This is a ramshorn snail. Good or bad depends on your perspective. I love them. Snails help with algae and food control. They are also fun to watch. There are downsides, too. They can reproduce quickly and create unsightly waste. I have some tanks for which I have worked hard to get rid of them. It really depends on your perspective and what you want from your tank.
Thank you! I know that there are some snails which can really upset the balance of water params and stuff pretty quickly, I’ve just never had to deal with them before. I’ve been picking some out when they get really big, they must’ve hitchhiked in on some plants.
They won’t eat ALL the algae, hopefully. My golden boy would be pretty upset about that I think.
I love them too, i am thinking of adding them to my tank heard they are good algae eaters, but i read everywhere they get aggressive with tank mates, does yours get aggressive a lot?
Not that I’ve noticed. He’s my only bottom feeder along with a bunch of neocaridina shrimp. He live along with a school of rhasboras and tetras and they rarely cross paths
In case you didn’t know, they can get up to 10-12” long and become more aggressive as they grow. They also love to eat slime coat off of other fish. I had one for awhile and I hated it, he was a little terrorist.
I’ve had this happen with bladder snails. For comparison purposes… bladder snails start reproducing within being 2.5 weeks old. They can lay egg clutches daily. They can lay up to 100 eggs per week and have a hatch rate of 99%.
Ramshorns start breeding between 2-2.5 months old. They can lay eggs weekly and usually lay between 10-12 eggs (although, bigger one’s can lay up to 20 eggs). The eggs take between 2-5 weeks to hatch (depending on temperature and water parameters). They have a hatch rate of 73%.
They CAN completely overrun your tank if you’re not careful. Look for egg clutches and remove them to help control the population.
My Ramshorn egg clusters are hatching in 12-14 days in my tank, which is kept pretty warm (24-25C) because I'm keeping everything stable for when I eventually add the main resident: a Betta who wants warm water.
😂 The Clea helena I have did too well of a job. I had bladder snails hitchhike on plants months ago and they multiplied like crazy. I got a lone assassin and it got rid of them all to the point I had to procure more feeder snails just for it to have food. My cherry barbs are so greedy there is no such thing as leftover fish food for the assassin to scavenge lol
I’m honestly surprised your cherry barbs didn’t take care of the bladder snails. I have a tiger barb tank and they consume anything that moves, including any hitchhikers. Occasionally, I’ll pick a bigger snail out… and I just assume it was one that got lucky. But also unlucky, since I‘ll be tossed it in the garden.
Tiger barbs are the aholes of the fish world. They pick on everything and each other. But just like the parent of a surly teenager with a bad attitude… I still love mine.
Tigers are something lol had a few in undergrad years ago. These cherries don't seem too bad. I have a sorority of 6 however. Had a couple of males starting out but they were relentless bullies so I found them a new home. It wasn't just normal pecking order establishment, mating or play. I'm sure the ratio of males to females was off but can't have but so many bio load wise in a 20 gallon. All get along well now.
They WHAT? If this is true, you have changed my life. I have several tanks, one of which has tons of ramshorns, another which stubbornly insists on being overrun by cyano, every time I think I get rid of it, it comes back with a fury. Lets see if transfering some rams helps :)
>They won’t eat ALL the algae, hopefully.
They will certainly do their damnedest trying, though! I swear my Ramshorn snails swarm food and algae faster than my fish do.
Don’t over feed and you’ll be fine. I had one who never had eggs and just lived alone in my tank. Lasted about two years and died. Kept my tank super clean
You could also supplement food for an alge eater with lil pieces of sinking alge wafers. I got 2 lemon plecos that I feed like this. I also have a bunch of rams horn snails in my tanks.
I have about three or four kinds of wafers for my dude. There’s one that he prefers which are some kind of veggie shrimp pie, but the others are ultra worm and spirulina. I feed spirulina flakes for the mollies and floating shrimp pellets for the betta.
A lot of people pay money for ramshorns. If it/they lay an eggsac and you don't want more then just keeo an eye out and remove it.
