Rabbit snail Tylomelania sp.

pH 7.5, and nothing either side of it

Read the pH column down. Fish Laboratory gives 7.2 to 7.5, FishLab and FishioHub both give 7.5 to 8.5, Wikipedia and Aquarium Breeder both give 7.3 to 8.5, and Bantam gives 7 to 8. All six ranges contain exactly one value in common, the ceiling of one meeting the floor of two others, and the row prints it: 7.5.

This is the third row on this site to collapse to a single number, after the pH on our discus record and the temperature on our clown loach record, and it happens for the same reason: two sources are describing the same animal from opposite ends. There is one wrinkle worth acting on. Aquarium Breeder also publishes a preference rather than a range, 7.8 to 8.2, and says they prefer alkaline water in the 8.2 to 8.4 region, which is above the shared value. A keeper with one snail and no other species should aim there; a keeper with a community tank has 7.5 as the only figure every source allows.

Why the hardness floor is the shell

Three sources publish general hardness and the ranges contain 6 to 8 dGH, which the row prints as 107 to 143 ppm. Aquarium Breeder adds KH 4 to 8 and TDS 100 to 200; Fish Laboratory publishes KH 2 to 8 and no GH at all.

Every source that explains the figure explains it the same way: soft water erodes the shell and stops the animal building new shell material. That is the instruction our nerite snail and ramshorn snail records already carry, and it is why calcium keeps appearing in the food lists in station 05.

The figure this record does not carry

Four sources put this animal in warm water: 78 to 84 °F from Wikipedia, 77 to 86 as optimal from Aquarium Breeder, and 76 to 84 from both FishLab and Fish Laboratory. They meet at 78 to 84, and that is the row.

Bantam publishes 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit and, on the same page, a soft pH between 7 and 8. We print it and do not carry it, for three reasons a reader can check: its floor is eight degrees below the only source here that is not a care sheet, it is the only source of the six to call the water soft, and it is the source that names discus and betta fish as tank mates for this snail. Our own discus record starts at 85 °F, one degree above where this row stops.

That is the whole of the disagreement, and it is worth being explicit about what we did with it: this site does not average a figure it doubts, it prints it and says why the row is the other number. Our method page has the rule and our goldfish record has the precedent, where one published range would have emptied the overlap entirely.

Which tanks this rules out

A floor of 78 °F is high for this site, and it is the water condition that decides which tanks can keep this snail at all. It ties our angelfish record and sits above every other band on this site, with only the flowerhorn, the clown loach and the discus starting higher, which is the arithmetic behind most of station 06.

Sinking food, calcium, and how often to feed

Four sources call it an algae and detritus eater and their food lists overlap almost completely. Aquarium Breeder names soft algae and rotten plant matter first, then fish flakes, algae wafers, spirulina tablets, sinking pellets, earthworm pellets, frozen bloodworms, lettuce, spinach and blanched zucchini. Fish Laboratory calls them scavenger vegetarians that need calcium and names bottom feeder pellets, algal wafers, blanched lettuce, spinach and zucchini. Bantam adds calcium supplements and snail food to a similar list.

None of the six publishes a feeding frequency, which is worth saying plainly: on this animal the food lists are detailed and the schedule is missing everywhere. The calcium is not decoration. It is the same instruction as the hardness row in station 02, arriving through the food instead of through the water, and it is the one requirement that a tank of soft water cannot be talked out of.

What it does not eat

FishLab: they nibble on dead or decaying plant material without causing damage to healthy, growing plants. Bantam is more cautious, allowing that they may occasionally graze on plants if their preferred food sources are not available. Aquarium Breeder says they are not really interested in eating up plants. Two of the four then name the same exception, and it is a plant we hold a record for.

The bloodworm, which one source forbids

FishioHub calls them herbivorous and names algae wafers, blanched vegetables, biofilm and leaf litter, then adds an instruction in capitals of its own: do not feed them carnivorous foods like bloodworms or meat-based pellets. Aquarium Breeder lists frozen bloodworms among the foods it recommends for the same animal.

Neither publishes a reason or a measurement, so this record prints both and carries neither in the row. What the six sources do share is the base: algae, biofilm, detritus and sinking vegetable food, which is what the diet row says. A keeper who never feeds a bloodworm has followed five sources and disobeyed none.

Java fern, and the same publisher on both sides

Aquarium Breeder: not really interested in eating up plants except java ferns, which they like to feast on. Fish Laboratory publishes the same exception.

That lands directly on a record here. Our java fern record is built on five sources saying almost nothing eats the plant, because the leaves are too tough or taste bad, and Aquarium Breeder is one of those five. On the plant page it names java fern one of the best plants for shrimp tanks and snails, listing cherry shrimp, ghost shrimp, amano shrimp, ramshorn, nerite, Malaysian trumpet and mystery snails. On the snail page it puts this snail on the other side of that sentence.

Both statements can be true, since the plant page is naming the snails it is safe with and this one is a snail it is not. It is also the pattern our java moss record already found in this publisher, which gives the oscar three different verdicts across three of our plant records. The water makes it a live question rather than a footnote: the java fern record runs 72 to 82 °F and this record 78 to 84, so the two overlap from 78 to 82.

The record carries it in the diet row rather than quietly, and the plant record now carries this snail in its eaten by row.

