Corydoras eat snails?

May 4, 2011
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Ohio
#1
I have pond snails in all 3 of my tanks and I have noticed something, my 40 gallon with sand and cory cats has the least visible snails and I am not seeing new ones. What I do see is the cory cats will sit still and eat something out of the substrate I can't see. No flake food reaches the bottom and they will eat what they are finding rather than pellets sometimes. Are they eating young snails and snail eggs? I have read this possible, what else could they be finding in the sand?
 

Feb 27, 2009
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#2
Snails reproduce when there is food available. If the cories are eating the extra food, the snails will not have much to fuel the egglaying process. Less food = less snails.
 

May 4, 2011
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Ohio
#3
Are you suggesting it is impossible for corydoras to eat snails? I should mention the 29 gallon has a mystery snail and a ghost shrimp to bottom-feed so would the case not be true their as well? I'm just curious if they can or can not eat snails, like are their jaws capable of crushing shells, can they suck the snails out, can they even find them?
 

Feb 27, 2009
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#4
Are you suggesting it is impossible for corydoras to eat snails?
I've never kept cory catfish, so do not know if its possible that they eat snails or not.

I should mention the 29 gallon has a mystery snail and a ghost shrimp to bottom-feed so would the case not be true their as well?
The available food is what allows snails to reproduce. If the 40 gallon has no new snails, then I'd think the food they need is not available to them to reproduce. If the other tanks also have 'bottom feeders,' then they should also cut down on available food for the snails to reproduce. There is no way to know what food the fish that live in all of your tanks are not eating. You would know that more than anyone just reading on the forum. And its not just excess food the snails will consume. Excess waste (whether decaying food or fish waste) will help algae and infusoria to grow, all of which can be consumed by fish and snails alike. Cories, from what I've read, are super-efficient excess food scavengers, so it may be that they are doing a better job in the bigger aquarium than the mystery snail and ghost shrimp are doing in their smaller aquarium.

I'm just curious if they can or can not eat snails, like are their jaws capable of crushing shells, can they suck the snails out, can they even find them?
I don't know enough about cories (just what is found on various websites, the same information you have access to). I do know that size does not matter with my dwarf freshwater puffer. She can eat a snail that has a shell 3x her size. She doesn't try to crack the shell at all with those that big, but knocks them off of whatever they are attached to, follows them to the gravel, and picks at them until she's consumed the flesh.
 

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May 4, 2011
76
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Ohio
#5
Some of that makes more sense, didn't even think of them eating fish waste or algae. Both tanks have brown algae on the glass, a lot of it, but the 40 has more plants and a moss ball so maybe grows what my mystery snails do not eat at a slower pace? I usually feed my fish a little food, I watch to make sure they eat it and it does not sink might be why neither tank is densely populated yet. That is why I leaned toward my cory cats eating young snails or eggs, no flakes reach the bottom for them to find but I wonder if pieces too small to see do sink.

Note that my corys are albino and thus either blind or close to it, they are not hunting by sight so they must either feel or smell whatever it is they are eating. When I crush a snail on the glass and it sinks the cory cats franticly start digging through the sand, maybe they smell fresh snail meat? I guess the only way to test would be too difficult and time consuming for me, a neat notion but I am not going to practice.

Yes we both have access to websites, but that does not include all the worlds information. I value personal experience as well as established facts, just curious if anyone ever saw or suspected this behavior. Still the points you raised do make sense, I guess I can watch more closely and see if I can spot anything definitive. For now I will just enjoy my fish and try to make sure the snails go away :)
 

Aug 30, 2011
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#6
All I know is that we had a Cory, got some plants that introduced a snail or two. They rapidly multiplied to a couple dozen, all sizes, to the point I got a bit alarmed and we were ready to remove them. Then rather quickly they just disappeared, and we found several shells in the filter, more in the gravel. The Cory is still doing great, so I can't imagine water quality killed the snails, as I think they are more tolerant of poor water quality than a Cory, and lack of food even seems even less likely. But I may be wrong. But my son and daughter say they saw the Cory carrying a snail in its mouth, then dropping it. I think maybe it was sucking the snail out, or maybe chewing on it. I think one day it discovered how to eat a snail, and rapidly took to this new, glorious chunk of food, and cleaned them out.
 

se7en2686

Medium Fish
Jul 24, 2011
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Richfield Ohio
#7
i have a few pond snails as well as two cory cats. I'm inclined to think they eat snails. I had a few in my 29G planted
tank then all the sudden they vanished. i see one once in a while but then none for several weeks. so I'm guessing they are eating them as they are born? unsure but i hope it keeps up lol
 

Momotaro

Small Fish
Aug 4, 2011
19
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0
new york
#9
see that this threads been a few weeks but...

from what i understand loachs eat snails.

i have nerites with about 5 corys. all snails alive and ticking. baby snails = none. although i did have an outbreak at one point. not nerite babys but plant hitch hikers. bunch of them died. not sure why. cant point a direct finger at the corys though as i heard die off of baby snails are usually quite high.