Ramshorn Snail Care Guide | All About The Planorbidae

Looking for an interesting but low-maintenance addition to your (shrimp) aquarium? Snails are the answer! Our current favorites are ramshorn snails of the Planorbidae family, which are small, eat algae, and are easy to breed but not overly prone to taking over your tank. They even come in different colors!

Sound good? Below, you can find everything you need to know about keeping ramshorn snails in your aquarium, including what they eat, how to breed them, and much more.

Scientific name	Family Planorbidae, mostly Planorbarius corneus and Planorbella duryi
Common names	Ramshorn snails, ram's horn snails
Difficulty level	Easy
Origin	Species-dependent (USA, Europe & more)

🐌 Dealing with an infestation?

Before we begin: this article is for aquarists looking to keep ramshorn snails on purpose. They usually don't overrun a balanced tank, but if you've come here to look for advice on dealing with an infestation, we can also help with that. The solution is simple: CLEAN!

Reduce feedings and remove uneaten foods as soon as possible. This won't get rid of the snails, but will ensure the population stays manageable. If you want to reduce it more quickly, use snail traps or bait them with an algae wafer. Once the food is covered in hungry snails, remove it and dispose of the snails however you prefer.

If you want to eradicate the snails entirely, you can use copper-based snail killers, but keep in mind these also kill other invertebrates such as shrimp. Don't buy fish like pufferfish or clown loaches to deal with an infestation, as they're unsuitable for 99% of aquarium set-ups and need specialized care.

Ramshorn snail appearance & natural habitat

Appearance

As mentioned in the intro, there's no one single ramshorn snail. The common name is used for the entire snail family Planorbidae, which contains many different species. However, there are two ramshorns that are widely kept in the aquarium. Although they look a lot alike, one is smaller than the other.

• Planorbella duryi (Seminole ramshorn snail): shell diameter max. 1". Comes in many colors. Smooth shell.
• Planorbarius corneus (great ramshorn snail): shell diameter max. 1.5". Comes in brown or reddish. Shell is striated (lined).

As far as snails go, ramshorns are quite unusual. Firstly, they're pulmonates. This means that even though they're aquatic, they don't have gills: they use lungs to breathe. And they do so quite efficiently, because their blood contains iron-based hemoglobin, just like in humans. Most other snails have hemocyanin, which is copper-based and much less effective at transporting oxygen. This quirk allows ramshorns to survive in the stagnant and often low-oxygen environments they like.

Unlike the greenish hemocyanin, hemoglobin is red, which is why ramshorn snail bodies are reddish or pink in color. Some snails may have melanin in their skins, which makes them look dark brown or blackish.

Also unusual is the shape of the shell, which is flat and disc-like rather than pointy, and its coils. You might be surprised, but mollusk shell coils have actually been researched pretty thoroughly by scientists. The vast majority of species have dextral (right-handed) shells, while those of ramshorns are sinistral (left-handed).

Because they breathe air, ramshorns don't have an operculum, which is the cover that some snails can use to hide their bodies inside their shell. Their teeny-tiny eyes, no more than little dark spots, are located at the base of their thin tentacles.

Did you know? There's another snail that's often referred to as a "ramshorn", the Colombian or giant ramshorn (Marisa cornuarietis). This is a case of unfortunate common naming, because although this species does look similar, it belongs to a completely different family and isn't closely related to true ramshorn snails.

Ramshorn snail colors

As we've mentioned, the ramshorn snail Planorbella duryi comes in a bunch of different colors. This is the result of selective breeding, like with mystery snails. The original snails have brown shells and bodies, but you can also find specimens with red, pink, and yellow bodies.

Additionally, the shell may be:

• Pastel blue
• Red
• Ivory
• Pink
• Peach
• Gold

Spotting ("leopard") can occur in all shell colors.

Natural habitat

The different ramshorn snail species can be found all across the world. The two genera often kept in the aquarium, Planorbarius and Planorbella, occur from Europe to the Middle East and in North America respectively. The small Planorbella duryi, probably the most popular species of ramshorn in the US, is endemic to Florida.

Despite their varied distributions, all ramshorns inhabit more or less similar habitat types. They're freshwater snails with a preference for calm, slow-flowing or stagnant waters. Planorbella duryi, for example, is a fixture in the Everglades wetlands.

The snails also like pools, streams, river bends, ponds, and similar. The main point is for there to be plenty of silt, (decaying) plant matter, and detritus present, and ideally lots of algae as well.

Setting up a ramshorn snail aquarium

Requirements

You don't need a large tank if you'd like to keep ramshorn snails; a few of them can do fine in nano tanks as small as 2.5 gallons. This being said, we do recommend a volume of at least 5 gallons, especially if you're a beginner. The bigger the aquarium, the easier it is to keep the water quality stable!