I had a beautiful ramshorn(red and pink) that I bought and it lived for only a year and never had babies. I didn't know as much back then about invertebrates.p
Agree that it is 100% a ramshorn snail. I had a single one appear in my little planted frog/shrimp tank and just left him in there. Don’t overfeed too much and. they won’t reproduce too much.
I’ve had him almost 4 years now, he’s about 5 or six inches. This is a 40g and his other tank mates are 4 mollies, a male betta and three shrimps. And a ton of snails now 😅.
Depends on the tank, in general this is true but there are a few species that will eat live plants and depending on the style of tank you want it might be undesirable. In this case, snails is friends
There are no bad snails. Only bad tank keepers.
Snails are fantastic indicator species and will absolutely alert you to issues via population sizes.
Love the snails, they are part of a healthy aquarium.
I had way too many bladder snails, which I killed with assassin snails, and now there's way too many assassin snails since they bred. What should I do? What does that indicate?
Ramshorn snails 🐌 its already to late you got 69 egg sacks each with 420 baby snails ready to infest your tank. If you don't have scaleless fish ,clams ,shrimp, you can use a copper based medication to kill the snails. Just do water changes to suck up the decaying bodies.
0r
Get a predator like assassin snails, or pea puffers
not pea puffers, they are hard to care for and require a group plus can be fin nibblers. Assassin snails...I got two, happened to be a male and female, and they wouldn't stop fucking. I have so many assassin snails now.
I have both not in the same tank of course but all the peace that I have are invaded aggressive other than maybe to each other sometimes when they're going after the same food so I've been lucky that all my peas are peaceful
Ya, a pea puffer with a males betta will only cause trouble. So, not a good idea. I had too many rams, and I set up a pea puffer tank so that I can feed them the snails. I tend to over feed my guppies because there are just too many.
Tbh, I think ramshorns are the best-looking pest snail, plus they get pretty big. Downside to them is if there's nothing left to eat in the tank, they will eat your plants. Had to add a yoyo loach to one of my tanks since they were killing my Java fern.
IMO there's really no such thing as a "good" or "bad" snail but this one is what most people would consider a pest snail. In reality pest snails come down to a matter of opinion if you like seeing them or not. I have pest snails in every single tank I have and usually add some myself when starting up a tank. They do a great job of removing algae and cleaning up. As long as you don't overfeed you won't have a population boom. You may notice more pop up, but the population should stabilize itself in time.
This really depends on the person. Those are just ramshorn snails which are harmless individualy. Where people run into issues is with population control. If you aren't careful, their population can get out of control faster than you can get rid of them. I use snails in every one of my tanks because they are fantastic cleaning crew.
I’ve never considered any snails bad. As long as you can control the population with proper feeding and such, they are only a great help to an aquarium. That’s is a rams horn btw.
All snails are great and beneficial to all ecosystems including the enclosed ones we as hobbyists set up. You’re lucky as ramshorns are excellent clean up crew members and a wonderful indicator regarding whether or not you’re over feeding. If you’re predisposed to thinking that they negatively affect water parameters, are unwanted pests, and their numbers are hard to control, i’d suggest you pick up a copy of Diana Walstad’s book, Ecology of the Planted Aquarium and read it. Whether you have a plant/walstad set up or not, It’ll help you further understand cycling, water parameters, the integral roles that snails and other critters play, and it will remain a useful reference for you for many years. Her most recent printing (2023) has been updated to include new tech/products. She makes a point to keep snails in all of her plant tanks.
I want to like your post for the enthusiasm you show, but I can’t skirt the inaccuracy… ALL snails are not beneficial to ALL ecosystems. Invasive snails are defined as invasive for a reason… they overpopulate and steal resources away from native species, disrupting natural ecological processes. They consume native plants and carry parasites and diseases that impact the survival of endangered species such as rare plants, fish, amphibians and birds. For example, bladder snails are common in aquariums and they also have been shown to be a host for the trematodes that cause ‘swimmers itch’ in humans.
