Pest fresh water snails as food for Hermits?

[bryan47caveman]

Hi there,

I’m fairly new to the hoppy and I have two tanks, a fresh water and a saltwater. Can I remove and feed the fresh water pest snails to the hermit crabs in my saltwater tank?

Your thoughts and experience is appreciated.

 

[KrisReef]

I’m not exactly sure but I think that is forbidden by the rules of treatment for enemies under the Geneva Convention? I don’t think that the hermits are going to use the shells after the meal either?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I mean, I don't see why not?

 

[Mr_Knightley]

As far as I know, there aren't any major nutritional differences between freshwater and saltwater snails. And even if there were, hermits are known to eat pretty much anything, so I wouldn't worry. If the snails are big enough the hermits may even use the shells.

 

[bryan47caveman]

I’m not exactly sure but I think that is forbidden by the rules of treatment for enemies under the Geneva Convention? I don’t think that the hermits are going to use the shells after the meal either?

Haha, just making sure there aren’t any weird issues such as diseases

 

[Stomatopods17]

IIRC there was a study somewhere that suggested Fresh water live foods for Saltwater animals were really bad for them.

I don't know if this pertains to all cases, but its not healthy to give freshwater prey to stomatopods due to the amino acid differences, goldfish to lionfish cause their flesh contains an enzyme that messes with the lionfish's own enzymes, etc. The uca sp. crabs given to octo-s are brackish water so they might be safe for them but crayfish we don't know enough about and could be bad for them.

Snails and the pathogens they carry can react to sea water in ways we can't tell so I wouldn't recommend it, I don't even know if salt has the same effect on freshwater snails as it would for terrestrial snails (salt has an osmosis effect on snails where it pulls moisture out of them and dehydrates them completely, no clue if thats exclusive or our marine snails are just evolved not to be effected), just toss them or buy an assassin snail that actively preys on those snails: