RED RAMSHORN SNAILS - any info appreciated

Loaches love snails. They're perfect for community tanks as long as you don't over feed you wont have a population explosion.

There is no way a ramshorn snail can eat a healthy fish. Maybe one that was already dying/dead. But not a healthy one.

They can breed pretty fast unless you have a fish that eats them. However the blue color form is slower breeding.

Are you sure you want to add Ramshorn snails. I thought they were pretty so I kept 2 of my Amber red ramshorns. Now I'm sorry that I did as my 55 gal. and some of my smaller tanks have a ton of them just from the 2. I now have Assassin snails to get rid of them and my MTS population. They are doing a good job since I see empty ramshorn shells and they have been busy burrowing under my sand for the MTS snails. I have (4) Assassin snails now. They only reproduce with a male around and don't reproduce like other snails and are really nice looking snails. Brown with a yellow stripe. females are bigger and have wider striped then the males which are smaller and have thinner stripes. Easy to rehome as alot of people have problem snails like MTS,ramshorn, pond snails, They are known to take down big Mystery snails but go for the easier snails without a trap door. If no food is present after they get rid of all the snails you feed them protein food like bloodworms. Your Clown Loach will eat snails, yo yo loaches, zebra loaches, puffer fish will eat snails also.

Blue ramshorns seem to be slower breeding, and quite pretty.

EileenH said:

I have (4) Assassin snails now. They only reproduce with a male around and don't reproduce like other snails and are really nice looking snails. Brown with a yellow stripe. females are bigger and have wider striped then the males which are smaller and have thinner stripes.

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That is not a sure fire way to ID males and females. I can vouch for that seeing as how I have over 100+ and have been working with them for almost 2 years. As a general rule it is okay but I would say only about 60% of the time will that be the case.

I raise Rams to keep My Assassins fed if you have a light feeding schedule it will help, but will not 100% keep them in check. The loach is your main snail killer but the king of all snail killers I have found is large goldfish. Wiped a very very heavily infested tank out in under 2 days....:rofl:

I agree they can be hard work, but I do have pinks and reds in one of my tanks. I scrape off eggs from the glass and squish small ones with the blunt end of a knitting needle. Basically any excess snails become fish food and the minnows enjoy that.

I keep my ramshorn population in control by not over feeding.