Today Martha had snails for her dinner, so I thought I'd get a few photos this time.
Martha can eat around 15 to 20 large pond ramshorns in a day.
They're getting hard to come by, and these ones we had to buy from a pond supplier.
Just in case anyone's forgotten who Martha is,
She's a 13 inch Fahaka Pufferfish Tetraodon lineatus
A species of freshwater puffer with a well deserved tankbuster killer reputation.
You wouldn't believe it to look at the old sack o' spuds though.
Once she spots a snail, she eyes it up, deciding on the best angle to tackle it...
Then with an intense stare, she targets the prey to get an accurate strike with her binocular vision.
At the same time, she holds her breath so as not to alert the prey to her presence.
Wham! she grabs the prey...
...and quickly kills it with one bite.
Here she's bitten the snail in half and dropped half the shell.
She seperates the shell from the flesh by crushing it then spiting out the shell.
Here she goes again with another snail on the glass..
Locate...
...target...
...strike...
...gone.
Just the shell debris left for me to clean up later.
Finaly, here she is settling down for a nap after her meal.
Goodnight Martha!
Martha can eat around 15 to 20 large pond ramshorns in a day.
They're getting hard to come by, and these ones we had to buy from a pond supplier.
Just in case anyone's forgotten who Martha is,
She's a 13 inch Fahaka Pufferfish Tetraodon lineatus
A species of freshwater puffer with a well deserved tankbuster killer reputation.
You wouldn't believe it to look at the old sack o' spuds though.
Once she spots a snail, she eyes it up, deciding on the best angle to tackle it...
Then with an intense stare, she targets the prey to get an accurate strike with her binocular vision.
At the same time, she holds her breath so as not to alert the prey to her presence.
Wham! she grabs the prey...
...and quickly kills it with one bite.
Here she's bitten the snail in half and dropped half the shell.
She seperates the shell from the flesh by crushing it then spiting out the shell.
Here she goes again with another snail on the glass..
Locate...
...target...
...strike...
...gone.
Just the shell debris left for me to clean up later.
Finaly, here she is settling down for a nap after her meal.
Goodnight Martha!
