500 Snails vs 4 Predators (I Regret This)

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]In this video, I added hundreds of snails to a tank, then released four different predators to see what would happen. I had no idea what I was doing, and it turned into one of the wildest videos I've ever filmed. One of these four predators destroyed everything in its path, and I genuinely did not see it coming. But before the chaos starts, let's build the tank. To start off, I wanted to get a big enough tank to handle hundreds of snails, but not so big that I couldn't observe what was going on. I went with a sand bottom for this build for the simple fact that it's bright and would highlight all the different creatures very well. Then I grabbed a bright light and threw it on the tank because it has the ability to turn red. So later in the video I'll utilize that to try and get some nighttime hunting behavior on camera.

[00:00:38]Then I dropped in some bubble wrap to prevent the sand from getting stirred up and start filling it up with water.

[00:00:44]Right now the water's super cloudy, so I'll be grabbing a big filter for this tank to help clear it up, but also to help deal with the fact that I'll be putting in hundreds of snails. The stronger the filter, the better. And right here we can see that it does a great job getting a lot of the film from the surface of the tank.

[00:00:59]Once that's going, I grab a heater and pop it into the tank to get the water warming up. And then it's time to get some plants, driftwood, and rocks. Since I'm a little cheap, I decide to take them from one of my bigger tanks since it's already in rough shape anyway. I always prefer pulling plants from an existing tank when I can because they're already cycled, already healthy, and they're not going into shock when they hit new water. New plants from the store can look great, but they're usually grown out of water, and they take a while to adjust to being fully underwater. These ones are already thriving, so they'll hit the ground running. I lay the driftwood and rocks on the bottom, and then I get ready to start planting. For this, I'm grabbing a pretty good variety of plants. All of them are really hearty, and some of them will grow and spread like crazy, which is why I'm not planting a ton right now because over a month or two, it's going to really fill in. I never really plan my scapes ahead of time. I have a loose idea, but once I start placing things, it just kind of evolves on its own. This one I wanted to keep pretty open in the middle. Lots of swimming space because what's coming next is going to need room to move. Now the tank is fully escaped and it's time to start collecting our snails. So sit back and enjoy this little montage of me grabbing some of them from my tanks.

[00:02:12]Okay, enough stalling. It's time to take a look at our snails before we dump them into this tank. And they absolutely take over. As you can see, we have all kinds of different snails. Pest snails, bladder snails, pond snails, big snails, and small snails. Basically, what I'm trying to say is if it's a snail, it's here and it's going in the tank with four predators. And I'll be honest, I have genuinely no idea what's going to happen. But I was just as excited as you probably are right now. But I also felt bad for the snails because even though our killers are small, they're scary and hungry. But more on that in a few minutes. Let's try and get all these guys in the tank.

[00:02:47]Okay, there we go. This is definitely the most snails I've ever seen in one tank at one time. Everywhere I looked, there was movement. It was honestly pretty mesmerizing.

[00:02:56]This is one of the bigger snails, and I think his odds of survival are one of the best. And this shot right here had to be my favorite. This is at 100 times sped up, and it looks insane. But unfortunately, this snail habitat was about to meet its first predator. This one is the slowest of the four different species I'll be adding, but terrifying in its own way. So, without further ado, meet the assassin snail. These guys are small but dangerous. They use something called a probosis, which is kind of like a straw that they use to drill into the soft body of snails when they hunt them.