Most aquarists don't do anything special with their tanks in order to accommodate their ramshorns, because they really don't need much. However, if you really want happy snails, you can add some leaf litter. It gives them a place to hide, plus a source of food in the form of microorganisms and algae.

Did you know? It's common to see ramshorn snails floating at the water surface. They can allow air into their shells in order to float upwards and feed on the biofilm on top of the water. If you touch them or they're startled, you'll usually instantly see a tiny stream of bubbles and the snail dropping like a rock to the bottom of the tank.

Water quality

Ramshorn snails make a great choice for beginning aquarists, in part thanks to their resilient nature. In the wild, they can survive in pretty dirty and stagnant waters. This doesn't mean you should forget about aquarium maintenance, but the occasional mistake will be forgiven!

Even for these unfussy snails, the aquarium should always be fully cycled, with zero ammonia or nitrite present. Perform regular water changes. If you want the population to thrive, don't keep things too clean: the snails will appreciate it if you let small amounts of green algae and detritus build up.

One thing to keep in mind about ramshorns, and snails in general, is that their shells are made of calcium. Although these species are pretty sturdy, overly acidic water can erode their shells over time. It's easy to see when this is happening: the shell looks brittle, new growth seems thin, and there may even be holes present. This can eventually prove fatal.

Although we've kept ramshorns in water with a pH as low as 6.2, they don't tend to live quite as long in these conditions. It can be done, especially with a proper calcium supplement (see the section on diet), but the ideal would be a pH of 7.0 or above. The water also shouldn't be too soft; a TDS (total dissolved solids) reading of 200 ppm or above is best.

pH: 6.5-8.0

Temperature: 71.6-87.8 °F (22-28 °C)

TDS: 150-300

Tankmates

Ramshorn snails don't tend to limit you much in terms of tankmates. They're 100% peaceful—if you ever see yours munching on a dead fish or shrimp, you can be sure that it was deceased before the snails got to it.

Ramshorns make great tankmates for (dwarf) shrimp, which comes in handy because these small invertebrates are on the bottom of the food chain and can't be kept with that many other fish and invertebrate species.

Aside from shrimp, only rather large fish, notorious nippers, and specialized molluscivores are a threat to these snails—at least adult specimens, as babies are a little more vulnerable. The species' sturdy shell protects it from most attempted attacks, although species like Betta fish may attempt to bite their antennae.

You can keep them with almost any species except pufferfish, large cichlids, large catfish, goldfish, and snail-eating loaches like those of the genus Botia. Also avoid crayfish and crabs (except the Thai micro crab, which is safe), as they are are natural ramshorn snail predators.

Ramshorn snail diet

Because ramshorn snails are omnivores that will eat pretty much anything, but generally leave live plants alone unless they're seriously hungry, many aquarists add them to their tanks as part of the cleaning crew. The snails consume dead plants and organic matter, leftover food, and even algae! They're not the best algae eaters because their tastes are limited to one type (green spot algae), but hey, it's definitely better than nothing.

In community aquariums, you don't have to feed your ramshorns, except to regularly offer calcium supplements. In fact, you should specifically avoid overfeeding the tank, or the abundance of food can cause it to become overrun with these fast-breeding snails.

In ramshorn-specific tanks, like those meant for breeding, you can feed almost anything you can think of: blanched vegetables, invertebrate foods (which tend to be high in calcium), fish foods, frozen foods, algae tablets, nori seaweed sheets, and much more.

Breeding ramshorn snails

One of the reasons ramshorn snails are so popular among aquarists is because they're so easy to breed. You really don't have to do much to get yours to multiply! Excess snails can be sold to fellow aquarists or used to feed molluscivores like freshwater pufferfish, which happen to love a tasty ramshorn.

PLEASE CHECK BACK SOON! A full ramshorn snail breeding guide by The Shrimp Farm is in the works.

FAQ & Troubleshooting

Buying ramshorn snails

Ramshorn snails are ubiquitous in the aquarium hobby, so much so that you can end up with them in your tank by accident; they can hitchhike a ride on plants and other aquarium equipment. Your local aquarium store is sure to have the basic brown variety. If they're dealing with a ramshorn infestation, they may even be willing to give some snails to you for free.

Finding the funky-colored varieties of ramshorn can be a little more challenging. If your local store doesn't have them, they might be able to order them in for you. You can also join aquarium groups and buy from other aquarists, or buy your ramshorn snails online.

The Shrimp Farm offers two different shades of ramshorn snails + the option of a variety pack. We ship your snails right to your doorstep, with live arrival guarantee!

Tip: It can take ramshorn snails a while to start moving after you introduce them into your tank. If it's been a week or so and you haven't seen any activity, take the snail out of the water and give it a (careful) sniff; if it smells bad, it's unfortunately dead and should be removed. If it just smells like aquarium water, put it back and give it some more time.