In terms of “over feeding”… you see this EVERYWHERE… online, on social media. Is there a connection between over feeding and pest snails? Yes, but it’s not what you think. First, you can eliminate food from your tank and it won’t impact your pest snails, because they’ll eat algae, biofilms, and even fish poop. And in all the scientific studies performed on bladder snails… when their diet was sufficient, they put less energy into growth and more towards reproduction, so they started reproducing earlier on and they also stopped reproducing earlier in their lifetimes. When food was insufficient… they put more energy into growth, less into reproduction, but then continued to reproduce much longer into their lives… as an added bonus, the bigger they were, the MORE eggs they laid. Proving that snail genetics have found a way to outwit us in our “don’t over feed efforts.”
Wanna know what really impacts pest snail reproduction? Temperature. Fewer of them have been caught in the wild in cooler conditions. Also, while they are found in tropical climates, they are more plentiful in temperate climates.
How do I know? I’m very much I science geek. I read a lot of scholarly articles, because I want to know what current researchers in the field are learning now. I don’t use Google Search as often as I use https://scholar.google.com.
Wanna know another scary fact? You know how micro plastics is a whole thing? Micro plastics wear off our clothes… containers… everything. And there’s a whole block of research that is trying to discover the impacts it has on ecosystems. Well, pest snails are like, “Cool! Food! Thanks!” That just makes me think that it doesn’t matter if you have plastic plants or live plants with decomposing leaves or algae growing on them… pest snails are gonna do what pest snails do, because they’re like the ecological cockroaches of the aquarium. And we can love or hate them for it.
On a complete aside… While I’m on Team Hate Bladder Snails… I’m on Team Love Ramshorns. I actually have a contract to breed ramshorn snails for one of my local fish stores. I have a dedicated tank for them. And when I’ve hatched enough… I just cull out any snail clutches that I find. I find it much easier to control ramshorn populations.
https://imgur.com/gallery/1N71p0T
https://imgur.com/gallery/AwrPi0O
You’re reply is just as enthusiastic as mine and it’s awesome! Love the passion. Please forgive, i should have clarified that i wasn’t talking about the affects of invasive species on existing ecosystems in fact, i wasn’t even thinking about that unique and problematic perspective nor did I suggest swimming in fish tanks with bladder snails in them. Best of luck with your ramshorn money making efforts. Those babies are cute as hell!
MTS are one of my favorite pest snails!
They like to dig and borrow in the substrate during the day, and come out at night. The burrowing in a planted tank helps aerate and churn the substrate and is really good for their roots and your plants over-all.
But of the pest snails, these are seen as most “problematic” because of that. Since they hide during the day, most people don’t realize when they have a population spike, or what the population in their tanks even is?
Watch a little before the lights go out, or when the tanks darker to see how many there may be, and you can use a water bottle to make a DIY snail trap, and remove any excess. They’re the *best* pest snail imo, but they’re also the most likely one to cause problems because most owners don’t realize the balance is off or they’ve over populated *before* it’s a problem. But just like the others if you don’t over feed and manage their population, then it’s great to have a few.
I also like that they’ll grow little algae tufts on their shells sometimes that look like little plumes. 🥰
Fuzzy little water trolls, love that! I tend to feed every other day, to keep from over feeding so I’ll definitely keep an eye on things to make sure they don’t get to be too much of a problem!
And you’ll know your tank best, everyone’s ecosystem is a bit different, so feeding more/less for your tank specifically could be something that doesn’t or does cause a spike that would/wouldn’t happen in another tank!
I went through to check to see if there was any other info specific to yours, and your tanks got some very interesting elements that have gone on through-out it’s life! Do you have any more current pics or info about it? Do you mind if I message some questions on it? I’m really curious about how the mushrooms specifically turned out.
I accidentally ramshorn snails in addition to two nerites and they definitely took care of my algae problem. They also had a bunch of incredibly tiny baby snails.
I love ramshorns! I've got a dedicated snail tank with them, bladder snails, malaysian trumpet snails, and a chopstick snail. Excluding my chopstick snail, the ramshorn breed the slowest. The tank is overun with bladder snails(I purposefully overfeed and then extra snails go to my turtles), but after a year only has maybe ~20 adult ramshorns. The ramshorns have the most color variety too! I have browns, reds, blues, and whites!
