Ramshorn - Friend or Foe

James0816

AC Members
Feb 14, 2007
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I just found two ramshorn snails in one of my tanks. They have obviously been there for awhile as one them is fairly large. Funny that I only found them today. Anyway....I do not know anything about these guys so I figured I'd ask the experts. Gonna do some searching as well.

Thx
 
whatcha want to know? I am assuming you are talking about common ramshorns. I like having them. They eat leftover food, decaying plant matter, and algae. They are asexual, so don't need a partner to reproduce. They lay their eggs in gelatinous sacs under the water. I find them to be a good gauge of maintenance as they will only readily reproduce with ample food source. If you start to notice they are becoming great in numbers, decrease feeding and increase gravel vacs. They come in several colors, red, leopard, brown and blue being the most commonly found. They typically max out at about dime sized, though usually are smaller.
 
I could not possibly agree more with Msjinkzd.
 
I've had some ramshorns in my tanks for about 3 months now and haven't noticed any problems with them yet. They reproduce at roughly 1/2 the rate of my MTS, but most of each hatching doesn't make it past a few weeks, so they don't seem to be nearly as hardy.
 
kewl....thx.....no clue about the common part though. will try and snap a couple of pics tomorrow. it's lights out right now.
 
if you give us a description, its likely I can tell you if they are common or columbian. The columbians are actually an apple snail species and get quite large (bigger than golfball) and usually are striped as well as being voracious plant eaters.
 
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