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Longear and snails

Started by Guest_LSUMAN_* , Feb 19 2014 10:32 AM

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4 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_LSUMAN_*

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Posted 19 February 2014 - 10:32 AM

Hey y'all I thought this was interesting and thought I'd share. I collected some pond snails from a gulley at work and put them in my 55 with a largemouth bass and a southern longear. The bass grabbed and spit them out then the longear grabbed one crushed it then ate it all, then went on to eat several more. I was surprised because I only knew that chinquapin or redear sunfish ate snails. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

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#2 Guest_centrarchid_*

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Posted 19 February 2014 - 12:31 PM

We did an experiment a few years back using several sunfish species. Bluegill and longear would both consume the brittle shelled pond snails (Physa spp.) but would not consume the harder shelled ramshorn snails (Heliosoma spp.). The redear, pumpkinseed and their hybrids would readily consume even the ramshorn.

Where your longear come from should not be ignored when it comes to their appetite for snails.

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#3 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 19 February 2014 - 12:54 PM

I remember my spotted (the renouwned south georgia 'stumpknocker') and my warmouth will both crush regular pond snails as well.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#4 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 19 February 2014 - 01:30 PM

I can also add that in the sunfish tanks I've had, the only pond or ramshorn snails that live are the ones that stay trapped in the canister filters. This (at some time or another) included longear, readbreast, dollar, warmouth, greens.

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#5 Guest_LSUMAN_*

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Posted 19 February 2014 - 06:57 PM

That's really cool, thanks for sharing. Although it shouldn't surprise me that different sunfish could eat snails, they'll eat anything I drop in the tank. I haven't tested to see if my red spotted will eat snails but I did "teach" it to jump an inch or two out of the water to grab a pellet from my fingers.