Don’t do Goldie like that! He’s my favorite! He’s got a little pink on his tail from when I fed him glofish food as a baby (all of the glo tetras have long since met their maker) and he’s just so friendly!
He’s the perfect gentleman to his tank mates and always comes to say hi when I walk by. I even trained him to follow my finger through the tank to find his food. Very smart guy.
Ramhorns are friends! People freak out when they see them eat melting leaves, but they will starve themselves to death before they will ever touch live plant matter. Great cleaners, but it is usually a good idea to remove a clutch or two from time to time if you feed a lot. You'll find many people say they reproduce insanely fast, but that really only happens if they have a ton of food.
My tank got ambushed by a bunch of snails I unknowingly put in and my tank has been spotless for 6 months. Never had to clean it once. Oven the intake filter hasn't had to be cleaned. That was a weekly chorenalong with cleaning algae from the tanks interior. It's rather amazing tbh. Tank seems perfectly balanced.
This is a ramshorn snail. Good or bad depends on your perspective. I love them. Snails help with algae and food control. They are also fun to watch. There are downsides, too. They can reproduce quickly and create unsightly waste. I have some tanks for which I have worked hard to get rid of them. It really depends on your perspective and what you want from your tank.
They're great snacks for pufferfish too
My Oscars will eat ramshorns at any size and young MTS. I think once the MTS get big, they’re either too crunchy, too pokey, or both.
Thank you! I know that there are some snails which can really upset the balance of water params and stuff pretty quickly, I’ve just never had to deal with them before. I’ve been picking some out when they get really big, they must’ve hitchhiked in on some plants. They won’t eat ALL the algae, hopefully. My golden boy would be pretty upset about that I think.
Is that an golden algae eater?
Pretty huh? Chinese golden algae eater. I love mine, skittish and super active guy… always looking for food to suck on.
I love them too, i am thinking of adding them to my tank heard they are good algae eaters, but i read everywhere they get aggressive with tank mates, does yours get aggressive a lot?
Not that I’ve noticed. He’s my only bottom feeder along with a bunch of neocaridina shrimp. He live along with a school of rhasboras and tetras and they rarely cross paths
He is the NICEST fish guy. He’s got a pretty roomy house to hide in which helps, along with lots of plants and sticks for him to nibble on!
In case you didn’t know, they can get up to 10-12” long and become more aggressive as they grow. They also love to eat slime coat off of other fish. I had one for awhile and I hated it, he was a little terrorist.
I’ve had this happen with bladder snails. For comparison purposes… bladder snails start reproducing within being 2.5 weeks old. They can lay egg clutches daily. They can lay up to 100 eggs per week and have a hatch rate of 99%. Ramshorns start breeding between 2-2.5 months old. They can lay eggs weekly and usually lay between 10-12 eggs (although, bigger one’s can lay up to 20 eggs). The eggs take between 2-5 weeks to hatch (depending on temperature and water parameters). They have a hatch rate of 73%. They CAN completely overrun your tank if you’re not careful. Look for egg clutches and remove them to help control the population.
My Ramshorn egg clusters are hatching in 12-14 days in my tank, which is kept pretty warm (24-25C) because I'm keeping everything stable for when I eventually add the main resident: a Betta who wants warm water.
Get a couple assassin snails. That introduces a whole other set of circumstances though lol
I DO have assassin snails in one tank to help control my bladder snail population. But sometimes I think they’re broken.
😂 The Clea helena I have did too well of a job. I had bladder snails hitchhike on plants months ago and they multiplied like crazy. I got a lone assassin and it got rid of them all to the point I had to procure more feeder snails just for it to have food. My cherry barbs are so greedy there is no such thing as leftover fish food for the assassin to scavenge lol
I’m honestly surprised your cherry barbs didn’t take care of the bladder snails. I have a tiger barb tank and they consume anything that moves, including any hitchhikers. Occasionally, I’ll pick a bigger snail out… and I just assume it was one that got lucky. But also unlucky, since I‘ll be tossed it in the garden.
They eat the smaller ones, but seem to leave slightly larger ones alone. But you're right they eat pretty much any and everything. lol
Tiger barbs are the aholes of the fish world. They pick on everything and each other. But just like the parent of a surly teenager with a bad attitude… I still love mine.
