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Last Updated: 11/11/09
Information on some of the common aquatic snails kept in aquariums and ponds.
Be sure to visit all four snail pages, snail species page, the snail health page, and the snail FAQ.
Mollusks
Snail Health - now on its own page
Snail Species - now on their own page
Where Can I Buy Some Snails and/or Clams?
Snail FAQ - on its own page
Note: I include the Latin names if I know what they are. If you know any of the Latin names for the species that I do not, please e-mail the information to me.
See my algae-eating animals comparison table to make a quick comparison of the various species of algae-eating snails.
The pond egg identification guide will help those with ponds determine who made those eggs in the pond. Perhaps it was a snail!
I plan to redo this web page when I have time. I need to redo most of my web site but I takes a long time! This page is way too big!
This page is for freshwater mollusks. I also have a page on reef snails (saltwater).
A pond is not complete without aquatic snails. Many people add them in aquariums as well. If you set out to create a snail-free pond, they will always mysteriously show up. Whether they survived a chemical dip on plants or took a ride on a bird's legs to get there, if you build it, they will come. Aquatic snails are the clean-up crew for the pond. Most of them will eat surface algae, small pieces of plants, dead animals, and leftover foods. Some of them will damage plants. Most of them will only improve the overall health of the pond. Snails, along with tadpoles, are often added to eat pond algae. It is rare for snails to overpopulate a pond as they do in aquariums. This may be due to the larger number of natural predators present and other natural factors.
Snails belong to Gastropoda. They have a single, coiled shell. A pair of sensory tentacles come off their head with eyes at the end. Their mouth has a rasping tongue, called the radula, to shred food. Most eat plants (including algae) but some eat dead animals. Parasitic worms may live in them. Snails move by a muscular, slimy foot under their body. Algae naturally grows on most aquatic snails. It provides some camouflage.
Information on pond snails is sorely lacking on the internet and in books. The pond snails are bad enough; the land snail information is basically non-existent! I have not included any information on land snails as I know very little.
Most snails are hermaphrodites. This means that they are both male and female. All hermaphroditic snails can lay eggs. They can "mate" with themselves and thus only one can reproduce in an aquarium or pond. They also breed sexually as often as possible. Most snails lay eggs but some, like the trapdoor snail, give live birth. Trapdoor snails and a few other species of snails (apple, golden inca, four horned, etc.) are not hermaphrodites. They can only reproduce sexually.
Underwater Snail Eggs:
For those snails that lay eggs in the water, snail eggs look like little jely blobs stuck on hard
surfaces and plants. Favorite places to lay eggs include aquarium glass, clay pots, bricks, large
plant leaves, and almost anywhere sturdy enough. The eggs begin clear but soon get a dark spot
which grows larger as the snails grow. Unlike fish eggs, you will not see two large eyes looking
up to you. After about 3-6 weeks depending on species and temperature, the babies emerge.
They are quite vulnerable to being eaten at that time. There is nothing special to be done for their
care aside from providing foods their parents like if algae and plants are scarce. People often add
snail eggs to aquarium and ponds without knowing it as the eggs come hitching rides on live
plants or even inert materials moved from another aquarium or pond. Rarely, eggs may be
infertile or die. In that case, they will turn white as fungus attacks them. Healthy snail eggs are
clear with a dot inside.
Above Water Snail Eggs:
Apple snails lay eggs above the water line, usually on plants but in an aquarium, they often lay
eggs on the lid. Apple snail eggs are yellow or pink. They need to stay damp but not submerged
in order to develop. See the section on apple snails for more
information.
There are two types of snails. Gilled snails have gills and can close their bodies into their shells with a plate, or door. Gilled snails usually lay their eggs in jelly-like cocoons above or under water. The trapdoor snail (actually a livebearer) and apple snail are two of these. Pulmonate snails have lungs. They either come to the surface to breathe, or some breathe through their body surface while underwater. They cannot close their bodies into their shells. Pulmonate snails usually lay their eggs in gelatinous masses under water (the Malaysian trumpet snail though is a live-bearer). Examples are pond snails and ramshorn snails.
Good Things About Snails:
Bad Things About Snails:
Snails will usually find enough left over fish food, algae, and live plant material to eat. If you need to supplement their feeding (like in a bare tank), you can feed lettuces like romaine, kale, or cucumber (split, remove seeds, attach to something heavy to sink). Only provide as much as they will eat over a day. Each day, remove uneaten portions. A one inch snail might eat a 3" x 2" piece of romaine once every two days as an example. Snails do not need fresh vegetables daily unless there are a lot of them or they are large like apple snails. One keeper of apple snails reports that five 4 cm apple snails (P. flagellata and P. glauca) might eat one big lettuce leaf in a night. Snails will also eat the sinking tablets made to feed bottom dwelling fish and plecostomus. There are a number of algae-containing tablets for algae eaters like plecostomus that work well as well as Tabi-Min by Tetra that is a sinking food pellet. The snails I have had will try to eat most any sinking fish foods.
