Every guide we have written on keeping Sulawesi rabbit snails (Tylomelania), covering the warm, alkaline water they share with Sulawesi shrimp, feeding, live birth and baby snails, tank mates and what to check when a snail stops moving. New to rabbit snails? Start with Sulawesi rabbit snail care. Not sure which line you are looking at? Types of rabbit snails explains what the trade names mean.
Choose a rabbit snail if you want a slow, showy grazer and already run a mature Sulawesi tank at 79-86°F (26-30°C) and pH 7.5-8.5. Choose a Malaysian trumpet snail only if you’re happy with a small burrower that clones itself…
Choose by your water: a rabbit snail (Tylomelania sp.) needs a mature, warm, alkaline Sulawesi tank, while a ramshorn fits the ordinary community tank most keepers already run. Ramshorns also breed far faster, and the snail that strips plants is…
Yes. Rabbit snails (Tylomelania spp.) are freshwater snails, and strictly so: the genus is endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia, where it lives in lakes, rivers and streams.[[1]] The catch is which freshwater. They need warm, alkaline, mineral-rich water, and that’s what…
No. We wouldn’t put a Sulawesi rabbit snail (Tylomelania sp.) in with any cichlid. Keepers and care sites routinely list cichlids among the fish to keep away from these snails. No study has tested the two in one aquarium, so…
The best substrate for rabbit snails (Tylomelania sp.) is a fine, smooth, inert sand, with rock on top for them to graze. Treat it as the choice that suits every kind of rabbit snail. What matters more than the grain…
Yes. A rabbit snail’s shell grows with it for its whole life. The snail never sheds or swaps it; it keeps adding new shell at the opening as its body gets bigger.[[1]] How fast that happens hasn’t been measured for…
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. The fish that usually fill top ten lists each miss at least one of the snail’s…
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 with a film growing on the rock. They’re different animals…
Some keepers do keep a betta with rabbit snails, but it’s a poor match and we wouldn’t plan a tank around it. Warmth is the only thing the two agree on: a rabbit snail (Tylomelania sp.) needs alkaline, mineral-rich water,…
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 rock, wood and glass, and they don’t chase, bite or corner fish, shrimp or other…
Yes, rabbit snails (Tylomelania) can climb out of a tank. They crawl up aquarium glass like any other snail, and most rabbit snail care guides tell you to keep a lid on for exactly that reason. Treat what follows as…
Often longer than it looks: keepers pass around 12 to 14 hours, and a snail that looks dead after a night on the floor can still recover. No published study has measured how long a rabbit snail (Tylomelania sp.) survives…