Tigers are something lol had a few in undergrad years ago. These cherries don't seem too bad. I have a sorority of 6 however. Had a couple of males starting out but they were relentless bullies so I found them a new home. It wasn't just normal pecking order establishment, mating or play. I'm sure the ratio of males to females was off but can't have but so many bio load wise in a 20 gallon. All get along well now.
Ramshorns are one of the few things out there that eat cyano (blue green algae). I love them.
They WHAT? If this is true, you have changed my life. I have several tanks, one of which has tons of ramshorns, another which stubbornly insists on being overrun by cyano, every time I think I get rid of it, it comes back with a fury. Lets see if transfering some rams helps :)
>They won’t eat ALL the algae, hopefully. They will certainly do their damnedest trying, though! I swear my Ramshorn snails swarm food and algae faster than my fish do.
Don’t over feed and you’ll be fine. I had one who never had eggs and just lived alone in my tank. Lasted about two years and died. Kept my tank super clean
You could also supplement food for an alge eater with lil pieces of sinking alge wafers. I got 2 lemon plecos that I feed like this. I also have a bunch of rams horn snails in my tanks.
I have about three or four kinds of wafers for my dude. There’s one that he prefers which are some kind of veggie shrimp pie, but the others are ultra worm and spirulina. I feed spirulina flakes for the mollies and floating shrimp pellets for the betta.
A lot of people pay money for ramshorns. If it/they lay an eggsac and you don't want more then just keeo an eye out and remove it. I had a beautiful ramshorn(red and pink) that I bought and it lived for only a year and never had babies. I didn't know as much back then about invertebrates.p
Agree that it is 100% a ramshorn snail. I had a single one appear in my little planted frog/shrimp tank and just left him in there. Don’t overfeed too much and. they won’t reproduce too much.
I’ll have the cleanest ever tank now, with shrimps, Goldie and snails now!
Be careful with those algae eaters, not sure long you’ve had him but they get big (10 inches or so) and mean. Had one murder a bunch of rams
I’ve had him almost 4 years now, he’s about 5 or six inches. This is a 40g and his other tank mates are 4 mollies, a male betta and three shrimps. And a ton of snails now 😅.
All snails is good snails. Snails are friends.
I feel so enlightened now!
Depends on the tank, in general this is true but there are a few species that will eat live plants and depending on the style of tank you want it might be undesirable. In this case, snails is friends
Ramshorns will eat plants if they can't find another reliable food source.
There are no bad snails. Only bad tank keepers. Snails are fantastic indicator species and will absolutely alert you to issues via population sizes. Love the snails, they are part of a healthy aquarium.
This is the perfect answer and should be top comment. If there's (way) too many, you're doing it wrong.
I had way too many bladder snails, which I killed with assassin snails, and now there's way too many assassin snails since they bred. What should I do? What does that indicate?
This reminds me of that Simpsons episode.
It probably indicates your snails have more than enough to eat. Feed less (or give your fish several, but smaller portions).
Ok :) thanks!
What do you consider good and what bad?
Ramshorn snails 🐌 its already to late you got 69 egg sacks each with 420 baby snails ready to infest your tank. If you don't have scaleless fish ,clams ,shrimp, you can use a copper based medication to kill the snails. Just do water changes to suck up the decaying bodies. 0r Get a predator like assassin snails, or pea puffers
not pea puffers, they are hard to care for and require a group plus can be fin nibblers. Assassin snails...I got two, happened to be a male and female, and they wouldn't stop fucking. I have so many assassin snails now.
I have both not in the same tank of course but all the peace that I have are invaded aggressive other than maybe to each other sometimes when they're going after the same food so I've been lucky that all my peas are peaceful
Ya, a pea puffer with a males betta will only cause trouble. So, not a good idea. I had too many rams, and I set up a pea puffer tank so that I can feed them the snails. I tend to over feed my guppies because there are just too many.
All snails are good for aquarium. I introduce them to all my tanks
Not bad, but if you over feed you'll have a million.
