Guppy eating bladder snails. Is this normal?

[b33fsquatch]

I've noticed my adult female guppy, Sunset has gotten a hold of what I think is a bladder snail sucked out of its shell on three different occasions. I'm not really bothered by it, I'm just worried she's going to choke because they are too big for her to get down. Is this a normal thing? Should I be worried?

 

[Fishfur]

I've noticed my adult female guppy, Sunset has gotten a hold of what I think is a bladder snail sucked out of its shell on three different occasions. I'm not really bothered by it, I'm just worried she's going to choke because they are too big for her to get down. Is this a normal thing? Should I be worried?

She can chew them up because guppies have pharyngeal teeth, which help the fish grind up any food they eat. She’s unlikely to try to swallow the snail whole - but that trick of sucking them out of the shell is one you usually only see in pea puffers. She’s a smart little fish!

 

[emeraldking]

It does happen that guppies do this. But as Fishfur already stated, they've got pharyngeal teeth to get the job done. Happens overhere from time to time as well.

 

[BPSabelhaus]

I’ve seen a few of my big girls eating / attempting to eat small MTS so why not lol

 

[Fishfur]

I used to regularly squash nuisance snails for fish to eat - they’d dive after the sinking snail and make short work of them and that way I rarely had any need to hand pick snails out of a tank. Sometimes, meals were served using all the extra numbers of snails, served as raw paillards.

 

[HupGupp]

If you crush the ones near the top against the glass you'll usually get a feeding frenzy. It's a good treat if you don't mind that sort of thing. That must be a tough guppy to go after them whole.

 

[Littlebudda]

My guppies have learnt to eat the pest ramshorns I started by squashing them on the glass now they actively hunt them on the glass, still don’t get them off plants but it’s a start

 

[BPSabelhaus]

My guppies have learnt to eat the pest ramshorns I started by squashing them on the glass now they actively hunt them on the glass, still don’t get them off plants but it’s a start

Try squishing them then spreading the food chunks on the plants.


Worked once already, right?

 

[Littlebudda]

Try squishing them then spreading the food chunks on the plants.


Worked once already, right?

It did, might do that half way through the water change next time so I don’t have to go half swimming