Last Updated: 8/9/15

Mollusk Books
Where Can I Buy Some Snails and/or Clams?
Mollusk Links
Snail Photos

This is one of two snail pages that I have yet to renovate with the move. Please excuse problems with this page. I have not yet checked all the links below.

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.

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) - 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.

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. 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. They stopped their affiliate programs so clicking on the links below does nothing but I left them up for the photos.

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.

Freshwater Snails

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

Freshwater snails

My Snails:

Snails - trapdoor snails (the biggest ones) and their babies (the smallest ones), black ramshorn snails (the round ones), and Melantho snails (the elongate ones), on the day that I got them, 4/28/11.

I got a dozen adult trapdoor snails on 4/7/10. One female had given birth to 13 babies in transit which is common.
Adult trapdoor snails and babies
8 adult trapdoor snails

From the 3/31/10 cleaning of the 153 gallon pond:
Snail eggs on a two gallon Lerio pot; they are black ramshorn snails.
Snail eggs
Snail eggs
Black ramshorn snails in my hand; a few of them before I put them back in to the pond.

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

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