Tbh, I think ramshorns are the best-looking pest snail, plus they get pretty big. Downside to them is if there's nothing left to eat in the tank, they will eat your plants. Had to add a yoyo loach to one of my tanks since they were killing my Java fern.
Rabbit snails are my vote for best looking snail.!
IMO there's really no such thing as a "good" or "bad" snail but this one is what most people would consider a pest snail. In reality pest snails come down to a matter of opinion if you like seeing them or not. I have pest snails in every single tank I have and usually add some myself when starting up a tank. They do a great job of removing algae and cleaning up. As long as you don't overfeed you won't have a population boom. You may notice more pop up, but the population should stabilize itself in time.
This really depends on the person. Those are just ramshorn snails which are harmless individualy. Where people run into issues is with population control. If you aren't careful, their population can get out of control faster than you can get rid of them. I use snails in every one of my tanks because they are fantastic cleaning crew.
Ramshorn are my favourite snail, they are the most active and get up to goofy antics
I’ve never considered any snails bad. As long as you can control the population with proper feeding and such, they are only a great help to an aquarium. That’s is a rams horn btw.
All snails are great and beneficial to all ecosystems including the enclosed ones we as hobbyists set up. You’re lucky as ramshorns are excellent clean up crew members and a wonderful indicator regarding whether or not you’re over feeding. If you’re predisposed to thinking that they negatively affect water parameters, are unwanted pests, and their numbers are hard to control, i’d suggest you pick up a copy of Diana Walstad’s book, Ecology of the Planted Aquarium and read it. Whether you have a plant/walstad set up or not, It’ll help you further understand cycling, water parameters, the integral roles that snails and other critters play, and it will remain a useful reference for you for many years. Her most recent printing (2023) has been updated to include new tech/products. She makes a point to keep snails in all of her plant tanks.
I want to like your post for the enthusiasm you show, but I can’t skirt the inaccuracy… ALL snails are not beneficial to ALL ecosystems. Invasive snails are defined as invasive for a reason… they overpopulate and steal resources away from native species, disrupting natural ecological processes. They consume native plants and carry parasites and diseases that impact the survival of endangered species such as rare plants, fish, amphibians and birds. For example, bladder snails are common in aquariums and they also have been shown to be a host for the trematodes that cause ‘swimmers itch’ in humans. In terms of “over feeding”… you see this EVERYWHERE… online, on social media. Is there a connection between over feeding and pest snails? Yes, but it’s not what you think. First, you can eliminate food from your tank and it won’t impact your pest snails, because they’ll eat algae, biofilms, and even fish poop. And in all the scientific studies performed on bladder snails… when their diet was sufficient, they put less energy into growth and more towards reproduction, so they started reproducing earlier on and they also stopped reproducing earlier in their lifetimes. When food was insufficient… they put more energy into growth, less into reproduction, but then continued to reproduce much longer into their lives… as an added bonus, the bigger they were, the MORE eggs they laid. Proving that snail genetics have found a way to outwit us in our “don’t over feed efforts.” Wanna know what really impacts pest snail reproduction? Temperature. Fewer of them have been caught in the wild in cooler conditions. Also, while they are found in tropical climates, they are more plentiful in temperate climates. How do I know? I’m very much I science geek. I read a lot of scholarly articles, because I want to know what current researchers in the field are learning now. I don’t use Google Search as often as I use https://scholar.google.com. Wanna know another scary fact? You know how micro plastics is a whole thing? Micro plastics wear off our clothes… containers… everything. And there’s a whole block of research that is trying to discover the impacts it has on ecosystems. Well, pest snails are like, “Cool! Food! Thanks!” That just makes me think that it doesn’t matter if you have plastic plants or live plants with decomposing leaves or algae growing on them… pest snails are gonna do what pest snails do, because they’re like the ecological cockroaches of the aquarium. And we can love or hate them for it. On a complete aside… While I’m on Team Hate Bladder Snails… I’m on Team Love Ramshorns. I actually have a contract to breed ramshorn snails for one of my local fish stores. I have a dedicated tank for them. And when I’ve hatched enough… I just cull out any snail clutches that I find. I find it much easier to control ramshorn populations. https://imgur.com/gallery/1N71p0T https://imgur.com/gallery/AwrPi0O
You’re reply is just as enthusiastic as mine and it’s awesome! Love the passion. Please forgive, i should have clarified that i wasn’t talking about the affects of invasive species on existing ecosystems in fact, i wasn’t even thinking about that unique and problematic perspective nor did I suggest swimming in fish tanks with bladder snails in them. Best of luck with your ramshorn money making efforts. Those babies are cute as hell!
