# Ramshorn snails & plants



## Daniil (Oct 30, 2009)

Do black, red or pink ramshorn snails eat plants?
My friend have unlimited amount of them in his German blue ram breeding tanks. 
And I was wondering if they are safe to have in planted tank.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

They are safe.


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## pandragon (Jul 10, 2014)

I have ramshorns, bladder snails, great pond snails, and something that looks kind of like mts but comes out during the day, and I have never seen them bury themselves in the substrate. I have holes in the leaves of my aponogeton, and red root floaters, but nothing that would destroy the plants. They usually just eat the old leaves, fungus, algae, grey slime etc that grows on driftwood and stuff.

I don't know which snails are eating the plants though. I guess some plants are more yummy to some snails.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

They are safe and are great algae eaters.


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## drewsuf82 (Apr 30, 2013)

I haven't had any problems with them either. Great tank cleaners!


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## Daniil (Oct 30, 2009)

Yes, last Friday I added about 10-15 of them and after 3 day 90% of algae is gone. 
I hope that when the algae is gone they won't attack my plants.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Daniil said:


> Yes, last Friday I added about 10-15 of them and after 3 day 90% of algae is gone.
> I hope that when the algae is gone they won't attack my plants.


They won't attack your plants, but they might start to get hungry. You can supplement them with some fresh veggies or shrimp / snail food to keep their shells healthy.


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## drewsuf82 (Apr 30, 2013)

Yup mine love veggie sticks that I bought for shrimp but they don't like them, the snails on the other hand love them and mass on them


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## pandragon (Jul 10, 2014)

I have seen mine hanging upside down from red root floaters that now have holes in them. They mainly eat the yellowing leaves that don't get any light though or bruised leaves that get caught in the filter. They usually stay away from healthy leaves. 

My poor aponogeton has had holes drilled into it by something along with my hygro compact, but I am suspecting pond/bladder/great pond snails over the ramshorns, or potassium def since it only seems to be older other wise healthy leaves. :/


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

Ramshorns love dry catfood. Just put one pellet in your aquarium and watch after the lights are off for a while: they adore it and the extra protein makes them grow faster and multiply faster! (Any leftovers are very high bioload if they get a chance to rot)

Note that the ramshorns in aquaria are American _Helisoma_ species, not the European ones as is stated in many books and websites. The real European _Planorbarius corneus_ doesn't do so well in warm water and is in practice hardly ever kept, not even where it is native. However, _Planorbarius_ does great in densly vegetated garden ponds.

Indoors, all over the world we keep the American ones, of which there at least two species/varieties in circulation, with slightly different shell shapes (not to mention red and blue colour mutations as well as the occasional snail which combines these mutations and is therefore nearly white).


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## Badlands54 (Dec 31, 2012)

They will eat dead plant matter only


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