MoonstruckMuse
Fish Fanatic
I know, I know, this sounds like a DUH kind of question. Most of the carnivorous fish I know would gladly chomp down on anything.
But in all reality, would an adult/sub-adult larger fish (like 1.5'+) really even notice a tiny snail crawling about the tank? I know that my 17" Silver Aro doesn't pay smaller pellet foods any attention, and I doubt he'd even see a MTS crawling around. He'd probably think it's a piece of gravel that's tumbling along the bottom or something. And if he did, could he really angle his mouth properly to scrape it off the glass & eat it?
Or perhaps, my little bichir, or my old knifefishes. Would they want to eat something hard and shelled like that? Would they even recognize it as a food source?
If the answer to these things are all no.... is it possible for me to well, use those snails as basically algae eaters & cleanup crew? Of course, they'd get food like cucumber and whatnot from time to time, as well as whatever food falls to the bottom of the tank. But it'd certainly help my plants look a bit cleaner, keep the gravel/sand a bit more managable and appealing to lookat, and whatnot.
^^" I realize you'd have to have an exorbitant number of them to actually impact much, but whatever. Perhaps I can let them breed there and then feed them to puffers elsewhere. Saves an extra tank. xD
And haha, if the answer is yes... why don't people feed these to their carnivorous fish, asides from puffers? They seem a lot more breedable the ghost shrimp, far cheaper then shellfish&other frozen fish, more useful and easier to manage then feeder fish/livebearers...
But in all reality, would an adult/sub-adult larger fish (like 1.5'+) really even notice a tiny snail crawling about the tank? I know that my 17" Silver Aro doesn't pay smaller pellet foods any attention, and I doubt he'd even see a MTS crawling around. He'd probably think it's a piece of gravel that's tumbling along the bottom or something. And if he did, could he really angle his mouth properly to scrape it off the glass & eat it?
Or perhaps, my little bichir, or my old knifefishes. Would they want to eat something hard and shelled like that? Would they even recognize it as a food source?
If the answer to these things are all no.... is it possible for me to well, use those snails as basically algae eaters & cleanup crew? Of course, they'd get food like cucumber and whatnot from time to time, as well as whatever food falls to the bottom of the tank. But it'd certainly help my plants look a bit cleaner, keep the gravel/sand a bit more managable and appealing to lookat, and whatnot.
^^" I realize you'd have to have an exorbitant number of them to actually impact much, but whatever. Perhaps I can let them breed there and then feed them to puffers elsewhere. Saves an extra tank. xD
And haha, if the answer is yes... why don't people feed these to their carnivorous fish, asides from puffers? They seem a lot more breedable the ghost shrimp, far cheaper then shellfish&other frozen fish, more useful and easier to manage then feeder fish/livebearers...
