Snails eating dead fish OK?

H

Hellbore

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Aug 31, 2010
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I recently added red ramshorn snails and red cherry shrimp to my 10g aquarium, which also housed 5 guppies.

This weekend I had to have surgery on my ankle and I have been bedridden, so I haven't checked the water parameters for a couple of days, but this morning I noticed I was 1 guppy short!

It didn't take long to find out what happened: There was a pile of about 5 ramshorns on top of a well-cleaned guppy skeleton!

Apparently the guppy died some time over the last couple of days and the snails ate the whole thing.

Should I be worried about the snails getting sick? I don't know what killed the guppy, it seemed perfectly healthy. I have a different guppy who is sick with what looks like a bacterial infection, but that guppy is still alive. I wonder if this guppy who died got the same infection, but I couldn't see any visible signs?

Can snails catch bacterial infections or fungal infections from eating dead fish? Is it safe to let the snails eat the dead?
 
My shrimp and snails eat anything that dies! I usually don't even find any evidence except that I am missing a fish!
 
Yeah I agree, if something goes down in my tank I don't even notice because the shrimp and snails get to the body first. I have never heard of a snail or shrimp catching a disease from a dead fish. I am pretty sure since they are scavengers by nature they have a immunity to a lot of that stuff or they would never survive in the wild feeding off all the diseased fish.
 
:grinyes::wall: Yeah... I know about that one.

I got 10 neon tetra for my tank. Over the week I only have 1 left. If I want to tank them back for exchange I could not ... no carcase. The shrimp about 100 and MTS aver 100 just devoured them one by one. :jaw:

I think the shrimp secretly attacked the fish in their sleep.:22_yikes:

Ya just gotta laugh at that one... :grinyes:

Best wishes,
Wes
 
LOL yeah this fish looked healthy, I wonder if the snails somehow developed the tools to hunt guppies... Seems kinda suspicious to me for him to drop dead like that overnight...
 
Yeah mine loojed healthy too, All shcooling togther and everything and wham!!!:hypnotized: whithin 3 -4 days only one left.:eek3:

I think the one lone Red Claw Macro Shrimp that I captured today got to that school.

Total devistation.:jaw:

Best wishes,
Wes
 
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