So, how many ramshorn snails can be kept for every gallon? Generally, each ramshorn snail requires two and a half gallons of water. For example, 20-gallon tanks can hold up to 8 ramshorn snails, while a 10-gallon tank can accommodate 4-5.

As we move forward, we’ll go into more detail about how many ramshorn snails you should have in your aquarium. We’ll also look at some tricks to prevent outbreaks and control the snails’ population.

How Many Ramshorn Snails Per Gallon?

Many people like to keep snail tanks. While others like to use ramshorn snails to help to control algae within a community tank. However, ramshorn snails are only useful if you keep them in the correct numbers. Ramshorn snails can become a problem if you allow their population to expand to dangerous levels.

The size of your ramshorn snail population should match the size of your aquarium. In general, aquarists are expected to keep roughly 2 ramshorn snails for every five gallons of water. With that, you can use that rule to determine the correct number of ramshorn snails to keep in your tank.

Can Ramshorn Snails Multiply?

Ramshorn snails are known to multiply at a rapid pace. As the female is ready to spawn, she will lay a clutch of eggs, resembling a brown cluster of honeycomb within the tank. The eggs will hatch around 2-3 weeks, producing between 10 to 20 healthy adult snails.

Some people aren’t keen on ramshorn snails in their tank as they didn’t add them directly and were introduced along with other fish from the pet store. They are sometimes known to clog filters and will go after any delicate plants in the tank.

As ramshorn snails are hermaphroditic, they’ll breed as much as possible and are known for how quickly they can populate an aquarium.

Can You Have Too Many Ramshorn Snails In A Fish Tank?

You can have too many ramshorn snails in a tank. Keeping a large population of ramshorn snails isn’t recommended. Too many ramshorn snails will increase the bio load, which encourages frequent spikes in toxins like ammonia that require frequent water maintenance procedures to control.

Not only will the tank’s water conditions deteriorate at a faster rate, but the ramshorn snails will suffer as a result. This can result with the ramshorn snails coming under attack from all manner of parasites and infections that thrive in poorly maintained tanks.

Even if you’ve got the time and patience to maintain a small ramshorn snail tank, the overcrowded conditions will make the aquarium a stressful and more dangerous environment for the ramshorn snails, even more so, if their tank mates include larger fish that are known to be aggressive.

In cases like this, if the ramshorn snails survive the deteriorating conditions of the tank, they’ll soon destroy the plant life. Yes, they eat algae. However, the algae in a small tank won’t satisfy a large population of ramshorn snails. Once all the algae have been eaten, they will turn their attention to the other plants, which you do not want.

This is why aquarists are encouraged to get the largest possible tank for their ramshorn snails. If you don’t have the financial means to get a larger tank, you’ll need to take steps to prevent the ramshorn snail population in the tank from growing out of control.

How Do You Control The Population Of Ramshorn Snails?

It’s common for people to think that controlling the snail population in their tank is a simple matter of controlling the number of snails they buy. However, this is simply not enough. At the end of the day, if you have both male and female ramshorn snails in the tank, they’ll keep reproducing until their numbers gradually overrun the aquarium.

Removing Ramshorn Snails Manually
If it’s too late to take preventative measures because the ramshorn population in your tank is already too large, you can remove the ramshorn snails by hand. Simply, pick the snails out of the tank, keeping taking them out until you are satisfied with the number left.

You can give the excess ramshorn snails away to people that want them. Some stores will actually buy snails from customers if they like the price.

Conclusions

As a rule of thumb, it’s recommended to keep 2 ramshorn snails for every five gallons of water. If you want to be generous, you can keep one ramshorn snail for every three gallons of water. That way, the population should be more manageable in the long term.

But the more ramshorn snails you keep in the tank, the more problems they will cause later on. Keep in mind that aside from eating algae and plants and reproducing, they may also pollute the tank as they’re dirty creatures that excrete a lot of waste.

If you want to keep ramshorn snails in your tank, start with a larger tank to prevent the population from growing out of control. Once you get started, you can experiment with other solutions by taking more of a hands-on approach by adding predators that eat ramshorn snails.