# Ramshorn Snails Eat Plants?



## Acro (Jul 7, 2012)

I just read that ramshorn snails eat plants. I've never known that to happen, but I've only kept them in tanks with Anubias. I was about to place some in a tank with Bucephalandra, but if there is a chance the snails will eat my buce, I won't place them together!

So will ramshorn snails eat bucephalandra? Do they eat any type of plant?


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## garfieldnfish (Sep 25, 2010)

Mine leave my plants alone unless they run out of food. I do not have the plant you are concerned about. I keep a few ramshorns in a 10 gal with a few daughter plants and plant clippings and they will munch on them but I only feed these snails once a week. The rest of the time the plants are all they have. I found that if I feed them more they lay eggs everywhere and I do not want them to multiply. So I conclude from that that they will eat plants if that is all they have to eat, but if given a choice they prefer fish food. My ramshorns in fish tanks do not touch my plants.


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

Acro said:


> I just read that ramshorn snails eat plants. I've never known that to happen, but I've only kept them in tanks with Anubias. I was about to place some in a tank with Bucephalandra, but if there is a chance the snails will eat my buce, I won't place them together!
> 
> So will ramshorn snails eat bucephalandra? Do they eat any type of plant?


Could you please cite where you read that?

I doubt you'll find any evidence of ramshorns eating healthy, living plants. They do eat dead or dying plant tissue; of any flavor. So if your plants are having issues, the rams are just doing what they were made to do: clean up. Overfeed your fish and the rams do what they were made to do: clean up. Too many dead plants and too much food to clean up and any snail does what they were made to do: multiply, and multiply until there is no more.


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## dzega (Apr 22, 2013)

All snails eat plants. what matters is how far on the preffered food list falls what you have in tank.


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## Acro (Jul 7, 2012)

Bushkill said:


> Could you please cite where you read that?


Third sentence: http://www.planetinverts.com/ramshorn_snail.html



dzega said:


> All snails eat plants. what matters is how far on the preffered food list falls what you have in tank.


 Bucephalandra?


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

Acro said:


> Third sentence: http://www.planetinverts.com/ramshorn_snail.html
> 
> Leonard is wrong.
> 
> Where did "Leonard" get his information from?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

You don't need to go looking for a quote. I have had Trumpet snails, not ram snails
to eat Java Moss and eat ALL the roots off of Vals.
I keep Ram snails mostly because of how slow they multiply.
Snails eat mostly algae. The problem I had/w the Trumpet snails eating the Java moss
is that it had some algae in it and when they would get down to the plant they wouldn't stop eating. The whole floor was littered with small pieces of it from them chewing
through it.
The Trumpet snails that I had that ate off all of the roots of the vals were local native Trumpet snails from Louisiana when I lived there.
I find that the Pond snails bother plants more than Ram snails do. Doesn't happen often
but lack of natural food encourages it. Occasionally one leaf which is soft because it's just coming out will have a nip taken out of it. Nothing at all extensive.
The Ram snails aren't just going to devour a plant. I'd try just one and watch for any problems. Pond snails can multiply if you only have one of them but the Ram snails need to mate. It could have before you put it in there.


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

I have java on a piece of driftwood on the 180G. The other night, I saw all the MTS come out of the substrate and onto the glass. The next day I pruned some java moss off the driftwood to add to the fry cover in the guppy tanks. Other than the rotala forest, on one side of the tank, everything else in the tank is a root feeder: swords, crypts, micro swords and a few large anubias. I've had a few ramshorn population crashes in this tank and just starting to see a couple again. The tank is overstocked and overfed. A dozen nerites work round the clock and I'm guessing the MTS work the night shift. I haven't taken a scraper or cleaning implement to this tank in almost a year now. Leaves are clean as a whistle and the glass is crystal clear.

I keep a 40G for plant cuttings and divisions. Some pond snails and a small school of pencilfish. The tank's is pretty well crammed right now.

I keep pond snails in the guppy tanks with some crypts, ludwigia stems and java moss. The glass is squeaky clean, and so are the nice healthy plants. When I introduced the snails, the glass was brown on three sides. The glass has been clean as a whistle for months now and maintenance-free.

I just don't get all the snail hysteria. From my experience, I have 24 tanks and should top 30 by the end of the year and I'm trying really hard to work them into every single one. The amount of work they save me is just worth their weight in gold to me. It lets me focus on nothing more than water changes and filter maintenance. I have a whole bunch of magenta mystery snails coming today as well as some of Jake's veggie sticks with calcium to supplement-feed them in the tanks where I know there's no left over food for them, but just some diatoms.

If anyone has quantities of ramshorns they want to be rid of, I have use for them.


