Ramshorn snails and mixing colors

[Kit Craft]

On 10/24/2023 at 2:41 AM, Matt B said:

I recently got a couple of Ramshorns, put them in a 10 gal and within a week there are tiny ones. How fast do they grow?

No idea but they are cute little buggers. 

[Cinnebuns]

On 10/24/2023 at 3:03 PM, Matt B said:

@Cinnebuns

I was actually referring to the tiny 'new' little Ramshorns growing the 'Ram Horn' shape. Not any swirls in the shells of the 2 adults that I just got. I actually have no idea how old these snails may be. Would you happen to know how long it takes a typical Ramshorn juvenile to reach 'full size'? 🤔 

gh and ph are good 👍. And I've got so much crushed coral and Wonder Shell in the tank, that it's Mineral Nirvana for the Cherry Shrimp, Snails and Guppies !  

Hmm. If ph and gh are good I'm not sure what's causing that then. It is rot though. Here's one of mine I just took a pic of. The swirl in the shell isn't natural as well as the rough texture. 

On 10/24/2023 at 3:03 PM, Matt B said:

Would you happen to know how long it takes a typical Ramshorn juvenile to reach 'full size'? 🤔 

Tbh I never really paid attention so I don't know. Sorry. My guess would be just a couple of weeks but that's just a guess. I do know they have to get a decent size before they can actually reproduce. 

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by Cinnebuns

[Odd Duck]

Mine in my 2 G and 3 G shrimp tanks are reproducing by the time they hit small pea sized - just over 1/4” or around 5 mm maybe. Because that’s the size they always seem to get to before I get them pulled.  It’s hard to say how long it takes to get there since I can’t track them from hatching. They hatch too tiny and too many of them to track. I’d guess somewhere around 4-5 weeks from hatch to breeding size.  Another couple months at least to what I USED to think of as “adult” size when their growth slows down quite a bit.  They do keep slowly growing until they die and the biggest one I’ve grown so far was a smidge over 3/4” across.

If you look close at the pic in my 3 G that I posted I now consider that size breeding age and I’m about a week past being in time to get the “big ones” out because I now have a ton of new babies scattered over the walls of that tank.  Missed my timing again!  😆 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

 

[Kit Craft]

So, talking about snails reproducing, my 10 shipped today. Hope they double quickly as I have other tanks, I want to put some in. 😛 

[Matt B]

Wow! They have reproduced fast!

I have a Ramshorns! 

They love shrimp food.... this is going to get out of control fast! 

[Kit Craft]

@Matt B Oh, those have a cool pattern. I only have red and blue atm. 

[Matt B]

Whoa!  Just noticed this one cruzing along today!!  Most are blueish, some with dark spots. But this one has a pearl look to her. 

[Cinnebuns]

On 10/30/2023 at 8:46 PM, Matt B said:

Wow! They have reproduced fast!

I have a Ramshorns! 

They love shrimp food.... this is going to get out of control fast! 

I would worry about keeping ramshorns with shrimp tbh. They will likely out compete the shrimp for food. If the shrimp colony is established enough they will probably coexist but just not reproduce as much but it would worry me personally. 

On 11/1/2023 at 7:42 PM, Matt B said:

Whoa!  Just noticed this one cruzing along today!!  Most are blueish, some with dark spots. But this one has a pearl look to her. 

Ivory shell pink foot is one of my favorites!!  Beautiful!  That one has a super cool swirl to its shell too. 

[Kit Craft]

No baby snails yet but I have baby shrimp? I didn't think the little 1/8 orange shrimp I got less than two weeks ago were old enough to breed but I saw three babies on the driftwood. Super tiny. So tiny I could focus my phone to get a picture. I know they were not in the bag when I got the shrimp. And even if they were you'd think thed have grown by now, lol. It is a mystery, to me.

[Matt B]

There is definitely competition for the shrimp pellets,  but the Bacter AE powder, kind of dusts the tank with food,  the shrimp appear content with the variety. 

[Lennie]

On 11/2/2023 at 3:42 AM, Matt B said:

Whoa!  Just noticed this one cruzing along today!!  Most are blueish, some with dark spots. But this one has a pearl look to her. 

 this one looks AMAZING😍

[Kit Craft]

On 11/4/2023 at 7:10 PM, Matt B said:

There is definitely competition for the shrimp pellets,  but the Bacter AE powder, kind of dusts the tank with food,  the shrimp appear content with the variety. 

When I got my shrimp a few weeks ago they would ride around on my ramshorns, cleaning them, I guess. The snails had some algae growing on their shells when I got them. I don't see any now. Now, everybody loves the snello the best. Well, in the shrimp and snail jar. My mystery snails, which I made it for, could care less. Particularly the purple one in my 10 gallon. It loves driftwood and botanicals. Then it will go after any leftover fishfood and finally snello when I add some. My WCMM will destroy some snello though. So everybody loves the snello except for the mystery snails...lol. 

When it comes to feeding time the ramshorns will totally hog everything they can! 

 

[Schuyler]

On 10/23/2023 at 8:22 AM, Odd Duck said:

 

What is that growing on the left side?

[Kit Craft]

Okay, now I know how people end up with these guys by accident. I was clipping some stem plants and wow the eggs! Lol, eggs on at least one leaf of every plant in that particular tank. 

