Snails Eating Your Shrimp Food? How to Make Sure Your Shrimp Get a Share

You put a wafer in for the cherry shrimp and by the time you’ve made a cup of tea, there’s a ramshorn sitting squarely on top of it. A second snail is on its way down the glass. Meanwhile, the shrimp are still in the moss. It’s easy to reach for another wafer at that point, but wait until you’ve seen what happens to the one you’ve already put in.

Shrimp and snails can graze quite happily near each other. The useful thing to work out is whether your shrimp can reach the food while it’s still available. Once you’ve seen how each animal approaches the dish, you can make a small change to the next feed and see whether it helps.

Watch the first few minutes of an ordinary feed

Use the food and amount you usually offer. If you keep a glass feeding bowl, place it where you can see the floor of the bowl from the front of the tank. A flat stone works too. Look for the route the snails take. They may be coming from the same bit of glass or the same piece of wood every time.

Then watch the shrimp. A shrimp may approach from under the plants, pick at the edge for a moment and retreat. Another might take a crumb away. If the snail arrives after several shrimp have eaten, it may simply be making use of the remains. If several snails cover the food before any shrimp can get close, you have a reason to try a different placement.

Look again later at your usual cleanup time. If you can still see much of the food underneath the snails, make a note of that as well. A busy bowl can look as though everything is being eaten while quite a lot is still there.

Split the amount you already use

For the next feed, divide your usual small portion across two spots. A firm food such as Niblets mini wafers can be broken into pieces you can see. Keep one piece near the usual feeding area and put the other close to a route your shrimp already use. An open patch beside moss gives them an easy way back under cover and gives you a chance to see the food.

Check the new spot after a few minutes. If the shrimp reach their piece sooner, you can use that information for future feeds. If the snails reach both pieces together, see whether you’ve put them close enough that the same snails can simply cross from one to the other. Move the second spot a little farther away on the next normal feeding day.

Start with places you can clean. A crumb tucked deep into moss may be hard for a snail to reach, but it’s also hard for you to retrieve. A small piece on a stone just beside the moss can do the job without creating a new hiding place for leftovers.

Try moving the feed before changing the menu

Sometimes the difference is as simple as which end of the tank gets fed. If the snails spend the day on one pane and the shrimp graze near the filter sponge, take the food closer to the shrimp’s route. You can move a dish in stages if it’s hard to see the new location. Leave it on stable ground where it won’t tilt or trap food underneath.

You could also try feeding at a different point in your usual lighting cycle. Watch the tank first. Pick a time when the shrimp are active and you’re around to check what’s left. You’ll learn more from a feed you can observe than from dropping food in just before bed and finding an empty dish the next morning.

Start by moving one piece beside the shrimp’s usual route out of the moss. If the same snails reach both spots, spread the pieces farther apart at the next feed. Keep the total amount familiar so you can still judge how much is being used.

If the snails get there first every time

Check how much food is going into the tank overall. In a mixed tank, snails may also be eating what the fish miss. Look under the usual fish feeding area, along the gravel by the bowl and behind pieces of wood. You may find that a good part of what’s supporting the snails is food that never reached the shrimp in the first place.

If leftovers are common, reduce the amount you put in and check what the shrimp can get at the next ordinary feed. You can also lift the bowl after the feed and clear the remaining food. Check for small shrimp and snails before tipping anything away. A turkey baster or small siphon can help with a crumb that has slipped out of the bowl. Watch for shrimplets around the tip as you work.

If your snails are ramshorns and you’re wondering about keeping them in the tank at all, see the guide to keeping ramshorn snails with cherry shrimp. It’s worth knowing what the two animals share before making a decision about either of them.

A quick check for the next two feeds

At the next feed, use the usual amount and write down three things: which animal got there first, whether you saw shrimp picking at the food and how much was left. At the feed after that, split the portion between the original spot and one near the shrimp’s cover. Make the same three notes. A photo from the same angle can help when the portion is small.

If both animals can get to the food and there’s little to clear, you can keep it simple. If the shrimp start using the second spot, give it a regular place in the routine. If you’re still lifting a lot of food out, work through how much to feed your shrimp before adding a third spot or trying a bigger portion.

A ramshorn on the rim of the bowl can stay right where it is. The change you’re looking for is a few shrimp picking at food they can reach and a tank that’s easy to tidy afterwards.