# Ramshorn snails



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Came from the plants somewhere. lol. Egg sack maybe. They don't eat plants, they will eat dying leaves though on a plant or algae on a plant. I keep them in my shrimp tanks, let them eat the extra food the shrimp don't, eat a dying leave before it can decompose, keep the glass clean, etc. The problem with assassins is once you get them, and they eat all your snails, then you have to get rid of them or get more assassins for them to eat. lol. And once in a while, not often, very rare, but an assassin can attack and kill and freshly molted shrimp. Not a bit deal if it was low grade cherry, bummer if its a $300 blue bolt. lol.


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## hedge_fund (Jan 1, 2006)

Snails are great to have in planted tanks and even shrimp tanks. They eat rotting plants, dead things, algae and uneaten food. Ramshorn and pond snails will not touch "healthy" plants so you have nothing to worry about. If you get assassin snails, they might kill some of your shrimp...there have been cases where members have posted that these snails have been killing shrimp.

Learn to live with the snails...you should look at them as a helpful cleanup crew instead of being pests. Also, if you really have pink ramshorn then there is an actual market for them...

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwsnails&1330633204


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## Eldachleich (Jul 9, 2011)

I think they are kinda useful and cute....
As long as you do not overfeed ever the population should stay waaaay down...


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## Alplily (Jan 1, 2012)

They are not bothering me, as long as they won't make a salad bar of my plants. I do think they are kind of cute and interesting. And I will be curious to see what color they all grow up to be... the ramshorns shall stay! Maybe I'll get lucky and they will all be pink! Maybe there is a ramshorn RAOK in my future...


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

I tend to have about 100 Ramshorns in a 20L at any given time. Some get really large and majestic-looking. 

People freak out over them but I'm a huge fan. They're as much fun to watch as shrimp.


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## Eldachleich (Jul 9, 2011)

Alplily said:


> They are not bothering me, as long as they won't make a salad bar of my plants. I do think they are kind of cute and interesting. And I will be curious to see what color they all grow up to be... the ramshorns shall stay! Maybe I'll get lucky and they will all be pink! Maybe there is a ramshorn RAOK in my future...


I've only got two brown ones...
Pink would be awesome.
Apparently they also make an awesome nutritious treat for your fish from time to time..
I've only got two and think they are adorable. So I try not to boil them and chop them up for my fish ol...


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

They also come in a bright blue every once in a while too that is really cool looking. Also good because they will eat a dead shrimp right away, which is better than having an ammonia spike. 1 shrimp dies, spikes causes another to die and you get a cascade effect. Snails eat them instead.


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## driftwoodhunter (Jul 1, 2011)

I used to kill all the snails that came in on plants - now I regret it. After letting one live, I ended up ordering some. They are as fun for me as the fish - the ramshorns I have are pink, but they throw all colors, mostly pinks, leopards, and browns. They've never been a nuisance, never ate healthy plant tissue, and they are fantastic algae eaters. They keep my driftwood pristine. I enjoy them tremendously!


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## thechibi (Jan 20, 2012)

Oooh. Pink or blue is cool. I wish my horrible pest snails were cuter... but then they might not be horrible pests I guess.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

There could be dead stuff they are eating. I had a massive outbreak of MT snails when I redid the tank as there was a lot of debris to be processed and then they vanished.

Probably most of those babies will die.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

+1 to this. I have only seen ONE dead shrimp in about five years because of snails. Particularly Ramshorns.

And that's with thousands upon thousands of Cherries.



GeToChKn said:


> They also come in a bright blue every once in a while too that is really cool looking. Also good because they will eat a dead shrimp right away, which is better than having an ammonia spike. 1 shrimp dies, spikes causes another to die and you get a cascade effect. Snails eat them instead.


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## Alplily (Jan 1, 2012)

Due to it being a new tank and plants are arriving bruised and are getting established, I'm sure they have plenty of dead/dying plant material to snack on. After this discussion, I sure hope they all don't die now! I can always feed them if necessary.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

You don't get snails because of overfeeding, but if you overfeed a small number of snails will turn into a large number of adult snails.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

i love ramhorn snails and would gladly give a home to any that are unwanted


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

I predict you'll be making my snail jello recipe in no time flat. HA. (Search the forum for it - or I'll dig up a link if you need it at some point)



Alplily said:


> I can always feed them if necessary.


