Pagoda Snail

Care at a glance

Overview

Pagoda snails are peaceful algae eaters with a dark, spiky, cone-shaped shell, and they graze slowly over rock, wood, and sand. They get along with everyone and are happy kept singly or in a small group. They are pickier than most snails about water: they want clean, oxygen-rich, well-moving water and steady, mineral-hard conditions to hold their delicate shell spikes together. Poor water and low oxygen wear them down quickly. Keep copper away, as it is toxic to snails. Offer a sandy bed and algae-covered surfaces plus algae wafers. A tank of 20 liters or more works, though bigger is steadier.

In the wild

In the wild the pagoda snail lives in fast, clear, oxygen-rich streams and rivers of mainland Southeast Asia, gripping rock and gravel in the current. A tank does best when it echoes that flow, with strong filtration or an airstone, a sandy or fine gravel bed, and firm surfaces to graze. Hold the water warm, from about 22 to 28 c, with a pH from 6.8 to 8 and a high mineral content to protect the sculptured shell. Stable, spotless water matters more to this snail than to most.

Good to know

Brotia pagodula belongs to the family Pachychilidae, a group of river snails known for heavy, sculptured shells. The pagoda snail is named for its shell, a stack of whorls ringed with sharp, tower-like spines that grows to around 3 to 6 cm. Like others in the genus it is a livebearer: studies of brooding females found just a single developing juvenile at a time. That very low output, along with its need for pristine water, is why breeding it in a tank is rated hard.

Did you know

The pagoda snail is named for its shell, which stacks whorl upon whorl into a spired tower edged with spikes, like the tiered roofs of an Asian pagoda. Older snails often lose the very tip of the spire to erosion.

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