I have been asked a number of times about how to tell if a snail is dead. People buy new snails, and they do not come out of the shell. Sometimes a snail was active and then appears to be holed up in the shell. If a snail is scared due to its new home or has undergone some stress like something trying to eat it, it may hole up in its shell. Water quality problems and temperature extremes may cause the snail to stay holed up as well. Sometimes, it will not come out for a few days. Beyond a few days, it must come out or risk starving. Often, it may hole up during the day and come out to feed at night. If a snail shell is in the same position for more than three days and the snail's body is not visible, the snail is most likely dead. I give a snail about a week to move before throwing it out in my ponds. In tanks, it is important to remove a dead snail larger than 1/4 inch as it can pollute the tank quickly. You can put the snail in a bucket of water and set it aside with some food and see if it moves over a few more days. Taking the snail out and smelling it will help to decide. A dead snail smells REALLY bad, like a rotten egg! If the snail is in a different place each day but you never see it out moving, it is coming out at night. Surprise it after the it is dark with a flashlight or room lights to see what it is doing. Some snails only come out at night. Mystery snails are known to sometimes go somewhat dormant and float or lay on the bottom for days or even weeks. The reason is not known. Snails in ponds will go somewhat dormant when the temperature goes below about 50 degrees F and may stay in one place for a long time.
By soaking live plants before adding them to a tank, fewer snails will end up in the tank or pond. I treat all my plants to kill snails but ended up with snails anyway. Here are the methods to treat live plants. Never add these chemicals to an aquarium (except potassium permanganate is used as a medication at much lower doses). Treat the plants in a bucket or tub.
Fish that eat snails are called malacophages. Most of these fish eat snails by crushing them in the back of their throats but puffers and some cichlids use their jaws and labryrinth fish (bettas, paradise fish, and gouramis) pull the snails out of their shells.
The following fish will eat squashed snails:
The following fish will eat appetizing snails like pond snails:
The following fish may eat snails in general if there is nothing better to eat:
Sometimes small species of snails end up in aquariums or ponds when they are not wanted. They can breed into large colonies. Often, reducing the amount of food going into the system will keep their numbers in check. In ponds, goldfish, koi, and orfe may eat small snails such as the pond snail. In aquariums, certain loaches like the clown loach will eat small snails. Most fish will eat snails if their shells are broken open. See above for a list of fish purported to eat snails.
The simplest way to reduce snail numbers is to pick them out of the tank or pond by hand. Then, they can be broken for the fish to eat or thrown away.
Because most snail-killing chemicals also harm live plants and other invertebrates, they should be avoided. Also, when the snails die, there could be a large ammonia and nitrite spike due to all the decomposing bodies. In a fish-only tank or pond without sensitive fish, perhaps the chemicals could be used.
Snails can be baited using the foods mentioned under feeding above (lettuce and algae wafers are good baits). A few hours after the lights go out, remove the food which should be covered with snails.
For information on treating live plants, fake plants, and ornaments to rid them of snails before adding them to the tank or later, see my algae page.
As a last ditch effort, the tank can be torn down. See here for information on the steps to follow to disinfect everything. When doing this, remove all living animals and plants so they do not die. Instead of bleaching everything, one aquarist suggests adding straight ammonia (sold as a cleaner, be sure there are no extra ingredients) to read a level of about 50 ppm (using a test kit). Add it daily for about a week. Then, do a number of major or total water changes to reduce the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate down to low levels. In this manner, you can kill most living things in the tank without killing off all the good bacteria. This aquarist used it to kill snails and planaria which are flatworms. Remember, never do this with animals or plants that you want to survive still in the tank.
Clams (Pelecypoda) have two hinged hard plates. Water (with food and oxygen) comes in one opening or siphon and goes out a second siphon (with wastes). A hatchet foot keeps adults anchored in mud or sand. Clam embryos develop inside the clam. The larvae of fresh water clams cling to the gills or fins of fish as parasites. This can harm stressed fish. Freshwater clams are also called mussels.
Clams or Mussels are best utilized in large, older ponds to sift algae and other floating life from the water. Place them in a tray of sandy dirt in the bottom. Remove dead ones often so as not to pollute the water. They die if there is not enough food. Since their larvae often parasitize the gills of fish, in large numbers, they may harm fish. Clam sizes range from 0.3 to 6 inches. Bitterlings require mussels to spawn.
