Well today i brought a baby bristlenose.
Then my white cloud minnow leaped out the tank.
Then finally i sat back to relax, looking at my tank, what did i see on the glass, a baby snail, panic, my first thought was theres gonna be hundreds of these everywhere, but i looked everywhere, and he/she is the only one, well not quite, i found how they got in, on some cabomba i bought recently. And on it was four more eggs.
Well i don't do killing things, so the one in there is staying, but i don't know anything about snail breeding, do they need 2 to breed. I have moved the cabomba to another container, if they hatch, well i will deal with that later. But am i ok to leave this one snail in there??

Leaving one snail in your tank should be fine. They will help with algae control. Do you know what type of snail it is? Some snails can reproduce on their own depending on the breed.

From all i have read, its a ramshorn, funny as today i was looking at apple snails, still might get one. Though now i have the 4 other eggs in another container.

I think ramshorns need a male and female to breed

I have a bowl full of them, as I dont have the heart to kill them

Anyone here looking to adopt a zillion ramshorns? hahaha ........anyone

What do they need, food, living quarters etc..?

In a nutshell:

They will eat many different veggies and things. I made a post on this.. I'm not so sure how Ramshorns differ but I believe it is very much the same.

You need to add calcium to the tank so that their shells can grow with them. Use cuttlebone, crushed coral, or Kent Marine Liquid Calcium.

Living quarters.. so far, depending on the individual fish, the compatability is fine. What other fish would be in with it?

Other fish will be, white cloud minnows, kissing gourami, bristlenose pleco, ? tetras and corys..

I have 1 ramshorn snail and HAD many hundreds of baby snails to come about from a piggy back ride in on some anacharis, Never knew what type they were they all never got bigger than a pea But then they all died at that size. I do not have any idea why. But I know I havent had babies sinceso I do believe the ramshorn snail needs a mate to breed. But im NOT 100 % positive either LOL. My mystery snail has been in my other tank for quite some time and have had no babies there either.Good Luck

Nope, ramshorns are not hermaphroditic. I don't know the word for un-hermaphrodite, is there one?

Anyways, I'd be worried about the gourami. Sometimes they can really be pecky and take off a feeler thing (same problem again sorry) or an eye.

Well, its all a learning experience, my gourami seem so timid and shy but time will tell, lets hope they leave my new snail alone, as he wasn't invited but will stay, as no were else to go and don't like killing things, even kept the four other eggs.

I like ramshorn snails. They are great little algae eaters. I can't keep them around in my goldfish tanks, though, since the goldfish eat the eggs.

Good luck with them though. I feel in love with a pair of small bluish gouramis at the pet store.. too bad my fish choice is vastly limited by my snails. Darn snails. They are currently sitting in my lap. Well most of them, the ivory just fell and was lucky enough to be caught mid-fall. Darn snails.

Anyways, my original point was, each fish is an individual. Some people keep Bettas with their snails, and they're totally peaceful. Other Bettas are little devils. My goldie is like that, but if your gourami starts pecking at the snails, I'd remove them pronto. There is also the chance that he's a good gourami and that he'll never bug the snails.

Touchofsky- If the goldies are nice to the Rams, then why don't you keep them? You don't really need the eggs, and if you want them you can scoop them out in a net before the goldies get them.

is tentacle the word you'r looking for, airwen?

Umm.. yes thank you! It sounded too squid-ish though when I tried to write it. Hehe, thanks!

I do keep the ramshorns in all of my tanks. Luckily, they breed in the tropical and betta tanks. I put large ones in the goldfish tanks and the goldfish don't bother them, but the eggs don't survive, so I don't ever have them reproduce in those tanks

All snails need a partner to produce fertile eggs.

While it's true that non-apple snails are hermaphrodites, they still need a partner to get the job done. Otherwise, no new genetics would ever be produced, and the species could never evolve. (Think - the ULTIMATE inbreeding!)

However, most, if not all, freshwater snails can store sperm for an average of 3 to 6 months. So, you can have a single snail lay fertile eggs, NOT because the snail is fertilizing its own eggs, but because it saved the sperm from a previous encounter.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, a ramshorn snail is a type of apple snail.

I'm pretty sure they are different. Apple snails have distinct features. The siphon is one of them :



One of the most characteristic features of apple snails is the tube like organ (siphon) used to breathe while staying submerged. One of the most characteristic features of apple snails is the tube like organ (siphon) used to breathe while staying submerged.If your snail has such organ it's definitely an apple snail.

I'm pretty sure Ramshorns dont have siphons. I have many ramshorns in a bowl and have never seen a siphon on them.

They seem to be part of the apple snail family, look here http://www.applesnail.net/ or http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...=21&pCatId=1093, i may be wrong, but did lots of reading, and many times they said they were part of the apple snail family.

I keep reading time and time again, they can multiply solo, like some other species, this is worrying. Also my water is quite hard, so i should be ok not adding calcium. O and hes gone missing, well he was only 3 mm, so he could be anywhere.....

Now i have just read both in the space of several clicks, ie 1 can breed, and then 2 are needed...confused..

It can be confusing. On apple snail.net it says that Ramshorns are from the Family Planorbidae but the other link says they are from the Ampullariidae family. The other link also says Ramshorns have siphons:

The most visible characteristic of snails belonging to the Ampullariidae family is the siphon. When needed, this siphon will extend out to the water surface allowing the snail to breathe while submerged.

My ramshorns dont have siphons and on applesnail.net it doesnt mention that they do <_<

Hopefully an experienced snail person will come along and confirm this info for us

I personally, with info I have read so far, believe that ramshorns are not from the same family as apple snails. They may have come from the same species at one stage hundreds/millions of years ago but they have evolved into 2 seperate species. If anyone has info that would change my belief I would love to hear from you as I am very open to learning more about these beautiful creatures

Yes, the more i read the more confused i got, but one thing for sure is i spotted i have 2 babies, i hope theirs no more, the cabomba was only in for a few days...

2 baby snails = hundreds of baby snails! (eventually)

I had two ramshorn babies in a bowl with my white clouds. They were in there for a couple months and grew slowly, but as soon as I put them in my apple snail tank they grew and had hundreds of babies. I think the main reason for this is becuase they were eating alot more food in my snail tank. I feed my apple snails very well, but when they were in the bowl I didnt put food in there specifically for them. They just lived off the algae and plant

There about 2 mm in diameter, so what size, age do they start to breed. How long have i got, i will remove one, once i have decided where..

When you asked if anyone wanted any snails, were you kidding becuase i would not mind having any if you would like to pay the shipping!!! PLEASE PLEASE
Dean