Last updated on February 5th, 2022
Snails have shelled gastropods that refer to land snails, gastropod mollusks, and terrestrial pulmonate, and mostly in a general sense, it also refers to various freshwater and sea snails.
You will mostly find snails eating at night, and their diet primarily consists of decomposing organic matter and animal feces, fungi, slugs, carrion, worms, centipedes, and insects.
Some snails can even eat other snails. Here are some animals that include snails in their diet.
Animals that eat snails:
- Angelfish
- Dwarf Puffer Fish
- Frog
- Chicken
- Plecos
- Hedgehog
- Duck
- Turtle
- Bearded Dragon
- Owl
- Crayfish
- Hawk
- Octopus
Here are 13 animals that eat snails.
1. Angelfish
Most aquarists prefer Pterophyllum as angelfish that belongs to the Cichlidae family and is a freshwater fish’s small genus.
South America’s Orinoco Basin, Amazon Basin, and the numerous Guiana Shield rivers are the place of origin for all their species.
Marine angelfish and perciform fish present in the shallow ocean reeds are different from the Petrophyllum. Their bodies are rounded, and the dorsal is triangular and elongated.
They are among the most usual freshwater fishes and cichlids to be kept at an aquarium. Additionally, they are complimented for their distinctive color, behavior, and shape.
These ambush predators feed on macro-invertebrates and smaller fishes. They like having mealworms, bloodworms, white worms, brine shrimp, crustaceans, and little insects.
They can eat snails, sometimes bigger angelfish, even swallow it entirely with the shell.
2. Dwarf Puffer Fish
Dwarf pufferfishes are small-sized freshwater pufferfishes that are also popular as the Malabar pufferfish which is native to Southwest India’s Kerala and south Karnataka.
It must not be confused with its relatives, pygmy pufferfish and pea pufferfish. It is at a threat of being overly fished due to the aquarium trade and loss of habitat.
It is among one of the smallest living pufferfish and its maximum size documented to date is 3.5 cm.
Juvenile pufferfishes can not have sex, because they ‘choose’ their sex with their growing maturity and once a pufferfish starts turning into a male, it will excrete hormones that prevent the others from turning into the same sex.
Dwarf pufferfishes feed on little snails like the Malaysian trumpet, ramshorn, and bladder snails in captivity. They also have frozen foods such as brine shrimp and bloodworms.
3. Frog
Frogs are a diverse amphibian group’s largely carnivorous, tailless short-bodied animals, which belong to the Anura order.
The most usual frog food includes crickets, waxworms, mice, caterpillars, and brine shrimp, however, they are not picky eaters and eat whatever they can. Small frogs even feed on slugs and snails.
They can be found from the subarctic to tropical regions, although this widely distributed group has its greatest species diversity concentrated in the tropical rainforest.
A full-grown body of a frog is stout; skin is glandular, the tongue is anteriorly attached, and eyes are protruding.
The cloaca’s extension in a tailed frog is said to be their ‘tail’ and full-grown frogs reside both on dry land and in freshwater.
4. Chicken
Chicken has originated from Southeast Asia and are the red junglefowl’s subspecies that is domesticated and comes under the order Galliformes.
Adult males are called cocks or roosters, whereas a younger one is referred to as a cockerel, and female adults are known as hens.
Chickens feed on plant and animal matter as well as grains, cereals, fruits, and vegetables. They do not seem to like the taste of snails, but it is high in protein and mostly safe.
In 2011, their population summed up to be 19 billion, and till 2018, it has increased to 23.7 billion, making them more in number than any bird species.
It is controversial where and when the chicken was first literally domesticated.
5. Plecos
Common pleco or suckermouth catfish is scientifically known as Hypostomus plecostomus; these freshwater fishes comprise the Loricariidae family of armored catfish.
Plecos are omnivorous and eat aquatic plants, little crustaceans, and algae, and they can also eat snails and dead fish.
They are so named for their sucker-like mouth. This tropical fish has armor-like scutes’ longitudinal rows, which cover its head and body’s upperparts.
They are popular as aquarium bottom cleaners, although they are rarely considered food fish.
Plecos are also among the few fish species that can breathe air. Its mouth helps it adhere well to different surfaces and hold food.
6. Hedgehog
Hedgehogs belong to the Erinaceidae, eulipotyplan family’s subfamily Erinaceinae, and they are spiny mammals divided into 17 species into five genera.
They are commonly found in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and they have also been introduced in New Zealand.
