I suppose I've had the luck (or unluck as some may have it) of never
getting foreign inhabitants. I used to be judicious in washing my
plants throughougly, but now I just plop them in. Leeches, bugs and
all, and nothing ever has survived and they seem like tasty snacks for
my fish. Snails just never caught on, once had 2 or 3 ramshorns get in
on plants, but they died off; probably the gourami or for whatever
reason.

No snails seem to survive in any of my tanks except that one 20
gallon, not the 72, not the 55.


Ramshorns are the best. I periodically go into the tanks to cull snails to
feed my botias and baby guppies (crushed, yum yum) but I always leave the
ramshorns alone. In my tanks, I've seen that almost every kind of snail
will eat plants after they reach a certain size, except I've never caught a
ramshorn at it (I can't say for certain what happens after the lights go
out).

Red ramshorns are reputed to eat blue-green algae. I don't know if they're
really a separate species/genus. I'd be inclined to think not, for no very
defensible reason.

I wouldn't think you'd need to "buy" them, though. I seem to get them free
with about every other plant shipment.

The unique benefit to MTS is that they aerate, or loosen, the substrate in a
planted tank, like earthworms in the garden. Ramshorns won't do that. On
the other hand, if you use straight gravel, like I do, it's not really an
issue.

kush

"You can't have everything - where would you put it?"

Allen Smith wrote in message
om...
Do they eat plants, and are there different species? I have noticed
that they vary quite a bit in their coloration and are sold
differently based on color - are they still the same species?
Aquarists seem to prefer the red ramshorn snail, is it a particular
species or just a pretty color?

I'm looking into these and other snails as possible inhabitants for my
heavily planted tank as MTS have miserably failed.

Thanks for your time.