# Intentional Ramshorn Snails



## dougrm3 (Nov 7, 2009)

Reading online that they are both male and female and can reproduce by themselves.

http://www.fishfriend.com/articles/getting_rid_of_aquarium_snails.html

This has been opposite of my experience with these snails. As a youngster in the late 60's, I used to be able to obtain bright red ramshorn snails from the pet shop at no cost. They reproduce like crazy and put two together and you have two egg laying snails. From what I have observed they are both male and female but need another snail to reproduce. I have taken very small snails before they are sexually mature and raised them in individual contains. No eggs are produced as long as they are not in contact with another snail. Raising the snails individually from a very small size allows for placement of one snail in a planted aquarium without the population explosion. A blue or pink Ramshorn adds to the beauty the aquarium and are a useful algae eating scavenger. For what it is worth.


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## tj9582 (Aug 4, 2007)

That has been my experience as well. They are hermaphroditic, but not asexual. It still takes two.

Pond snails do seem to be asexual, though.

That blue one is very pretty. I have a mixture of reds and browns, but I've never seen a blue one in person. I have learned that if you raise too many of them in small containers, they will suck out all the minerals, and the resulting weak white shell will give them rather nice-looking rings. This, however, is not advised.

Has anybody ever seen any interesting colors on pond snails?


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