[00:03:27]On average, they eat one to three snails a day and are a good way to help keep a pest snail infestation in check. When I drop them in the tank, they don't take long to start hunting. This guy takes off and heads straight for a pond snail, quickly wrapping him up so he can't escape. Then, using his probosis, he starts eating. I sped this up a 100 times, but in reality, it takes them about 20 minutes to eat one of the snails. If you look right here, you can see his probosus moving around inside the other snail as he eats. Once he's done, I grabbed the pond snail shell, and you can see that it's basically hollow. Comment down below to pay your respects. Now that we've seen our first predator in action, it's time for our second. Meet our baby crayfish. These guys are territorial and immediately start fighting each other as I'm trying to film them. Their mode of hunting is using their pincers to grasp prey and rip them apart. If that scared you, just imagine how the snails feel because right now I'm dropping them in. They start to look around and explore, checking out some of the snails, but I think they mainly hunt at night. So, I don't expect to get too much hunting footage until I turn the lights off in a couple of minutes. But just about as soon as I say that, the crayfish decide to prove me wrong. They both spot a snail who's out of his shell and vulnerable. He tries retreating as one of the crayfish move in and it works for a second, but then the other moves in and gets a little pinch. Thankfully for the snail though, he escapes with his life as the crayfish move on. Speaking of moving on, it's time to introduce our third predator and arguably the scariest of all. Meet the Helggermite. These guys are the laral stage of a Dobson fly, a terrifying flying nightmare. They use their powerful mandibles to seize and crush their victims and can even deliver a painful bite to human fingers. Their strategy is pure aggression. Clamp on and don't let go. The whole time I was filming this, I kept feeling like bugs were crawling on me, and I was honestly too scared to take my eyes off of the tank because I thought they might escape. Safe to say, these things freaked me out. So, I can't even imagine how the snails feel being in the same tank with them. They started exploring and looking around, but it didn't seem like they really cared about the snails.

[00:05:24]So, I wanted to see if turning off the lights did anything. But before I do that, I want to warn anyone who's considering keeping these in their fish tank that it's probably not the best idea. They're escape artists and eventually will turn into Dobson flies.

[00:05:36]So, if you don't want a real life demon flying around your room, I would steer clear of them as a pet. Now, remember when I said I have no idea what's going to happen in this video, I meant it. I killed the lights and things didn't change too much. We got some action when I saw a crayfish eating a snail right here, but the hunting wasn't much different with the lights out. But don't leave yet because in a few minutes we'll add our final predator to the tank and they definitely did not disappoint. Then I stumbled upon one of the helgrammites who was wrapped around a snail holding him hostage and kind of looked like he was going to bite him for quite a while.

[00:06:05]But then he gave up and ended up leaving him alone. I hate to say it, but the helgrammites were freaking me out. So I removed them from the tank along with the crayfish because our fourth and final predator, though vicious, would probably not stand a chance against them. I left the assassin snails in the tank because they won't be of any harm to our final predator. And then I let the tank sit and cycle for a few more days. Last but not least, it's time to introduce our final predators, pea puffers. They're super cute, and you wouldn't know it by looking at them, but these guys primary food source is snails. A couple snails got on the bag while they were acclimating, and the pea puffers were trying to bite through the plastic to get to them. They hunt using a tiny beak to crush snail shells and eat them. They can kill 10 to 30 snails a day. A lot of times, not even eating them, just simply doing it for the love of the game. These guys are the reason I actually did this video in the first place, because I wanted to have a permanent puffer tank with plenty of food in it. It was safe to say these guys were ready to eat because immediately they started stalking plenty of snails, scaring them, and enjoying every second of it. I didn't know something so cute could also be so terrifying. Look at this shot right here and tell me that's not the cutest thing you've ever seen. But then a second later, he eats a snail without hesitation. When I bought them, I was worried I wouldn't get any video of them eating, but I quickly realized I couldn't even record as fast as they were eating snails. It's like they were performing for the camera. I added hundreds of snails in the beginning of this video, and I was starting to think that wasn't enough because in just an hour, they'd probably taken out 40 snails. Thankfully, snails reproduce really fast. So, hopefully I have some time before I need to put more in.

[00:07:35]Somehow a tiny freshwater clam got into my tank and even he wasn't safe being stalked for a few seconds by a puffer, but he snuck by and you can see one of the puffer's eyes looking in a different direction here. Fun fact about these guys, their eyes move separately like a chameleon, which makes them able to track prey with one eye while looking for threats with the other. This is part of why they're such good hunters.

[00:07:56]Although these guys are terrifying if you're a snail, I think we all have to admit that they're adorable. And to make them even cuter, they're one of the only freshwater fish that seem to recognize their owners. Comment down below some funny names for these guys. That'll wrap up this video. Let me know if you like this kind of predator versus prey dynamic. If so, I can do more like this in the future. And if you made it to the end, thanks so much for watching and have a great day.