I added a small section on slugs here because I took a couple photos of a big slug on the siding of the house. Slugs are basically snails without shells. There are many marine sea slugs and some terrestrial slugs. If you can get over the gross factor of their slime, slugs are actually quite interesting. Check out the Wikipedia page on slugs. Slugs prefer to come out during and after a nice rain and at night. They leave slime trails where they crawl. I have touched plenty of slug juice! Slugs lay small eggs in the rocks of my waterfall in the spring. I think the ones that we have are great gray slugs or tiger slugs, Limax maximus. They are native to Europe but now found in a lot of the US. These huge slugs can grow to 8 inches long. The one in my photos is about 4 inches long.
Slug with my hand next to it for comparison. I have
small hands.
Slug - close-up of the same slug.
These are the books that I own and that I used as references for this web page. Mostly, I used my own knowledge gleaned from many sources.
Pond Life: A Guide to Common Plants and Animals of North American Ponds and Lakes by Dr. George K. Reid, Golden Press, 1967. A book chock full of information.
Not many pond books even mention snails. If you know a good source on snails, please let me know.
I was informed of the following book on apple snails which may be available at amazon.com:
Apple Snails in the Aquarium by Gloria Perera and Jerry Walls, T.F.H. Publishing,
England, 1996.
Snail FAQ - aquarium snail FAQ
Snail Control - information on controlling snails in aquaria
Snails - Mostly land snail information but links to other snail pages, including aquatic snails
The Apple Snail Website - information on apple snail species, feeding, etc. This is a great site to not only learn about apple snails, but snails in general. Included is information on care, species, photographs, anatomy, ecology, diseases, FAQ, discussion board, and more. Their banner is below.
Aquatic Mollusca of Illinois - a list of scientific and common names for snails, clams, etc. in Illinois.
The Domain of Ampullariidae - a good snail page in three languages including English and French. You can also jump right over to the English section of the Mollusk site.
Mollusks - a large site on the anatomy and biology of mollusks, cephalopods, and related animals. It has some really interesting stuff on snails.
Showing Off Our Mussels - article on mussels on the website for Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
Snail Page - Mike's page on his pet snails.
Gastropod Taxonomy site - has lots of snail photos and taxonomy. Nice limpet photos.
Mollusc Site - sources for mollusc lovers and teachers, lots of links
Decollate Snails - someone sent me this interesting link to a site that sells these snails that are supposed to eat other snails; these are terrestrial snails; the person had found them in her yard.
Pet Snails - a big terrestrial snail and slug page
The World of Snails - terrestrial snails too
My Snails:
On 4/1/08, I cleaned out my 153 gallon pond and took photos
of some snail eggs on my Lerio pots. They are probably ramshorn snail eggs (although there
were some pond snails and Melantho snails in the pond too. The eggs for all three species look
basically the same.)
Snail eggs on a two gallon Lerio pot.
Close up of snail eggs from the previous
photo.
Snail eggs on another two gallon pot.
Trumpet snails in my 20 gallon tank
after dark on 10/28/07.
Japanese trapdoor snail that I got on
5/23/07.
Japanese trapdoor snails that I got on
5/23/07.
Melantho snails that I got on 5/23/07.
Sorry, it is not in focus.
Empty trapdoor snail removed from my
1800 gallon pond on 2/13/05.
Albino apple snail on 7/12/03. The scary dude had his feelers out so I
took
a photo.
Albino apple snail on 2/7/03. This huge mystery snail is wrapped
around
my thermometer so I thought it was a neat photo opportunity. The photo below of the albino
mystery
snail is the same snail the year before (one day off from exactly a year!). My how he has
grown!
Trumpet snail on 12/27/02. It is a bad photo; I know!
Trapdoor snail on 5/2/02. He is alive but out of the water and
closed up.
Black ramshorn snail on 5/2/02. Alive but out of the water.
Lots of snails on 5/2/02 including trapdoor adults and babies, black
ramshorns, Melantho (a type of pond snail?, looks like trumpet snails to me), and pond snails.
This was an order I received that day.
Albino mystery snail on 2/8/02.
Tiny ramshorn snails - showed up in my 20 gallon tank and have since
spread to all my tanks and ponds, taken 4/22/01.
Photos from apple snail owners of their snails (the first two are from one aquarist and the second two from another):
Photo of an apple snail, Pomacea bridgesii, provided by a
visitor to this site.
Another photo of the same apple snail.
Pomacea bridgesii eating cabbage.
Four photos of an apple snail.
Photos of other snails from other people:
Photos are listed from newest to oldest.
Not all the photos sent are here. Some are on the other snail pages.
