Helena grabbed one of the snails that had just fallen to it's doom and before I knew it 3 other Helena's came crawling over to enjoy the feast. So far I have only caught them snacking on normal pond snails....
Day 3 - had to clean the tank today and to my shock I find loads of empty Malaysian Trumpet snail shells ... wow these guys can even munch the toughest of the tough.
So without logging the days further it is more than apparent that the Helena's truly are snail eating snails and they do a very good job - it is now 1 week further and there are plenty of snails left in the tank for them to snack on so I wouldn't expect any miracles with these guys if you are needing a quick snail remedy.. but slowly and surely over time I am sure this tank is going to be completely snail free.
They are housed in my shrimp tank and I have not seen them go near any of the tiny little baby shrimp...
4 comments:
These snails have been used as a famous traditional food in Vietnam. They are cooked with cocnut juice. Served with special made fish sauce. It's simple delicious haha.
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/429/oclenls1.jpg
unfortunately such predatory dominant €3 snails may not be allowed to be imported to the USA, so I guess we'll have to wait till someone smuggles a few in and shares them with hobbyists.
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/snail3.jpg
I'm very curious to know if these snails pray on mini-ramshorn, which are those 2mm flat against the glass live bearing snail that is known to harm plants.
Ramshorns are absolutely no problem for them at all... easy pickings.. the only snails I have seen them have trouble with are Malaysian Trumpet Snails but they usually get the sooner or later.
Jess, I would not be so sure. I've seen Asolene Spixi go after full size >10mm Ramshorn, yet overlook the <2mm mini's which are a far greater over populating nusance to plants. Asolene Spixi attempt to prey on MTS as well, but give up long before they can pose any real threat.
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