Ornamental snail refers to some snails with eye-catching colors, peculiar shapes, and certain ornamental value, and there are many types of ornamental snails on the market, and today I will introduce you to several common ornamental snails in our fish tanks.
1. Zebra snail
Zebra snail, also known as tiger snail, because of its shell yellow and black stripes, resembling zebra stripes and tiger stripes, hence the name. Zebra snail belongs to the steamed water snail, inhabiting the confluence of seawater and fresh water, it is very adaptable in fresh water, can survive well in fresh water, but the eggs laid in fresh water environment can not hatch.
Zebra snail like neutral hard water quality, suitable temperature between 22-24 ° C, like to eat the algae attached to the tank wall, so many people use the zebra snail as a tool snail to remove the algae in the fish tank, but there is a little headache is that the white eggs produced by the zebra snail will be attached to the sunken wood and stones, which will make the sunken wood and stones look like all white dots, affecting the appearance, and these white eggs are not easy to remove, when you clean up, you will still leave white marks, and finally you can only wait for it to slowly fall off.
2. Black Diamond Snail
Black diamond snail, also known as military hat snail, from the name can be seen that its shape is like a black helmet name, black diamond snail belongs to the steam water snail, the adaptability to fresh water is relatively strong, freshwater environment spawned eggs can not hatch.
Black diamond snail like weak alkaline water quality (ph6 ~ 7.8), temperature in 20-35 ° C can survive, like to adsorb on the stone or cylinder wall, nibble on the algae attached to the above, do not forcibly pull away when grasping, because its adsorption is very strong, may lead to muscle tearing death, and do not eat aquatic grass, is a good waterweed tank to remove algae "cleaner" (but it should be noted that the black diamond snail has the habit of turning sand, so it is not appropriate to place this snail in the early stage of the water weed tank, especially when planting water grass with shallow roots).
Its shortcomings are the same as the zebra snail, which produces eggs that are difficult to clean up.
3. Bee snail
Bee snail is also known as bee horn snail, because its shell has several protruding horns, and yellow and black stripes, far from looking like a small bee, so it is named bee snail, bee horn snail.
Bee snail is also a vapor water snail, mainly distributed in Indonesia and the Philippines and other regions, the adaptability to fresh water is relatively strong, but like all steam water snails such as zebra snails, black diamond snails, eggs laid in freshwater environment can not hatch. Bees like weak alkaline water quality (ph value between 7 ~ 7.8), the suitable temperature is between 22 ~ 27 ° C, like to eat algae, especially the algae attached to the tank wall, is also an excellent "cleaner" in the fish tank. The fly in the ointment is that like the zebra snail and the black diamond snail, the eggs they lay are difficult to clean up.
4. Abalone snail
Abalone snail, because its appearance looks like abalone, so it got this name, and because its shell resembles a bucket, it is also called a bucket snail. Abalone snails, like zebra snails and black diamond snails, belong to the steamed water snails and have a strong adaptability to fresh water.
Abalone snails like neutral and hard water quality, the temperature can survive between 10-38 ° C (the temperature is most active at 22-24 ° C); abalone snails like to eat algae, it will be adsorbed on the wall of the tank, nibble on the algae attached to it, and the amount of food is huge, can be removed in a short period of time, and does not eat aquatic grass, is a natural and efficient "scraping knife" in the water grass tank.
In the breeding should pay attention to the grasping is not to forcibly pull away, may lead to muscle tearing death, there is a point to note, abalone snails do not like other snails will "turn over", so you need to always pay attention to observe the situation of the fish tank, to prevent it from "turning over", because the abalone snail "turned over" for too long will be slowly choked to death. The disadvantage is that the eggs they lay are difficult to clean up.
5. Orange rabbit snail
Orange rabbit snail, also known as rabbit snail, kumquat rabbit snail, because of its bright orange yellow and long antennae, the shape of the rabbit is very cute, so it is called orange rabbit snail. Orange rabbit snails are mainly found in most lakes and rivers in Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia.
Orange rabbit snail like weak alkaline water quality (phH 7 ~ 8.6), temperature in 18 ~ 35 ° C can survive, prefer high water temperature, eating habits are very mixed, like to eat algae and sedimentary feed, feed residue bait, etc., is a good "cleaner" in the fish tank, but it should be noted that orange rabbit snail will also eat rotten plants and some aquatic grass buds. So it is not very suitable for raising in grass tanks.
6. Killer snail
Killer snails, also known as assassin snails, are mainly distributed in Asia, because their shell shapes like pagodas, with yellow and black lines, so they are also called pagoda snails or hornet snails.
Killer snail likes weak alkaline water quality (ph value between 7 ~ 8), the appropriate temperature is between 20 ~ 28 ° C. Killer snail in the feeding habits of different from other snails, more special, it does not eat algae, like to eat other snails, animal carcasses, but also to prey on apple snails, Malay snails and other small snails and small ornamental shrimp, hence the name of the killer snail, assassin snail name.