Yellow giant rabbit snail

Tylomelania sarasinorum

Also known as Gold giant rabbit snail, Sarasin's rabbit snail

FreshwaterSnail

Care at a glance

Temperature: 79–86°F (26–30°C)
pH: 7.5–8.5
Adult size: 4.7 in (12 cm)
Minimum tank: 20 gal (75 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Solitary
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: Medium
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Lake Matano, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Family: Pachychilidae

Overview

The yellow giant rabbit snail is one of the larger rabbit snails, a slow, peaceful grazer with a bright yellow body and long, dark spire. It works over rock, sand, and wood, grazing algae, biofilm, and detritus, and it produces a fair amount of waste, so give it a mature tank with room and good filtration. It is not a social animal and needs no group, though a few can be kept together; it lives calmly among peaceful shrimp and fish. It needs the warm, hard, alkaline water of its home lake, and calcium for its shell. Offer algae, biofilm, sinking vegetable foods, and blanched vegetables. A single snail suits a tank of around 75 liters or more.

In the wild

The yellow giant rabbit snail lives on rock and sand in Lake Matano, one of the ancient, mineral-rich lakes of Sulawesi in Indonesia, where the water is warm and strongly alkaline. Recreate that with warm water near 26 to 30 C and hard, alkaline chemistry at pH 7.5 to 8.5. Give it a soft sand floor to plow, rock and wood to graze, and stable conditions. Steady, hard, warm water is the whole care sheet.

Good to know

Tylomelania sarasinorum is a member of the family Pachychilidae and one of the larger rabbit snails, reaching around 12 centimeters, with a golden body and a near-black, drawn-out shell. Like all rabbit snails it is a live-bearer, releasing one large, fully formed juvenile at a time rather than clutches of eggs, so it never overruns a tank. Breeding is possible in the right hard, warm water, at a modest pace.

Did you know

The name sarasinorum honors the Sarasin cousins, Paul and Fritz, the Swiss naturalists who surveyed Sulawesi's ancient lakes and first documented much of the strange snail fauna that lives only there.

Tank mates

Yellow giant rabbit snail is a peaceful, solitary species that keeps to the bottom. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.