They eat various insects with invertebrates like beetles, worms, millipedes, and earwigs; less often, they also have fallen fruits, young baby birds, rodents, bird eggs, and frogs.
They also include snails and small slugs in their diet.
7. Duck
Family Anatidae’s various waterfowl species are ducks; compared to other family members like swans, they typically have shorter necks and are overall smaller.
They are divided among numerous subfamilies and are found in freshwater and seawater.
These birds are predominantly aquatic and sometimes confused with unrelated but similar-looking birds like coots and grebes.
They feed on fish, aquatic plants, insects, worms, small amphibians, and mollusks. They have pecten, i.e., a comb-like structure along their beak’s edge that can help hold slippery foods.
Some of the duck species are adapted to feed majorly on aquatic creatures like snails.
8. Turtle
A reptilian order recognized by their shell and known as Testudines is called turtles.
Hidden neck and side-necked turtles are this order’s two predominant groups distinguished in the way they retract their heads. Including living and lately extinct species, they have 360 species.
Many species live around or in water but do not lay their eggs under it.
Their bone mostly forms their shell, and they are cold-blooded. They usually feed on both plants and animals that make limited movements.
They prefer live food and their natural diet consists of snails with worms, role-poly bugs, and slugs.
9. Bearded Dragon
The bearded dragon is a common name for all the 6 Lizard species in the genus, Pogona; their name signifies the underside of their throat.
These semi-arboreal species spend notable amounts of their time in bushes, on branches, and near human habitation.
Males can achieve the length of 24 inches or 60 cm, whereas females can reach up to 20 inches or 51 cm.
Bearded dragons eat various live foods like mealworms, king worms, and crickets; they can also have fruits in limited amounts and vegetables like pepper and sweet potato.
These creatures do not naturally eat snails, however, when other food sources are low or unavailable, they will surely consume snails or slugs if it crosses their path.
10. Owl
Owls belong to the Strigiformes order that consists of more than 200 species. A group of these animals is referred to as a ‘parliament.’
Tytonidae, the barn-owl, and Strigidae, the true owl, are the two types of owl families. Their beaks are hawk-like, flat faces and forward-facing, large eyes with facial discs around them.
The smallest owl, the elf owl, weighs around 31 grams and measures 13.5 cm. Blakiston’s fish owls and the eagle owls are among the largest owl species.
Many owls prey on little animals like little mice and voles. They also eat snakes, rabbits, lizards, frogs, birds, and invertebrates like snails.
11. Crayfish
Crayfish are categorized as freshwater crustaceans, which resemble their relatives, small lobsters, and belong to the Parastacidae and Astacoidea superfamilies.
They are also called crawdads, crawfish, mountain lobsters, freshwater lobsters, and yabbies.
Crayfishes breathe via their feather-like gills and their average length is 17.5 cm.
They are consumed worldwide, however, only a small portion of their body is consumed, though.
They eat whatever they can get a hold of since they cannot move fast, so they rarely harm shrimp or fish. Thus, they tend towards water plants and invertebrates like snails as well as worms.
12. Hawk
Hawks are of the Accipitridae family and these birds of prey are of diurnal nature, also they vary largely in size.
They are tetrachromats, just like most birds, which means their eyes have four color receptors.
This also enables them to perceive ultraviolet light, and they are popular for their sharp vision and hunting capabilities.
They are also very intelligent among other hawks and human beings. Males are mostly smaller than females.
Their parents feed them until they leave the nest.
Hawks commonly eat squirrels, voles, rabbits, and large snails if they spot them. They are also capable of eating lizards and snakes.
13. Octopus
Octopuses are eight-limbed mollusks in the Octopoda order. Their order comprises 300 species and comes under the Cephalopoda class.
These soft-bodied mollusks can radically alter their shape, making them capable of squeezing via small gaps.
They are bilaterally symmetrical and use siphon for both respiration and locomotion.
They have excellent sight along with a complex nervous system and they are one of the most intelligent of all the invertebrates.
Octopuses reside in numerous parts of the ocean and they eat crabs, clams, small fishes, and snails.
They can also eat other octopuses, they mostly hunt their prey at night, and all have venom that ranges in toxicity.
Conclusion
The animals that eat snails are angelfishes, dwarf pufferfishes, frogs, chickens, plecos, hedgehogs, ducks, turtles, bearded dragons, owls, crayfishes, hawks, and octopuses. Since snails move very slowly, it makes them an easy target for these predators to capture.
