Mystery Snail

Pomacea diffusa

Also known as spike-topped apple snail

FreshwaterSnail

Mystery Snail (Pomacea diffusa) — "Pomacea diffusa" by Carlos Eduardo Joos is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/. · by

Care at a glance

Temperature: 70–79°F (21–26°C)
pH: 6.5–8.0
Adult size: 2 in (5 cm)
Minimum tank: 5 gal (20 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Solitary
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Easy
Breeding: Medium
Rarity: Rare
Origin: South America
Family: Ampullariidae

Overview

Mystery snails are peaceful, plant-safe grazers that roam the glass, plants, and substrate cleaning up algae, biofilm, and uneaten food. They ignore tankmates and suit almost any calm community, and one snail is happy alone. They breathe air through a siphon as well as through a gill, so leave a gap between the water and the lid. Keep the water moderately hard with enough calcium to build the shell, and never add copper, which is toxic to snails. Feed algae wafers, blanched vegetables, and a calcium source. A tank of 20 liters or more suits one or two of them.

In the wild

Pomacea diffusa comes from the Amazon basin of South America, where it lives in warm, slow, and often murky waters thick with plants and leaf litter. It is an adaptable snail that settles into a tank held from about 21 to 26 c with a pH from 6.5 to 8. Moderately hard water helps it grow a smooth, strong shell, while very soft or acidic water pits and erodes it. Gentle flow, live or artificial plants to climb, and an air gap above the surface let it behave as it would in the wild.

Good to know

Pomacea diffusa is an apple snail in the family Ampullariidae, sometimes called the spike-topped apple snail. It grows to around 5 to 6 cm with a rounded, often patterned shell and an operculum. It is unusual in having both a gill and a lung, plus a long breathing siphon. The sexes are separate, and a female climbs above the waterline to lay a firm, calcium-rich clutch of pink eggs on the glass or lid. The young hatch in two to four weeks and drop back into the water, which makes controlled breeding fairly easy.

Did you know

Unlike almost every other aquarium snail, a mystery snail lays its eggs out of the water in a hard pink clutch stuck above the surface. If you do not want more snails, you can simply remove the clutch a day or two after it appears.