rm
Passport
- Family
- Snails
- Grows to
- 2.5 cm (1")
- Lives
- 1–2 years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Beginner
- SwimsSuggested
- Everywhere
- Keep
- One is fine
- Water
- 21–25 °C (70–77 °F)
United States
Care requirements
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On record for Ramshorn Snail: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, carbonate hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level.
Not on record for Ramshorn Snail: tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 8 L / 2.0 US gal
- pH 7–8
- Hardness 7–15 dGH
- Carbonate hardness 5–15 dKH
- Diet algae eater/omnivore
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Ramshorn snails carry a flat coiled shell wound in a single plane, like a coiled rope seen edge-on, and they come in reds, browns, blues and near-black depending on the line. The red ones have no pigment in the shell at all — what you're seeing is the animal's blood showing through, which is unusual in a snail.
Most people meet them as hitchhikers on a bag of plants rather than as a purchase. Once in, they multiply, and opinions divide sharply between keepers who value them and keepers who spend years trying to remove them.
They're genuinely useful. They graze algae, break down uneaten food and dead plant matter, and their population tracks the food supply — a tank full of ramshorns is a tank being overfed, which makes them a rather good diagnostic.
Tank setup
Ramshorns will live anywhere and need nothing arranged for them. Planted, bare, bright, dim, warm or cool, they carry on.
Keep the water hard if you want good shells. Soft acidic water pits and erodes them, and in bad cases the shell wears through entirely.
Give them surface to graze. Plants, wood, glass and hardscape all carry the biofilm they live on.
Expect them wherever you put plants. They arrive as eggs on leaves and there's no practical way to guarantee otherwise short of a bleach dip.
Feeding
Ramshorns graze algae, biofilm, detritus and decaying plant matter continuously and find nearly all of it themselves.
Control their numbers by controlling the food. This is the only reliable lever: a population explosion means there's surplus food in the tank, and cutting feeding brings the numbers down within weeks.
If you're keeping them deliberately, blanched vegetables and a calcium-rich food will keep them in condition.
Avoid: copper in anything, and avoid feeding the tank to the point where they take over — that's a symptom rather than a snail problem.
Filtration and flow
Ordinary filtration and gentle flow. They're indifferent to almost everything about the setup.
Keep hardness up. Everything about snail health comes back to available calcium.
They'll graze filter sponges and any surface the water passes over, which is fine and does no harm.
With plants
Ramshorns are generally safe with healthy plants and this is where the arguments start. They graze algae and dead material off leaves without eating living tissue.
They will eat soft, damaged or dying plants, and in a tank with a large population and little else to eat they'll take delicate species. A big colony in an underfed tank does cause damage.
Keep the numbers moderate and they're a net benefit. Let them explode and they're not.
Health
They're extremely hardy and rarely ill. The only common problem is shell erosion from soft water.
An empty shell that has gone thin and chalky tells you about your water rather than about that snail.
They're as sensitive to copper as any invertebrate, so check every medication before it goes in.
Breeding
Ramshorns breed readily and rapidly. They're hermaphrodites, so any two will produce eggs and a single one can sometimes suffice.
They lay flat, clear jelly patches on glass, plants and hardscape, each holding a cluster of eggs, and the young hatch as fully formed miniature snails.
Population is limited by food, not by breeding rate. If you want fewer, feed less and remove clutches when you see them; if you want more, you won't have to do anything at all.
Tank mates
Avoid9
- Clown Loach Clown Loach is not safe with Ramshorn Snail: loaches and botia and snails are a bad pairing.
- Demasoni Cichlid Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Ramshorn Snail: african cichlids and snails are a bad pairing.
- Dwarf Chain Loach Dwarf Chain Loach is not safe with Ramshorn Snail: loaches and botia and snails are a bad pairing.
- Electric Yellow Lab Electric Yellow Lab is not safe with Ramshorn Snail: african cichlids and snails are a bad pairing.
- Hillstream Loach Hillstream Loach is not safe with Ramshorn Snail: loaches and botia and snails are a bad pairing.
Only with care13
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Ramshorn Snail is peaceful.
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid is aggressive and Ramshorn Snail is peaceful.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid is aggressive and Ramshorn Snail is peaceful.
- Bristlenose Pleco Bristlenose Pleco is a risk to Ramshorn Snail: bristlenose catfish and snails are a pairing to watch.
- Clown Pleco Clown Pleco is a risk to Ramshorn Snail: bristlenose catfish and snails are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 82 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 4 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.