On 9/5/09, Val sent these photos of eggs in the water in Ontario, Canada. They may be snail eggs. I
am not sure why they are so green in the second photo.
Snail eggs in June
Snail eggs in September
Sarah sent these photos of her snails on 2/25/07.
Pond snail
Pond snail eggs - real close up!
Albino mystery (apple) snail
Stephanie sent these photos of her snail on 9/4/06. I do not know what species it is. Do you? It
is shaped like an apple snail and big but has stripes like a fancy ramshorn snail (but wrong shape
for that).
Snail
Snail
Mike sent these photos of his interesting snails on 5/14/06. I have not seen snails like this before.
Does anyone know what they are?
Two strange reddish ramshorn snails with
gold/white and black spots
Two strange reddish ramshorn snails with
gold/white and black spots
The red ramshorn is supposed to be a great algae eater. Robert sent me some photos of his red
ramshorns on 8/23/05:
Red ramshorn
Red ramshorn with a baby betta
On 9/28/05, he sent this photo of the red
ramshorn with some babies.
Dominik sent these photos of strange-looking snails on 8/19/05. It turns out that they are
probably Radix peregra.
Snail - top view
Snail - bottom view
Snail - bottom view
Notice: There is now a USDA ban on aquatic snails in the United States.
USDA Aquatic Snail Ban - This is
the best web site I could find about it. You would think the USDA site would have something.
It is not clear to me if all or some snails are totally banned or just limited and require special
permits or what. A few people who work at pet stores told me they were told not to see snails
anymore and yet my local store (and others who have contacted me) still have snails at the store.
If you know more, please let me know.
It is easiest to obtain snails from the local aquarium or pond store. They can also be mail ordered. Below are a few mail order sources for pond and/or aquarium snails, clams, and mussels. If there is a * before the company's name, then I have ordered from them and can vouch the service and animals were okay. If there is a % before the company's name, then the company is well known (or I have heard a lot of good things about them), and I think it would be fine to order from them. I cannot vouch for the other companies.
% MD Aquatic Nurseries, 410-557-7615, Maryland - trapdoor snails, ramshorn snails, mussels.
* Lilypons , 1-800-999-5459 (Maryland), 1-800-723-7667 (Texas) - trapdoor snails.
% Zett's Tri-State Fish Farm & Hatchery , 814-345-5357, West Virginia - trapdoor snails, pond snails, black ramshorn snails, clams, crayfish.
% Carolina Math and Scientific, 1-800-334-5551, North Carolina, will only send catalog to school or business - trapdoor snails, mystery snails, apple snails.
* Paradise Water Gardens, 1-800-955-0161, Massachusetts - Four-Horned snails, Golden Inca snails, trapdoor snails, black ramshorn snails, clams.
Hunting Creek Fisheries, Maryland - trapdoor snails.
Aquatic Dragon, no phone number available, Florida - ramshorn snails (actually says ram snail with a picture of a tropical large snail of some sort), mystery snails.
* William Tricker, Inc., 1-800-524-3492, Ohio - trapdoor snails, Melantho snails (Lymnae sp., pond snails?), black ramshorn snails (Helisoma sp.), mystery snails (Ampullaria sp., will eat your pond plants), clams.
% Springdale Water Gardens, 1-800-420-5459, Virginia - trapdoor snails.
Three Guys Aquatics - ramshorn and Malaysian trumpet snails.
Aquabid.com is a place where people sell their aquarium-related animals, plants, and supplies. They usually have various snails available from individuals.
% Frank's Aquarium - European red ramshorn snails (neato algae eaters!), gold and regular mystery snails, Columbian ramshorn snails (big beautiful plant eaters), Malaysian trumpet snails, freshwater clams, and freshwater mussels. All are not always in stock, and he is always adding more species for sale. He also sells freshwater shrimp and crayfish.
* AquaMart now sells black Japanese trapdoor snails for $1.50 each with plant orders. See my catalogs page for their details.
Aquatic Plant Depot sells what they call Malayan needle point snails but they give the Latin name for Malaysian trumpet snails so they are most likely the same.
Apple Snails by Leonora - she sells Pomacea bridgesii.
Crayfishshop.com - sells Asian clams, trumpet snails, apple snails, and trapdoor snails.
If you live in MN, then John has some extra trumpet snails you can pick up. If you are interested, e-mail him at resourcesearch@comcast.net
Snail Shop - UK only, sells all sorts of invertebrates including many species of snails and shrimp.
Live Aquaria sells the following snails. Click on the photo for more information. They are the albino mystery snail (apple snail), black mystery snail (apple snail), gold mystery snail (apple snail), Japanese trapdoor snail, and ramshorn snail (unclear which species) respectively.
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