Ram's Horn Snail, the most prolific of all snails

Ram's Horn snails are very common. They are a type of mollusc. The shell is a simple flat coil with no spire or point. 

Planorbis species

Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Pulmonata

Ram's Horn snails are very common. They are a type of mollusc. The shell is a simple flat coil with no spire or point. 

Habitat Ramshorn snails live in the water at the edges of ponds (the pond margins). 

Moving around 

They glide about by muscular action of a flat, slime-covered "foot". Waves of muscular contractions push and pull the snail's body along the surface of plants and stones.  

Feeding They eat: algae that coat water plants. They are herbivores. Snails use a file-like structure called a radula, which consists of rows of teeth and is moved backwards and forwards to rasp the algae off the surface of plants or rocks. They are eaten by: fish and ducks.

Reproduction Snails are hermaphrodite (they have both male and female organs). All of them can therefore lay eggs. Each egg is covered in jelly for protection, and is attached to a plant. When the eggs hatch, tiny baby snails emerge. 

Breathing Ramshorn snails rise to the surface of the water every so often, to take air into a cavity under the shell. The cavity holds air, and does the same job as a lung. This is different to many other water snails which breathe through gills. 

Size 25 mm

Ramshorn snails are very common and come in various sizes. Their shape is as their name suggests. The smaller varieties (under 1 cm) are not too damaging to a plant tank, although they seem to relish the tender leaves of the Hygrophila family. The other type is the dark and light brown striped Columbian Ramshorn that can grow big as large as 2 inches in diameter. The stripes run the length of the shell with a pattern of random width light-dark- light stripes that stays constant throughout the snails life. These snails are extremely prolific and have a terrific appetite for plants. Snails lay eggs on the plants in the pond, the eggs are covered in jelly to protect them. When the eggs hatch they are full of little baby snails. These snails use lungs to breathe air, but since they can trap and store some air inside their shells, they can tolerate water with low dissolved oxygen. 

Position in Food chain

Primary consumers herbivore
They eat algae
They are eaten by fish, tufted ducks

They lay disk-shaped gelatinous clusters of eggs adhering to anything - plants, rocks etc. Plants also seem to be a choice for egg-laying. The ramshorn snails are all shaped like a flat coil, or the horn of ram. The genus Helisoma are American snails. The most popular of this group is from South America, does well in heated aquaria with little attention and is often introduced by accident where it breeds prolifically. This is the red ramshorn. The genera Planorbarius and Planorbis are found in cold waters, and thus are suitable for ponds. The Planorbarius snails may be up to 3cm in diameter, while the Planorbis grow only to 1.5cm. P.corneus, the Great Ramshorn, is brick red in colour, and likes still or slow-moving water. It will eat any detritus, both plant and animal, that it comes across. Like the apple snail, it is amphibious. The snails are hermaphrodite, and lay disk-shaped gelatinous clusters of eggs adhering to anything - plants, rocks etc. RAMSHORN SNAILS (PLANORBIS CORNEUS)

A generation ago, the European Red Ramshorn Snail was a common sight in freshwater aquariums. Today they are somewhat of a rarity due to careless breeding with the common ramshorn snail that has a less interesting brown body color.

The brown ramshorns are somewhat hardier, but both varieties are excellent choices for the freshwater aquarium as long as they are not kept together! If they are kept together, virtually all future generations will be brown, since the red color is a recessive characteristic.