Ever seen an otocinclus eat a snail?

**guy121** · 08-12-2008, 09:10 PM

So I just tossed in a snail for my puffers and they usually kill it, then I need to crunch the whole snail for them to eat the rest. Well after I crunched it and tossed it in, I noticed one of the otos looking like it was searching around for something (different behavior than normal). Then bam it was on top of the snail and the dwarf puffers were just looking at him like, "Hey! I was trying to eat that!" . They just sort of stared at him while he sat there and munched on the snail. It was really funny, but I thought it was sort of odd how the oto smelled the snail then actively went to eat it. Didn't know they ate snails.

**fins_n_fur** · 08-12-2008, 09:13 PM

Interesting! Maybe they smelled an easy meal of pre-digested algae?

**gm72** · 08-12-2008, 09:55 PM

They are scavengers but I've never heard of them going after something like a snail.

**guy121** · 08-12-2008, 09:57 PM

I don't know, but honestly this oto was going to town. He didn't eat it really fast, but was trying really hard to eat it. I got a picture, but it didn't turn out so well. I tried to get closer, but it scared him off.

Ok so here is the picture of the last bits of the first snail:

So I decided that I was going to catch the elusive carnivorous otocinclus. I put another fresh snail in there, which cheeky shortly killed. Then I crunched it and waited with my camera right next to the tank as to not scare the oto this time.

Here is a picture of the otocinclus enjoying eating the snail with cheeky trying to get some too.

And heres my interpretation