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## dzega (Apr 22, 2013)

Acro said:


> Bucephalandra?


only if you put them together in sterile box in dark room.


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## Acro (Jul 7, 2012)

I discovered that ramshorn snails will eat young bucephalandra leaves. However, they only did this when the food and algae had been consumed. It was survival food it seems.

Lesson learned: Ramshorn snails can and will eat live young plant leaves if starving. Thus, be sure they are never starved.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

Acro said:


> I discovered that ramshorn snails will eat young bucephalandra leaves. However, they only did this when the food and algae had been consumed. It was survival food it seems.
> 
> Lesson learned: Ramshorn snails can and will eat live young plant leaves if starving. Thus, be sure they are never starved.


I have a bunch of buce plants in my tank, with another shipment coming, good thing I don't have any ramshorn snails in my tank... I'd be very upset if they ate my buce leaves.


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## Acro (Jul 7, 2012)

chiefroastbeef said:


> I have a bunch of buce plants in my tank, with another shipment coming, good thing I don't have any ramshorn snails in my tank... I'd be very upset if they ate my buce leaves.


 It's really not of much concern. They never ate the plants in normal tank conditions. I still have them in my tank with all the buce. They only munched on one leaf before I caught it. It was when the food ran out. Keep them fed,with algae or fish food, and you'll be good.


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## crazy4fids (Dec 3, 2014)

The larger Columbian rsmshorn snails will demolish a planted tank in no time. The smaller ones age generally safe. I have the smaller ones in my 10 gallon planted tank and they leave the plants alone.


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## Acro (Jul 7, 2012)

crazy4fids said:


> The larger Columbian rsmshorn snails will demolish a planted tank in no time. The smaller ones age generally safe. I have the smaller ones in my 10 gallon planted tank and they leave the plants alone.


Ahh yes, those Columbian Ramshorn are amazing! But I was referring to the smaller ones, and I agree, they "are generally safe".


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## MtAnimals (May 17, 2015)

The smaller ramshorn,like my pinks,will eat moss.I added 15 half grown ones to a 55,they went nuts and cleaned all the algea off.I've been adding lettuce for them,which they eat,but the small ones have destroyed 2 flame moss pads now,and have been eating java too.They do this with wilted romaine lettuce and celery stalks to trap them.
So a word of warning.I'm now trying to get as many of them as I can out of there.

the 15 went to hundreds in a matter of a couple weeks.I even saw them on new Java moss I tied to a rock.


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## Opie. X fury (11 mo ago)

Bushkill said:


> Could you please cite where you read that?
> 
> I doubt you'll find any evidence of ramshorns eating healthy, living plants. They do eat dead or dying plant tissue; of any flavor. So if your plants are having issues, the rams are just doing what they were made to do: clean up. Overfeed your fish and the rams do what they were made to do: clean up. Too many dead plants and too much food to clean up and any snail does what they were made to do: multiply, and multiply until there is no more.


I don't know why people say they won't eat your plants I've caught two now on top of my tiny Anubis and another stem plant making holes in it I literally watched him do it


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Opie. X fury said:


> I don't know why people say they won't eat your plants I've caught two now on top of my tiny Anubis and another stem plant making holes in it I literally watched him do it


Note that this is a thread from 7 years ago.

Though, it's accurate that Ramshorns and most snails won't eat healthy plants. They will, however, eat areas of plants where there are deficiencies or dying leaves. This is extremely well-documented via at least 40-50 years of anecdotal experience from millions of planted tankers. What you describe sounds like plants that were deficient in some manner.

There are some exceptions when it comes to young tissue-cultured plants that haven't converted to submerged form. And occasionally with extremely soft plants when there's no other food source. But that's so rare it almost never happens.


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## mooner (Dec 2, 2007)

Bushkill said:


> I just don't get all the snail hysteria. From my experience, I have 24 tanks and should top 30 by the end of the year and I'm trying really hard to work them into every single one. The amount of work they save me is just worth their weight in gold to me. It lets me focus on nothing more than water changes and filter maintenance.


Ditto, thumbs up, I don't get it either. Only aquarists strive for snail free sterile tanks, not in nature.

Aquariums that have plants that barely grow or not at all are not alive. If you aren't seeing consistent plant growth, then snails will eat these standing dead plants.


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## LidijaPN (12 mo ago)

I have around 5 species of snails, all come in on different plants. Nobody messes with the growing plants. Everybody eats the dying stuff. Nobody’s population is booming out of control. 

Only issue I ever had was with Chug, my biggest pond snail, and tissue culture Ludwigia Super Red. The plantlets were tiny and apparently delicious, they got totally stripped. But even Chug never ever hurt any other plant.


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