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Ramshorn snails are very common and come in various sizes. Their shape is as their name suggests. Snails lay eggs on the plants in the pond, the eggs are covered in jelly to protect them. When the eggs hatch they are full of little baby snails. These snails use lungs to breathe air, but since they can trap and store some air inside their shells, they can tolerate water with low dissolved oxygen.

Position in Food chain Primary consumers herbivore. They eat algae. They are eaten by fish, tufted ducks. They lay disk-shaped gelatinous clusters of eggs adhering to anything - plants, rocks etc. Plants also seem to be a choice for egg-laying.The ramshorn snails are all shaped like a flat coil, or the horn of ram. The Great Ramshorn, is brick red in colour, and likes still or slow-moving water. It will eat any detritus, both plant and animal, that it comes across. Like the apple snail, it is amphibious. The snails are hermaphrodite, and lay disk-shaped gelatinous clusters of eggs adhering to anything - plants, rocks etc.

A generation ago, the European Red Ramshorn Snail was a common sight in freshwater aquariums. Today they are somewhat of a rarity due to careless breeding with the common ramshorn snail that has a less interesting brown body color. We offer both the red and the brown ramshorn snails. The brown ramshorns are somewhat hardier, but both varieties are excellent choices for the freshwater aquarium as long as they are not kept together! If they are kept together, virtually all future generations will be brown, since the red color is a recessive characteristic.

Ram Horn Snail

Rams Horn Snails - WWC Archives

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