# ramshorn snails..NOT!



## Jeff232 (Nov 4, 2006)

I was out and about at my LFS today and saw a bunch of intersting looking snails labelled as ramshorn snails. I had not read anything bad about them so i bought a couple and brought them home. To my horror I watched them both latch onto one of my freshly planted trimmings and reduce its lower portion to a stem in about 5 minutes. All the while little brown things were falling out of its breathing hole. I pulled them out and vacummed my gravel hoping those brown things were snail poop and not eggs...

after looking around on the net at some pictures i think i put a couple apple snails or columbianramshorn snails in my tank since they look about the same and have a sries of stripes running the length of their shell. I took a bowl from the kitchen and scooped out quite a lot of gravel and threw it in my yard just to be safe.

CAn someone with experience with these snails tell me the difference between snail poop and eggs...they lay eggs in a blob of snot looking stuff correct?


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## Xema (Mar 24, 2004)

Hello,

Common ramshorn snails are like this





































Eggs look so (in this pictures you can see a _Lymnaea sp._ eating eggs)










Brown things you are speaking probably are excrements. You have a nice snail resource in Applesnail.net, you can find some interesting pictures and info about columbian ramshorn snail (_Marisa cornuarietis_)and apple snail (_Pomacea sp._).
_M. cornuarietis_ is a well known plant eater... and some sp of _Pomacea_ too.

Good luck with your ID!!


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## YuccaPatrol (Mar 26, 2006)

Yes, the ramshorn snails commonly sold by pet stores are the plant eating columbians. Get rid of them if you like your plants more than you like the snails.


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## Jeff232 (Nov 4, 2006)

they are in a bucket of scooped out gravel and slimy scallions leftover from my dinner trimmings...they will go back tomorrow.

Im really glad it was poop amd not eggs 

I dont recall ever being happy about a snail pooping


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