# Ramshorn snails with betta?



## xStatic (Jun 11, 2013)

I recently bought some pink ram snails off a friend, but I didn't realize they were babies before I got them. I was planning on putting them into my goldfish tank but they're so small I'm worried my goldfish will think they're pellets and try to eat them/choke on them. For now I have them in a 1 gallon jar and they seem to be doing fine for the moment, but I was wondering if I should put them in the betta tank instead (I'm sure they'll prefer the heated water). 

They might even be small enough to fit in the king betta's mouth (10 gal) so I thought I might set them up in my 2.5gal or 5.5gal in anticipation for me getting a smaller betta. The only thing that worries me about that is whether the bioload would be too high with 6 growing rams in those smaller tanks? 

Thanks!


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## Olivia27 (Nov 26, 2015)

I can't tell you about bio load but the first question really depends on your Betta. I don't have a King, but currently I have... well, decided to keep... one ramshorn and one Malaysian Trumpet that hitched a ride on my live plants. The trumpet one is the teeniest tiniest little thing ever. My crown tail boy pecked at it and spat it back out yesterday but it survived anyway. I suppose that's what those shells are for. I doubt the fish would choke either. They can easily spit out food. My girl - who is a literal pig - often spits out a food she has swallowed some five minutes ago if she saw another piece of food she wants to eat. 

I gotta say though I know absolutely nothing at all about snails. In fact, I have a serious phobia of them. But I'm gonna keep an eye on this thread so I can pinch information from the answers. Now that I decided to keep my worst fear around I should probably learn a thing or two about not killing them.


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## xStatic (Jun 11, 2013)

Seren27 said:


> I can't tell you about bio load but the first question really depends on your Betta. I don't have a King, but currently I have... well, decided to keep... one ramshorn and one Malaysian Trumpet that hitched a ride on my live plants. The trumpet one is the teeniest tiniest little thing ever. My crown tail boy pecked at it and spat it back out yesterday but it survived anyway. I suppose that's what those shells are for. I doubt the fish would choke either. They can easily spit out food. My girl - who is a literal pig - often spits out a food she has swallowed some five minutes ago if she saw another piece of food she wants to eat.
> 
> I gotta say though I know absolutely nothing at all about snails. In fact, I have a serious phobia of them. But I'm gonna keep an eye on this thread so I can pinch information from the answers. Now that I decided to keep my worst fear around I should probably learn a thing or two about not killing them.


Hahaha... good plan! Yeah I'm not too worried about the betta choking on them, but I was worried about the goldfish choking on them. Goldfish aren't very smart when it comes to food, they've been known to choke on gravel, and they try to eat basically anything that they can fit into their mouths so until the snails grow at least dime sized I can't have them in with the goldfish. 

I think I'm going to try putting them in the 10 gallon after all. If the betta kills them I can always get some more from my friend. He seems pretty placid though, poor guy has just been hiding out in the plants since yesterday, I don't think he feels very comfortable in the big 10 gallon. Hopefully he'll settle in a bit more over the next few days.


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## Netti (Apr 25, 2014)

I made the mistake to keep the ramshorn snails that hitch hiked on some plants. Because of them I ended up having to buy assassin snails to get these pests and their many, many hungry off-springs off of my plants. 

Nerite snails would be good snails to have, they mainly eat the algae, the only problem is, that they are really meant for brackish water. They do not reproduce in Freshwater. I have read it shortens their live span being kept in Freshwater.


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## xStatic (Jun 11, 2013)

Netti said:


> I made the mistake to keep the ramshorn snails that hitch hiked on some plants. Because of them I ended up having to buy assassin snails to get these pests and their many, many hungry off-springs off of my plants.
> 
> Nerite snails would be good snails to have, they mainly eat the algae, the only problem is, that they are really meant for brackish water. They do not reproduce in Freshwater. I have read it shortens their live span being kept in Freshwater.


Uh oh!

I'm not too worried about overpopulation as I don't have any live plants and I don't plan on overfeeding the snails. But I have read many horror stories of rams just taking over aquariums. Usually because they are eating the plants in the aquarium or because the aquarist is overfeeding the tank. Don't have to worry about overfeeding bettas and goldfish, they don't usually let even the tiniest morsel of food get away from them lol


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## xStatic (Jun 11, 2013)

Hmmmm... this might not work out after all :hmm:


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## NickAu (Sep 28, 2015)

Cool he knows where the fresh live food is already. Don’t worry about it if he wants to eat them let him.

I so do not like ramsheads they eat my plants.


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## xStatic (Jun 11, 2013)

NickAu said:


> Cool he knows where the fresh live food is already. Don’t worry about it if he wants to eat them let him.
> 
> I so do not like ramsheads they eat my plants.


Hahaha, I totally understand. But these guys are PINK  I like them.


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## VillagerSparky (Dec 1, 2015)

I've not had much of a problem of Ramshorns eating my plants, but my Betta does enjoy eating snail eggs so he is keeping their population in check quite nicely.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Over half of my bettas are snail eats, some can even get the trap door sails like mts.
As for biolaod-6 ramshrons in a 2.5 or 5g is fine (keep up on water changes) but as you feed them they breed, and if you over feed you can have dozens to hundreds-big bioload.


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