Came into my office this morning to find a nickel-sized Brig attempting to chow on a full sized RCS. I know that the shrimp was still alive, b/c I "rescued" him. Both are well fed on algae and veggies and it is a planted tank. Is this normal? I have been losing shrimp to what I had thought was the sponge-covered filter. Now I am not so sure. Brig removed and shrimp counted. Just wondering if this is a common thing to have happen. Any experience with this?
Brigs eating RCS?
- Thread starter Somervell
- Start date
Are you certain it was trying to eat it or was it possibly trying to groom it? I have never known brigs to attempt to eat anything living.
I don't think it was grooming. If it was, the shrimp was patently unhappy about the prospect. I thought Brigs were largely passive eaters of algae, veggies and other tasty tank detrius. I removed the Brig from the tank an hour ago. It was like that scene in Wizard of Oz when all of the Munchkins come out. Coincidence? IDK.
That is very odd. My 110 gal tank is full of Brigs and I have never seen them do anything to anyone. I would imagine that the shrimp would not like getting groomed by a Brigs rasping mouth, but I bet you that was what it was trying to do. Mine clean each other all of the time.
My Brigs clean everything else (plants, ramshorns, other Brigs), so maybe that was it. I think I will leave Mr. B out of the shrimp tank and see how things progress. He's moved on to other things, so I don't think he's the worse for the transfer.
That sounds unusual. It could be a freak accident. I don't really consider brigs (or most snails for that matter) to be the smartest critters in the world. He probably just ran it over and thought it was food. I doubt these apple snails are the reason to your mysterious population loss though. Very, very unlikely...
If a shrimp was too slow to get out of the way of a Brig could something be wrong with the shrimp? My shrimp won't tolerate even an antenna touching them without exploding like they were electrocuted.
What color is this particular brig? I am wondering if you somehow ended up with a cana. I could see a cana doing this. I keep brigs and RCS together and they all seem happy.
Weird.
Kristina
Weird.
Kristina