Seminole Ramshorn

Care at a glance

Overview

It is a peaceful bottom-dweller that mostly minds its own business and works well in planted or shrimp tanks. It grazes algae, detritus, and soft decaying plants, and will take leftover fish food, so usually no special feeding is needed beyond what the tank produces. Keep it at pH about 6.5 to 8 in the low to high 20s C. Be aware that with good food supply it breeds fast, so watch the population if you do not want a boom.

In the wild

The Seminole ramshorn is a freshwater snail from Florida, living in ponds, lakes, ditches, and slow streams. It favors weedy, vegetated water with lots of decaying plant matter for food and cover. In the aquarium it is undemanding and does fine in a small planted tank from about 20 liters up. It does best with enough calcium in the water to keep its shell hard, so moderately hard water suits it.

Good to know

This is an air-breathing freshwater snail in the family Planorbidae, with a flat, coiled shell reaching up to about 2.5 cm across. Like other ramshorns it has a lung and surfaces to gulp air. It is hermaphroditic, carrying both male and female organs, which lets populations grow quickly. It is considered of least conservation concern, with stable populations across its range.

Did you know

Ramshorn snails have red blood, which is unusual for snails. Their blood uses hemoglobin rather than the copper-based hemocyanin most snails rely on, and that is what gives many of them a reddish tint and helps them cope with low-oxygen, weedy water.

Related species

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