One pod, one snail

Aquarium Breeder describes a very low rate of reproduction: females produce one round white pod every 4 to 6 weeks containing one, two, or rarely three baby snails, and the babies exit the pod within a few minutes as fully formed miniatures. Fish Laboratory gives one fully formed young per birth after a 4 to 6 week gestation, and one or two baby snails per month. Wikipedia calls the genus ovoviviparous, releasing shelled juvenile snails and producing single live juveniles rather than egg clutches.

That is the whole difference between this record and our ramshorn snail, which arrives as a population and is often not bought at all. A rabbit snail tank does not become a rabbit snail problem, and the group row asks for three or more precisely because two might never produce one.

How big a baby rabbit snail is

Aquarium Breeder: newly hatched at 0.125 inches, 3.2 mm, to 0.25 inches, 6.35 mm. Wikipedia: newly hatched snails of some species measure nearly 2 cm, 0.79 in, and are the largest newly hatched viviparous gastropods.

A factor of six between two sources on the same genus, and neither is likely to be wrong. It is the size row of station 03 again: forty six species, different adults, different young, one shop label. Both figures are printed and the record carries neither, because a hatchling size is not one of its nine fields.

A rabbit snail not moving

Aquarium Breeder is the only source that answers this, and the answer is reassuring: it is not totally out of place for them to be immobile for a considerable period, since that is how they rest, with the body curled up inside the shell and the operculum covering the aperture.

What no source we hold publishes is how long is too long, or how to tell resting from dying. So this record will not print a threshold. What it can say is what the same sources put around it: a snail that has stopped moving in soft water, on sharp gravel, or below 78 °F is in a tank three of its rows already refuse.

Sealed in for days, which is acclimation

FishioHub publishes the behavior that turns the not moving question into a timeline: they will seal themselves inside their shell for days at a time, and this is normal behavior during acclimation. Read with Aquarium Breeder’s note that immobility is how they rest, that gives a new snail days rather than hours before anything is wrong.

The same source is the only one to publish a nitrate figure for them, under 20 ppm, and to tie a decline to elevated nitrate over the long term rather than to a spike. Our water and health topic holds what our other records publish about nitrate, and on most of them the figure is missing.

Growing up, slowly

Three sources agree on the rate, which almost never happens on this field. Close to a year to reach about 1.5 inches, which both Aquarium Breeder and Fish Laboratory also give as breeding size. Fifteen records here carry a growth rate at all, and this is one of the few where more than one source publishes the same figure.

Breeding rabbit snails, and why it is mostly waiting

Nothing our six sources publish makes this a project. There is no way to sex them, so a keeper cannot pair them: Aquarium Breeder says the difference cannot be seen with the naked eye. There is no trigger either, no temperature drop, no dry season, no separate breeding tank in any of the six. What the sources ask for is a group and the conditions the record already prints.

FishioHub is the only source to put a year against it: a group of 5 adults might produce 12 to 20 juveniles per year, from a single live baby every 4 to 8 weeks. Aquarium Breeder gives one pod every 4 to 6 weeks with one to three in it, and Fish Laboratory one or two babies per month. All three describe the same thing at different resolutions, and none of them describes a failure mode.

So breeding this freshwater snail is the water parameters in station 02, three or more animals, and a year of growth to 1.5 inches before any of them is an adult. The comparison worth making is with the other breeding snails here: our ramshorn snail record describes a population that arrives whether you wanted it or not, and our assassin snail record asks for six or more if you want more of them. This one asks for three and gives you twelve a year at best.

What it looks like, in one source’s words

Only Aquarium Breeder describes the shell properly, and it is worth quoting: an elongate conic structure, unicorn-horn like, with a spire angle of 13 to 25 degrees, an aperture oval, pointed at the top and slightly siphonated at the base. Shells are medium to large and come in numerous different color forms, brown, dark, whitish, with spots.

Then the line that changes what a buyer thinks is wrong with their snail: top whorls in adult specimens almost always corroded to a varying degree. A worn shell tip on an adult Tylomelania is normal on the source with the most detail on the animal, not a symptom.

Why they break the tips off

The same source publishes an instruction nothing else we hold repeats: because of the size and weight, rabbit snails often break the tips of their shells, therefore it will be a good idea to put something soft right at the aquarium glass. A four inch snail that climbs the glass and lets go arrives at the bottom shell first.

Read that with station 03 and the substrate stops being about foraging. Fine sand is what four sources ask for, and it is also the only landing this animal gets.

Alkaline water is the shell, not a preference

Aquarium Breeder: it is absolutely vital for them to have alkaline water to prevent their shells from wearing out, alongside calcium in the food. That is the same requirement the pH and hardness rows in station 02 carry, stated as a consequence rather than as a number, and it is the reason this record declines the one source calling the water soft.

Copper

Aquarium Breeder: watch out for copper, as it can kill your rabbit snails very easily. Our nerite snail record carries the same warning from its own sources, and our guppy record carries the other half of it: a medication dosed for a fish is dosed for a tank, and copper is lethal to invertebrates in trace amounts. Any tank holding this snail and a treated fish is one decision away from losing the snail.

Sexing, which no source can do

Aquarium Breeder settles it in one sentence: as with all snails, it is not possible to see the difference with the naked eye, as visual differences are not apparent. Nothing on the other four pages contradicts it and nothing offers a method. That is why the group row asks for three or more rather than for a pair, and why a keeper who wants baby rabbit snails is buying probability rather than a male and a female.