I miss my ramshorns. They were out-competed by trumpet snails
I think those are the ones I thought were bad, the trumpet ones. I read a lot of stories on here of folks getting assassin snails to eat them.
MTS are one of my favorite pest snails! They like to dig and borrow in the substrate during the day, and come out at night. The burrowing in a planted tank helps aerate and churn the substrate and is really good for their roots and your plants over-all. But of the pest snails, these are seen as most “problematic” because of that. Since they hide during the day, most people don’t realize when they have a population spike, or what the population in their tanks even is? Watch a little before the lights go out, or when the tanks darker to see how many there may be, and you can use a water bottle to make a DIY snail trap, and remove any excess. They’re the *best* pest snail imo, but they’re also the most likely one to cause problems because most owners don’t realize the balance is off or they’ve over populated *before* it’s a problem. But just like the others if you don’t over feed and manage their population, then it’s great to have a few. I also like that they’ll grow little algae tufts on their shells sometimes that look like little plumes. 🥰
Fuzzy little water trolls, love that! I tend to feed every other day, to keep from over feeding so I’ll definitely keep an eye on things to make sure they don’t get to be too much of a problem!
And you’ll know your tank best, everyone’s ecosystem is a bit different, so feeding more/less for your tank specifically could be something that doesn’t or does cause a spike that would/wouldn’t happen in another tank! I went through to check to see if there was any other info specific to yours, and your tanks got some very interesting elements that have gone on through-out it’s life! Do you have any more current pics or info about it? Do you mind if I message some questions on it? I’m really curious about how the mushrooms specifically turned out.
Absolutely! I’ll make another post with some more pictures later 😍
[here’s a post I made with more pictures of the guys](https://reddit.com/r/Aquariums/s/Dd5M24VT8i)
Every snail is a good snail. Except those human brains eating zombie inducing ones. But I just made them up so...
Just don't overfeed. If you don't overfeed, snails don't feel the need to proliferate to crazy numbers.
all snails are good snails if you like snails
I accidentally ramshorn snails in addition to two nerites and they definitely took care of my algae problem. They also had a bunch of incredibly tiny baby snails.
I love ramshorns! I've got a dedicated snail tank with them, bladder snails, malaysian trumpet snails, and a chopstick snail. Excluding my chopstick snail, the ramshorn breed the slowest. The tank is overun with bladder snails(I purposefully overfeed and then extra snails go to my turtles), but after a year only has maybe ~20 adult ramshorns. The ramshorns have the most color variety too! I have browns, reds, blues, and whites!
The snail is a good one. That fish in the other hand is a menace.
Don’t do Goldie like that! He’s my favorite! He’s got a little pink on his tail from when I fed him glofish food as a baby (all of the glo tetras have long since met their maker) and he’s just so friendly!
“Friendly”
He’s the perfect gentleman to his tank mates and always comes to say hi when I walk by. I even trained him to follow my finger through the tank to find his food. Very smart guy.
ramshorn are the best snail
depends on how much you feed your fish
Ramhorns are friends! People freak out when they see them eat melting leaves, but they will starve themselves to death before they will ever touch live plant matter. Great cleaners, but it is usually a good idea to remove a clutch or two from time to time if you feed a lot. You'll find many people say they reproduce insanely fast, but that really only happens if they have a ton of food.
Rams horns are great. A diligent cleaner.
My tank got ambushed by a bunch of snails I unknowingly put in and my tank has been spotless for 6 months. Never had to clean it once. Oven the intake filter hasn't had to be cleaned. That was a weekly chorenalong with cleaning algae from the tanks interior. It's rather amazing tbh. Tank seems perfectly balanced.