Ramshorn & Plants...

[Andrewz00]

do they eat plants? european or common ramshorns do not? but columbians do? how can i tell the difference?

i just picked up some new plants and he came in as a hitchiker... i got nervous so i pulled him out and hes living in a glad-ware container right now... camera batteries are dead, ill try and get a new pic tomorrow...

 

[dkpate]

My rams don't eat plants, and I have over 10 in my 20G tank.
I have the solid brown ones, and the brown with black spots.

 

[Andrewz00]

well i dropped him back in my DT because i felt bad for him sitting in the kitchen like left-overs....hopefully he wont eat any of the plants!

 

[BigJim]

Columbian ramshorns get huge and eat plants. Common ramshorns stay small and don't eat healthy plants. They will chow down on dying plants.

 

[Andrewz00]

well im crossing my fingers here.... i dropped him back in the tank this morning so ill try and get a pic (if i can find him) when i get home from work tonight.

 

[Andrewz00]

ahhhh ha!! gottem!! he finally came out of hiding... someone can ID this as a common or Columbian?

 

[taylorodw]

I'm no ramshorn expert, but it looks exactly like my ramshorns. They leave my plants alone.

 

[dkpate]

Same as me. And as mine get bigger, they lose their spots. He should get to about an inch tall. You can put some cuttle bone in the substrate so he will have a nice healthy shell. Also, if you plan to get more, you might think you have a couple snails, then you wake up the next morning, and BAM! Hundreds.

BTW~ He is super cute! I love snails, and have a ton of them.

 

[Andrewz00]

HA! yeah darby... im learning that with the MTS i posted about a week ago... do they get along? MTS and ramshorn?

 

[taylorodw]

Yep. With the exception of assassins, snails don't really seem to interact with each other. They just sorta chill and move along.

 

[dkpate]

Oh yeah. I have one assassin, 1 mystery, 20-25 rams and hundreds of mts in my 20G community. The rams are great at taking care of any algae, the mts are good at eating fish waste and leftover food (yes, I am an overfeeder ), the assassin kind of keeps the mts population in check, and the mystery is good at taking up space on the tank walls LOL, (she lets me hold her too).

EDIT: After seeing Tay's post, I have to say my mts hitch rides on my rams and mystery. Haha! Lazy snails.

 

[JohnPaul]

Those pictures are all European ramshorns, which are plant-safe and not just that, but great to have in a planted tank. And yes, they get along with other snails (MTS etc.) just fine. European ramshorns can get as large around as about a quarter (if they are REALLY well-fed) but more commonly seem to get no bigger than about a dime.

Columbian ramshorns are almost always brown & yellow striped, with the stripes running the long way around the shell. The second and third pictures on this page show the coloration of Columbian ramshorns very well.