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## Alplily (Jan 1, 2012)

OK, I immediately envisioned lime jello dotted with fruit colored snails, but you probably mean snail food! Send link?



somewhatshocked said:


> I predict you'll be making my snail jello recipe in no time flat. HA. (Search the forum for it - or I'll dig up a link if you need it at some point)


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## wrangler (Oct 14, 2007)

I love rams so much I have decided to try to selectively breed the different colors of them.....blue red pink lepord and black.....


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Here's one of the recipes. Click here.

There are several others, so feel free to use the search function to find them. This is just my favorite.


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## Alplily (Jan 1, 2012)

Egad. I can't believe I am contemplating becoming a chef for my snails. This is a new definition for insanity for sure.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I hate them but they don't damage your plants as far as I can tell but if you have them in abundace your overfeeding, aht, bt, yep you are. I was pulling out 200 a day in floating riccia , on the glass, and on my plants and I was never going to win, then I started reducing the food, then a little less, skip a day and before you know it there are only a couple in your tank. I do have 3 very old Dwarf Chain Loaches that help keep them in check but I have 83 fish in a 150 and the amount of food I give might fill a soda cap after 2 weeks.


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## ducky14523 (Aug 29, 2011)

what i do is hand sort the colors as i find them and seperate them into different tanks, with the browns all going into the catfish tank where they mostly get eaten. but the result is that in the 20 gal i have mostly bluish ones, the 29 has mostly pinkish ones and spotted ones in the five. my smaller bowls house the most blue/pink/spotted i have. basically i select against brown and keep the prettier ones. just bare in mind you want all one color in a tank or they breed back to brown.


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## Alplily (Jan 1, 2012)

Just ordered some Russian Blues! They look like blueberries. Should be a fun addition (I intend to keep them separately and will sort the snails in the other tank by color, too).


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

If you are planning on selectively breeding them, here's my observations:

Blue is basically leopard with a clear shell. Over time the shell turns whitish and the spots on the snail body under it begin to meld together. This causes the dark grayish color called blue. LED lights causes it to look more blue for photos.

Pink is a red body with a clear shell. Again the shell turns whitish like your fingernails. (My personal opinion is that this is a full albino. Clear shell, pink/red body.)

Red is red body with a yellow shell. The body under it causes a copper appearance. (Again in my opinion this is a partial albino. Red body, but still has the yellow shell- which lead me to believe that the genes for shell and the genes for body are entirely two separate things.)

Leopard is a yellow shell with brown spots on the body. Unless you are lucky enough to have a high contrast when it grows up, the spots meld together/body gets darker and it looks brown.

Brown is yellow shell and dark body.

As far as I know, there is no true black ramshorn that has come from the brown ramshorn strain yet. The IS however a different type of ramshorn called a BLACK RAMSHORN that is blackish. The brown and black species will interbreed if given a chance.

Egg clusters have on average 10 eggs, so if you see one itsy bitsy one that may have come in on a plant...chances are you have at least 9 more somewhere.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Ha! It's a great way to make sure your snails are healthy. I've been doing it for years. Keeps in the freezer for a long time.



Alplily said:


> Egad. I can't believe I am contemplating becoming a chef for my snails. This is a new definition for insanity for sure.


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## Alplily (Jan 1, 2012)

Thanks for this info! I've noticed that the snail color IDs are a bit, well, inconsistent. May as well "breed them" -- make lemonade from lemons if you will! Or if you can't beat 'em, breed 'em!

The biggest one I have has an orangey-pink body with what looks like a clear shell with a dark spot... he-she is kind of cute.



Soothing Shrimp said:


> If you are planning on selectively breeding them, here's my observations:
> 
> Blue is basically leopard with a clear shell. Over time the shell turns whitish and the spots on the snail body under it begin to meld together. This causes the dark grayish color called blue. LED lights causes it to look more blue for photos.
> 
> ...


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

Sounds like a pink. No idea about the black spot though, unless it's a mutation.


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## akrookz (May 4, 2015)

i had a peacock cichlid and one day i notice he was eating all the eggs before they could hatch. I watched him suck them right off the glass. so if someone was looking to have a couple snails and no babies that would be the fish to have.


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