Florida apple snails, Pomacea paludosa, serve as the nearly exclusive prey for the endangered Florida snail kite, Rostrhamus sociabilis, and many other predators in Florida wetlands. As the Florida Everglades is a hotspot for non-native species, it is prudent to understand the potential impacts non-native predators have on apple snails. In an aquarium setting, we recorded and documented the interactions between the non-native jewelfish, Hemichromis letourneuxi, and native apple snails. We compared these interactions to those recorded between apple snails and redear sunfish, Lepomis microlophus, a native predator. We found that sunfish successfully ate more snails. However, jewelfish attacked apple snails more frequently (n = 314) compared to sunfish (n = 68), resulting in apple snails withdrawing into their shells and displaying longer recovery times from attacks. Apple snails appear to spend more time recovering from attacks or possibly avoiding predation risk, rather than conducting normal movements, in the presence of the jewelfish. This may have impacts on apple snail behavioral ecology, physiology, and demography, potentially reducing prey availability for the endangered snail kite and other predators. Our research provides evidence that jewelfish negatively impact a critically important prey species in Florida wetland food webs.

佛罗里达苹果蜗牛Pomacea paludosa几乎是佛罗里达湿地濒临灭绝的佛罗里达蜗牛风筝Rostrhamus sociabilis和许多其他捕食者的专属猎物。由于佛罗里达大沼泽地是非本地物种的热点，因此了解非本地掠食者对苹果蜗牛的潜在影响是明智的。在水族馆环境中，我们记录并记录了非本地宝石鱼Hemichromis letourneuxi和本地苹果蜗牛之间的相互作用。我们将这些相互作用与苹果蜗牛和红翻车鱼Lepomis microlophus之间记录的相互作用进行了比较, 本地捕食者。我们发现翻车鱼成功地吃了更多的蜗牛。然而，与翻车鱼（n = 68）相比，宝石鱼更频繁地攻击苹果蜗牛（n = 314），导致苹果蜗牛退回到它们的壳中并显示出更长的攻击恢复时间。在宝石鱼面前，苹果蜗牛似乎花费更多时间从攻击中恢复或可能避免捕食风险，而不是进行正常运动。这可能对苹果蜗牛的行为生态学、生理学和人口学产生影响，可能会降低濒临灭绝的蜗牛风筝和其他捕食者的猎物可用性。我们的研究提供的证据表明，宝石鱼对佛罗里达湿地食物网中至关重要的猎物物种产生负面影响。