Favorite snails discussion?

[lmhicks101]

@Torreythat ram is beautiful. I’m trying to find them for sale and I can’t find them anywhere in the stores. The ones I thought were rams weren’t. 
 

does anyone have some for sell or know a good site to buy them from? 

[laritheloud]

@lmhicks101aquabid always has plenty of folks selling ramshorns

[lmhicks101]

@laritheloud What color or pattern is the most desired? I'm thinking of getting a couple and breeding for profit. I called or went to 8 local and big box stores 100 miles from my house and all are out of rams and can't find any listed on the order list. 

Edited October 22, 2021 by lmhicks101

[Guppysnail]

On 10/21/2021 at 10:34 PM, Torrey said:

2nd snail from the top, what kind of snail is that?

My spouse's g-ma had a snail like that, but it was much lighter in coloration. It also turned into a carnivore😅

As for the original question, I love all my snails.

Now. After watching Cory wax eloquent on how important they are for the ecosystem. I always appreciated snails in the pond, and in the greywater treatment system we used snails in the cattails and reeds to eat the sludge.

 

I just never appreciated them in my tanks, except as turtle food.

Now, I have MTS in most of my (MTS🤣) tanks. Only a handful of tanks don't have the Malaysia trumpet in them.

I intentionally have bladder snails.

I accidentally ended up with a pond snail (Pebbles).

I was bequeathed Houdini (zebra nerite) and Watson (no clue type of nerite).

I apparently got some ramshorns on some plants that are a gorgeous golden red.

And I have an assassin snail who gets to visit various tanks to keep any out of control growth, under control. 

If you mean the one on my hand it is just a 3 inch mystery snail. I had a clutch of them. His brother is just slightly smaller at just shy of 3 inches. The girls were smaller at 2.5 inches. He is a friendly nosey lad. He often comes out on the canister hose or just to the rim of the tank when the lid is off.  He always eagerly crawls onto my hand (edit I always wash my hands with dawn and rinse thoroughly as well as wetting my hands with tank water. The oils naturally present in our skin are not good for them if there is a dry spot in the slime coat from venturing)always waits until I put my hand up. He has never ventured beyond the rim lid or canister hose. His 1 brother does not come above the water other than a puff up of air, his 1 sister took an extended walk to the other side of the room and up the leg of the tank she was in as a juvenile snail. 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Torrey]

On 10/20/2021 at 4:56 PM, lmhicks101 said:

@Streetwise I didn’t think this post would blow up like it did. 

 

@Hobbit this sucks. I went to my local store and Petco and they don’t have any rams and if they do they don’t look good. Now I really wanna get a pair. you guys have truly changed my view on snails. 

Start going to your local (or state) aquarium club meetings. 

Almost all my snails have been either intentionally aquired (MTS & then  the nerites were bequeathed to me),  or have been courtesy of plants in the NMAS Auctions. 

[Torrey]

On 10/21/2021 at 9:13 PM, lmhicks101 said:

@laritheloud What color or pattern is the most desired? I'm thinking of getting a couple and breeding for profit. I called or went to 8 local and big box stores 100 miles from my house and all are out of rams and can't find any listed on the order list. 

I learned here that the colors are known to fade.....

However, I feed a lot of foods (BugBites, Xtreme, Hikari) with natural beta carotenes for color enhancement in fish. Apparently it may be the secret to my red shells (even the empty shells of ramshorns I didn't know I had with the assassin snail are still golden red).

Someone made a joke about feeding the BioGold for bettas to the ramshorns 🤭

[laritheloud]

I don't know if there are any more desirable colors than others. I have a mix of all colors and just let them be skittles. They reproduce quickly and they have quite pretty shells no matter the color.

[lmhicks101]

Okay you guys got me convinced to get a new pet. 
 

Achievement unlocked: Mystery Collection Started

 

[Shadow_Arbor]

On 10/21/2021 at 1:00 PM, lmhicks101 said:

@Shadow_Arbor is it illegal to take them out of the country like on a flight? 

I'm pretty sure it is. They’re  protected so you’d have to get them legally to start with. Then it all depends I am unsure about the exact laws but I don't think you'd be allowed on a flight if they were found on you. Even if you were, I am pretty sure the US has very strict laws coming into the country...

[Shadow_Arbor]

On 10/21/2021 at 7:08 PM, lmhicks101 said:

@Shadow_Arbor  you should really consider making a blog or post about raising and breeding them. Like what is the water perameters in their native home? Are they asexual or breed in pairs or can they do both? Are they omnivores or purely rotten vegetation? Do they like high light or low light? Are they seminocternal or only out in the day? You should definitely make a name for yourself if you documented and bread them. 

I've been breeding them for about a year now. They’re  super easy if given the right environment  to flourish in. They are gonochoric (males and females). If I find the time to document them a bit better on the forum I definitely will. They aren't exactly super rare here, while still being semi-rare in the hobby, they’re well known and have been kept for many years in the hobby.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 10/21/2021 at 5:00 AM, lmhicks101 said:

is it illegal to take them out of the country like on a flight?

Even if they are legal for export (which I don't know, but maybe @Shadow_Arbor does?), you'd still need an import permit to get them into the States.  I'm not sure if they are legal for import or not, and illegal import is pretty stiff fines.  Not worth it at all! 

That said, I have a slow burn of a project going to get permits for two Tanganyikan snails I'd like to import.  Shadow Arbor and I are discussing something else, maybe we can talk about the prospects of getting these here legally where they could be spread around the forum and hobby.  No guarantees of course!  😜 

[Drenon88]

On 10/18/2021 at 10:38 PM, Chad said:

I kept Nerites initially but the eggs made out of titanium and super glue annoyed me too much.

Yes Nerite eggs are the worst!

I only have Ramshorn snails now but have my eye on some awesome Orange Rabbit Snails!

[lmhicks101]

On 10/26/2021 at 8:29 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

That said, I have a slow burn of a project going to get permits for two Tanganyikan snails I'd like to import.  Shadow Arbor and I are discussing something else, maybe we can talk about the prospects of getting these here legally where they could be spread around the forum and hobby.  No guarantees of course!  😜 

that would be awesome 

 

@David Olszewski well I know what I want next.