[Odd Duck]

On 11/5/2023 at 12:35 PM, Schuyler said:

What is that growing on the left side?

The tiny, bright green Cryptocoryne parva, or the algae, or the Crypt. jacobii ‘Pink’ at the back?  I’m guessing you might mean the algae since it’s so different looking here.  I think it’s dust algae and I love it. It’s even prettier in person than in the pic.  It has a very velvety look with a lot of color depth from bright to deep green depending on the viewing angle.  Dust algae is a pain to get off glass (can be very tough to scrape off) but I’m very OK with how it looks in this tank on the sand and the rock that the Anubias nana ‘Petite’ is on.  I don’t have any burrowing snails in this tiny tank so the sand doesn’t get stirred in that area at all.  I’m not completely sure if it’s dust algae or something else.  I thought shrimp would eat dust algae, but they don’t pick at this that much.

If you mean the tiny green Crypt. parva, I love it too, but it’s got to be the slowest growing Crypt ever!  I lost a few of them a while back but they’re recovering now.  Believe it or not, that’s 3 pots planted over a couple years.  They’ve done better at times, but mostly do OK with my somewhat sporadic plant maintenance and fertilization schedule.  I don’t think the dust algae is helping them but I like the look of the algae so much I’m leaving it.  I can buy more C. parva but you can’t buy the algae growing like that.  If you want a full carpet of Crypt. parva, you’ll need to buy a LOT of them.  They’re so small they will not hold up to much in the way of snails, especially burrowers.  I pull the biggest ramshorns out of this tank at least every other, to every third week, so it mostly has only the tiniest snails.

This is my favorite little tank most days but it took me forever to figure out its balance.  I had a piece of wood covered in Buce in there that was really neat but just too big and put too much organics into the water.  I had horrid hair algae issues until I finally pulled it out and did several water changes and mostly left it alone and ignored it for months except for the water changes.  Fairly recently tried some shrimp again since it seemed to finally be stable and it’s done well (knocking vigorously on wood).

New pic from a few minutes ago, last pic was from Oct 5.  Need to clean the glass and thin the snails, but the algae is spreading a bit more, which I like.  Some of my new hatch of shrimp look a bit pale and might need to go in the cull tank next door but I’ll give them a couple weeks to color up before I decide.  The C. jacobii ‘Pink’ is settling in (had just added them shortly before the last pic) and looking pretty good.  And I plopped a frogbit in there about a week ago since I don’t want the algae to get too crazy.  I took about 30 shrimp of mixed sizes out of this tank 2 weeks ago to go in another tank.  I don’t want the population to get too high in such a small tank.

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Odd Duck
Edit to add pic from today and more info about today’s pic.

[Kit Craft]

Finally, baby snail(s)! I only see one so far, but it is pink with dots. So small and in a big jar it is hard to get a photo because of distortion. I will try again tomorrow. I thought they were limpets the other day and paid them no mind. Nope, they were just too tiny for me to tell. I have baby orange shrimp too. 🙂 

As an aside, I am not sure if I am going to put ramshorns in my "display" tank because the eggs are super unsightly, lol. 

[Kit Craft]

Okay so the snails are starting to get large enough to actually keep track of them. I will have to get my wife dig out her Cannon because I can't seem to get a good photo with my phone. The Snails look brown/grey/blue with my phone but none of them are. Interestingly, to me, they all have clear shells with pink feet/bodies. Some have some blue dots. Will their shells become more like pink/blue as they grow? I ask because I don't think I have any adults with clear shells. 

So much for not putting them in my display tank...lol. I've no idea how they got there but they are present. I'm cool with it though. I don't share supplies between the snail tanks with the main tank. So, it either hitched a ride on me or I already had eggs on plants. I'm fine with it so long as I keep them in check. They are super cute.

 

[Katherine]

On 11/30/2023 at 3:45 PM, Kit Craft said:

Interestingly, to me, they all have clear shells with pink feet/bodies. Some have some blue dots. Will their shells become more like pink/blue as they grow? I ask because I don't think I have any adults with clear shells. 

Yes, if they're still really tiny the shells will color up as they grow. Mine have all started out looking clear.

[Kit Craft]

On 11/30/2023 at 6:11 PM, Katherine said:

Yes, if they're still really tiny the shells will color up as they grow. Mine have all started out looking clear.

Ah, cool thanks. I am looking forward to watching them grow. Maybe I can get a decent photo of them in the next week or so. They are growing noticeably now. 

[Kit Craft]

Okay, let's give this a shot with the cell phone photos. 

So, after some careful watching I seem to have 5 of these guys in my 10 gallon. They are all clear atm but those two have some blue hue to them, one has like dots/spots and the two I can't seem to get a photo of are straight clear with a pink body. It amazes me how cute these things are when they are growing but turn dull when they are larger, lol. My Blue Ramshorns in my other tank are almost a grey color and the pinks are whiter, lol. This is the first generation produced in my tank though. 

 

[Kit Craft]

How would y'all suggest I go about culling? Like, what to look for in keeping snails? I've noticed that some simply aren't growing so I'd guess those are a target for culling. Aside from that, any defects to look for? Other than simply keeping what looks good to me?