Huh, IDK as I keep my brigs alone snail-wise. One of mine would eat dead fish (ugh, I'd see a tail sticking out of her shell). I'd like to think the ramshorns were dead already.
Snailbalism
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Quite likely were already dead- and as someone said what I read before was probably talking about Canas... it was just one sentence and mentioned "Apple Snails" hunting other snails- so probably not referring to Brigs...
Still- if you have a predatory Brig- you have to try breeding him/her - if the behaviour comes out as an inherited characteristic you'd have lots of people wanting to buy the snails off you.
An alternative to Assassin snails... Of course- if you can breed the bahaviour- put me on the list of people to buy.
Still- if you have a predatory Brig- you have to try breeding him/her - if the behaviour comes out as an inherited characteristic you'd have lots of people wanting to buy the snails off you.
An alternative to Assassin snails... Of course- if you can breed the bahaviour- put me on the list of people to buy.
Lupin
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I've been wondering about this. Good point, Black_sun. It's possible something is but as reported, none seem to have cause any possible injuries that would kill the ramshorns in the process and allow the brigs to eat them except the brigs apparently ate all the healthy ramshorns.
Of all the apple snails, Wycco, Pomacea diffusa is the last thing we hear preying on other snails. Rachel, some of the members here like Kristina and I never had this experience where brigs would turn to other snails for food. Just to elaborate, they are fed with plaster of Paris pucks, veggies, snail jello, commercial foods and occasionally, the dead guppies (when older ones eventually die as a result of old age) which I fail to retrieve and is understandably so due to their size.
Darryl and to those whose brigs prey on other snails, please elaborate your dietary menu for the brigs. We'll try to find out what is missing in their diet that you claim they polish off the live ramshorns. What is the temperature as well?
Something to consider, ramshorns do not have trapdoors and have very thin shells. If your ramshorns were injured or dying, then it is safe to say the diffusas will not give an afterthought and simply try consuming the snail as if it were dead but if the snail was healthy, then I don't see the diffusa attempting to eat one somehow unless the snail in question is already starved halfway to death or plainly develop a predatory instinct due to obsessive habits for meat especially as it has been fed with fish particularly raw tuna or smelts and any meaty foods.
This has been said before. Time and again, we need to avoid meaty foods for the snails. Snails tend to develop a taste for meat once they get a taste for meat and develop predatory instincts in the process. We've seen this with the canaliculata complex and most have already claimed the same experience with their spixis but not the diffusas and other species of apple snails unless they came from the sources who starve them to death. There goes a saying, "There is a first time for everything." I've been mulling this over. A few threads in applesnail.net have history of brigs eating anything in their path because they came from stores where they were starved. We'll accept that. But from sources where they are wellfed? I wonder what the menu is that the snails could not satisfy their diet and keep polishing off other snails. The last thing would be misidentification of the apple snail species.
I doubt the behavior really would be passed off. Snails have their own personality to begin with and brigs are the last things we see turning on other snails for food. Canaliculata complex on the other hand is a special case.
:thm::thm::thm:
This is exactly what I was trying to get at, but you said it much better than I did.
I have yet to find a single empty snail shell. Not one dead snail. Not even a dead pond snail. I have lost one single Ivory brigg, and that was after five years of ownership.
My personal opinion would be that it is some soft of a protein deficiency that is causing this behavior, whether it is because of a lack of protein in the diet, or the individual snail is not able to properly assimilate the protein that it ingests, making it feel starved for more.
Kristina
Pardon me if I'm getting a little defensive here, but you are basically saying that each of us that have brigs that occasionally eat bladder or ramshorn snails are starving our snails and forcing then to eat other snails???
No they aren't saying that. They are wondering if it could be a possibility that with what is being fed they aren't getting all the nutrients that they need, causing them find other ways of getting it. They asked for you guys to give an over all list of what you feed them to see if there was any huge differences between it.
Just looking at all possibilities.
Just looking at all possibilities.
Lupin
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Beth, I'll be honest here. I find the details of some posts vague. No one is saying that you and the rest are starving the snails and forcing them to the other species. My point is we find it baffling they would eat healthy snails minus the possibly injured, dying or dead specimens which is why I asked the dietary menu and temperature which are two factors that would change their eating habits and which we can possibly mitigate if corrected somehow.
If you were referring to this quote..
...didn't I explain "from sources where they are wellfed"? Where in the thread did it say "that each of you that have brigs that occasionally eat bladder or ramshorn snails are starving our snails and forcing then to eat other snails"? If you really mean occasionally, then were the snails eaten healthy at all?
This is not a personal matter but a matter in general that can be learned by other snailers so I don't see why we are getting all defensive around here.
Lupin
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I also clearly said, "My personal opinion would be that it is some soft of a protein deficiency that is causing this behavior, whether it is because of a lack of protein in the diet, or the individual snail is not able to properly assimilate the protein that it ingests, making it feel starved for more."
This does not suggest that you are starving your snails, and I do not see how you could take it that way. There are diet requirements within species, and then there are diet requirements within individuals.
That is why you can feed two dogs the same food, same amount and one will become obese while one will not.
I am trying to identify the element that would cause a snail to cannabalize or actively search out a high protein, meat meal. There has to be a reason.
Kristina
This does not suggest that you are starving your snails, and I do not see how you could take it that way. There are diet requirements within species, and then there are diet requirements within individuals.
That is why you can feed two dogs the same food, same amount and one will become obese while one will not.
I am trying to identify the element that would cause a snail to cannabalize or actively search out a high protein, meat meal. There has to be a reason.
Kristina
