# What kind of snail is this?



## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

I found these snails in the tanks I've used ADA amazon II soil. does anyone know what kind of snail they are? also, are they plant safe?









thanks


----------



## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

baby Ramshorn maybe?


----------



## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

it doesn't quite look like a ramshorn snail to me, though i could be wrong. is there any clear indicator if it is?


----------



## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Looks curly and like a ramshorn to me.


----------



## J-P (Feb 27, 2011)

ditto ramshorn


----------



## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

how did it get in there? and should i be worried or get some assassin snails in there?


----------



## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

ramshorn as well. most of them come from plants as they might contain snail eggs that's hard for us to see. you can just remove them manually since they're shells are softer than most snails i've found


----------



## Splash768 (Mar 29, 2011)

I find them to be somewhat beneficial. They do a good job of shuffling and aerate the substrate and their population is controlled by how much food you throw into the tank. If their population explode, then you are overfeeding. 
Once they are in the tank, it's pretty much impossible to remove them completely. Newborn baby snails are smaller than grains of sand and they spend most of their time burrowed under substrate.


----------



## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

They are a neat snail, and I agree, if you don't overfeed, they don't over populate and help eat any uneaten food, dead fish or shrimp, etc. They can also breed blue, pink, leopard spotted, white/clear shells in colors. I'm actually setting up a tank just for them to breed in to see what kind of colors morphs I can get. They can get up to the size of a quarter almost as well.


----------



## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

I have what I would call a micro ramshorn. Fully grown they only measure about 3mm. I think that they came to me from some pellia that came from out west. They are in my CRS tank but do not appear to harm the plants.


----------



## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

think, does it look like this?


----------



## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Riceburner said:


> think, does it look like this?


Is that a sack of egg's laid on a snail? lol. My roomie had pond snails lay eggs on his assassin snails back. lol.


----------



## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

I'd have to say it doesn't quite look like that picture. their shells are really flat and there almost never erect. It's always on their side showing off the spiral, as the shell stays parallel to the ground. They also don't get really big, they stay at around 3mm.


----------



## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

(Picture Courtesy of http://www.pixiq.com/article/how-to-take-a-color-x-ray)

Should be something like this? It is how Ramhorn snails look in softwater as they can't seem to form a larger shell or something along those lines. I have them in all my softwater tanks and they seem to top out at 3-4mm in size


----------



## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

getochkn said:


> Is that a sack of egg's laid on a snail? lol. My roomie had pond snails lay eggs on his assassin snails back. lol.


They will lay eggs anywhere. Come to think of it, the tiny babies I found in the bottom of the filter looked the same just a couple of mm across.


----------



## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

that's a fantastic picture! and yes that's how they look! without a doubt. I assume they're just as harmless in soft water tanks?


----------



## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

Yeah, harmless as the normal ones. I find they grow and reproduce slower in soft water that they become barely noticeable.


----------



## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

so i'm thinking of breeding these guys now. taken a few out and put them in harder water so they can form a proper shell. any tips on getting specific colours in their shell?


----------



## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

thinkshane said:


> so i'm thinking of breeding these guys now. taken a few out and put them in harder water so they can form a proper shell. any tips on getting specific colours in their shell?


I think its a matter of letting them breed and see what pops up. I have about 100 in a tank right now breeding. Nothing too interesting yet but a few look like they have a faint blue tint to the brown shells.


----------

