Aquarium snails, algae control, and tank mates.
You’re planning a tank for a rabbit snail, and one care sheet you read mentioned salt. Rabbit snails (Tylomelania spp.) are freshwater snails, and strictly so: the genus is endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia, where it lives in lakes, rivers and…
Your cichlid tank already runs warm and hard, so why not add a rabbit snail to graze the rock? Because we wouldn’t keep a Sulawesi rabbit snail (Tylomelania sp.) with any cichlid: rift lake cichlids share the hard water but…
Your rabbit snail tank is still empty, and the substrate is the first thing that goes in. The best substrate for rabbit snails (Tylomelania sp.) is a fine, smooth, inert sand, with rock on top for them to graze. It’s…
Does a rabbit snail’s shell actually grow, or is the snail stuck with the size it started at? A rabbit snail’s shell grows with it for its whole life: the snail never sheds or swaps it, but keeps adding new…
Your rabbit snail has the tank to itself, and you’d like to give it some company. The best tankmates for a rabbit snail are Sulawesi shrimp and other rabbit snails, because both want the same 79-86°F (26-30°C), pH 7.5-8.5 water.…
Rabbit snail or nerite, which one belongs in your tank? Choose a nerite if you want a small algae grazer for an ordinary tropical tank, and choose a rabbit snail only if you already run a warm, alkaline Sulawesi tank…
You already have a betta, and a rabbit snail has caught your eye for the same tank. Some keepers do keep the two together, but it’s a poor match and we wouldn’t plan a tank around it, because warmth is…
Is that big, slow snail going to bully your fish or pick off your shrimp? No, rabbit snails aren’t aggressive. Sulawesi rabbit snails (Tylomelania sp.) are slow grazers that spend their time scraping the film of algae and microbes off…
Your rabbit snail has made it to the top of the glass again, and the tank has no lid. Yes, rabbit snails (Tylomelania) can climb out of a tank: they crawl up aquarium glass like any other snail, and most…
Found a rabbit snail on the floor and think it’s too late? Often it isn’t, because a rabbit snail (Tylomelania sp.) can last out of water longer than it looks: keepers pass around 12 to 14 hours, and a snail…
Your rabbit snail has been in the tank for months and it still looks small. Plan on a year or more before it’s full grown: keepers report rabbit snails (Tylomelania) reaching breeding size at around a year old, and full…
Will a rabbit snail keep your tank clean for you? Only partly: a rabbit snail (Tylomelania sp.) grazes the thin film of algae and biofilm that grows on rock, glass and substrate, and some species will eat most things they…
