Ramshorn Snails for Sale: Blue, Red, Pink, Brown & More!

Ramshorn snails can be the perfect snail for your aquarium. They consume algae, and they’re cute and peaceful. Since they can be tricky to find locally, where do you find them?

Keep reading to find out!

 

Where to Buy Ramshorn Snails?

If you’re like me and your local pet shops don’t have ramshorns available, you can order yours online via the good old internet. Shipped to your door from a trustworthy seller? It doesn’t get much better!

A good seller usually throws in a few extra snails for FREE in case some don’t make it through the shipping process. You can either buy a single color or a combo pack with multiple colors, depending on what you want. Here are the color options to choose from:

Available Colors You Can Find For Sale

Blue & Blue Leopard

Blue snails typically have dark bodies with light shells. These snails are usually brown when babies and get bluer as they age. There is a variant called “blue leopard.” This snail has a darker spotted pattern over the lighter blue. The leopard pattern tends to become more muted as the snail ages.

Red

Bright red ramshorns look like little rubies in your tank. They have a red shell with a red foot. Some find feeding them carrot brings out the red coloration.

Pink

Pinks have a light or sometimes transparent shell with a reddish foot. Their shell looks quite pearlescent.

Yellow/Gold

The yellow color morph has either a red or a yellow foot with a golden-hued shell. They are sometimes referred to as orange if they have a red foot.

Brown

Browns come in either a solid or leopard pattern. They can have red or dark feet. Again, the leopard tends to fade as the snail matures.

Random Multicolor Packs

Can’t decide which one you like best? Maybe you want them all? A multicolor combo pack is probably the best choice for you.

Do Ramshorn Snails Eat Plants in the Aquarium?

No. It is a myth that they eat plants. They most definitely do not eat plants unless your plants are sick or dying. Or (in very rare cases) your snails are starving to death. Healthy aquarium plant leaves naturally repel snails.

They only become interested in unhealthy leaves that have a problem. Which is GOOD! This helps break down rotting debris in your aquarium for a cleaner tank. Many planted tank enthusiasts (myself included) keep loads of ramshorns with even very delicate plants without problems.

Even more importantly, the snails scrub harmful algae off of the leaves. This is very helpful to the plants. Algae tends to suffocate the plants and prevent them from getting enough light, and it can be hard or impossible to clean it off yourself by hand, especially on finer leaves.

So if you have a planted tank, I highly suggest getting yourself some ramshorn snails for sale.

Will these Snails Overpopulate My Tank?

It is  true. Ramshorn snails are prolific breeders. They are hermaphrodites. This means any two snails of any gender can reproduce together. Hence the reason they are sometimes used as a food source for puffers.

They lay many eggs at a time in an amber-hued blob. Usually, there are about a dozen eggs in one sack. They can lay many masses of these eggs over a relatively short period of time. But the good news is the little baby snails are readily consumed by foraging scavengers such as goldfish or loaches.

You will find that these fish will be so effective at population control that you may start running out of snails as the big ones die off! That’s why I use snail-only systems for raising babies if I want to replenish my snail population.

I can’t keep a colony going indefinitely in my regular display tanks. Snails tend to self-regulate their population based on the amount of food available. When there is too much food, the snails may breed like crazy, and the babies will all grow up and make more babies.

But when there is less food, they die back. 

So even if you don’t keep fish that will use the snails as food, you can control their population through the amount of food you are adding to your system. Some experienced aquarium keepers believe that if you have a lot of snails going on, it’s because you need them.

These snails are simply responding to the high levels of food available. No matter how you see it, snails are actually beneficial.

Do Snails add a Heavier Waste-load to the Fish Tank?

Not at all! Snails only put out what they take in. If you have a lot of organic material in your tank, your snails will break it all down into a form that’s more bioavailable to the bacteria in your tank.

This actually helps your tank be more stable and balanced. Most people don’t deliberately even feed their snails. The snails survive off of the excess nutrients in the tank.

This makes them a valuable part of your aquarium’s “food chain.” Who knew they were so important? This may seem counter-intuitive, but the more you overfeed, the more important it is to have snails there to clean up the uneaten food. This helps prevent bacterial blooms and poor water quality.

Final Thoughts

The ramshorn snail is sure to make a useful and pretty addition to your fish tank. There is so much to love about these little guys. You may find you enjoy them more than your actual fish! Don’t forget, it’s always a good idea to quarantine your new snails before you add them to your livestock to avoid transmitting any diseases.

Where do you find your ramshorn snails for sale? What’s your favorite color pattern? Do you have any thoughts you want to share about these fascinating creatures? Leave me a comment below!

---

Featured Photo credit: Vitalii Hulai, Shutterstock