Photos from Clients----Red Ramshorn & MTS

Photos of red ramshorn snails and trumpet snails we sent to Johor which arrived on the next day!

Credits to Joanne Evelynna Peter for these photos!

April Offers' Highlight!

The Red Ramshorn Snail Breeder's Set is on sale now! Limited stock available, grab them while stock lasts! Valid until end of April 2014 only.

1) Red Ramshorn Snail Breeder's Set

Perfect red ramshorn snails set for breeders. Each set contains 12 mature Red Ramshorn Snails (size reaches 1cm) that are ready to breed given the optimum condition. Each set also comes with a free glass aquarium thermometer.

RM10 per set

The Assassin is Here!

Assassins snails are in stock now!


Assassin snails have vivid colours of black and yellow that resemble a tiger. As its name implies, assassin snails will hunt other snails - do keep them away from your pet snails!


It is used as an alternative for loaches and puffers to remove unwanted snails such as pond snails. Breeding in captivity is possible but takes time. Assassin snails will eat other organic matters when there is no snail left.

Calcium Supplement for Snails?

Shell corrosion is one of the major problems faced by aquarium snail keepers. We have tested several methods to overcome this problem and would like to share about our findings here! 

Weekend Food Block 

  Weekend food block is a kind of fish food that melts overtime, and commonly used by fish keepers when they are going to be absent for some time. Besides frozen dried tubifex worm, brine shrimp, daphnia, and mosquito larvae, weekend food block also contains calcium sulfate and magnesium which help in strengthening snail shells. We recommend using weekend food block as an easy method to provide calcium to your snails, but keep in mind that it takes some time for snails to recover from shell corrosion.

Our red ramshorns feeding on a food block

Calcium Concentrate

  Another way to overcome the shell erosion problem is by adding in calcium concentrate solution directly. This product could be found in some fish stores, especially those that sell marine fishes. Calcium concentrate is actually made for marine aquarium's snails,corals, and other invertebrates. Nonetheless, we have tried this method with freshwater aquariums and apparently it works for freshwater snails as well. Yet, there is no guarantee that every kind of calcium concentrate will work in freshwater tanks; some may contain chemicals that are only suitable for marine tanks.

Water changes

  Changing water frequently is very crucial in tackling shell corrosion problem as it replenishes minerals in the water that are used by snails to form their shells. We recommend you to change your aquarium water twice a week (at around 30% to 40% of water each time). 

Snails' population

  We have conducted an experiment by opening two different tanks with different amount of snails in each tank. Tank A contained 10 red ramshorns while tank B contained around 30 ramshorns. We did not change the water for two weeks. Shells of ramshorns in tank A did not show any sign of corrosion but this was not the case for those in tank B. Therefore, we could conclude that keeping a non-overcrowded population of snails in each tank is essential to prevent the calcium in water from depleting quickly.

Black Ramshorn Snails available now!

Black Ramshorn Snails is now on sell! All undergoes selective breeding, only RM1 per piece, a must have for aquarium snails lover!

Update on Snails Breeding!

In the last few months, we have tried to breed the Sulawesi orange snails and Assassins snails , and here's some of the baby snails' photos!


Sulawesi Snails' baby

Assassins snails' egg

Apple Snails" Egg!

It is almost May! May is the breeding season for the apple snails, we have move some adult apple snails to the breeding tank since April and guess what? The first batch of pinky eggs have already been spotted! Kudos to those "hardworking" apple snails! 

Baby Sulawesi Snails

Sulawesi snails' stunning appearance make them one of the most popular pet snails of aquarium keepers, they are rarely available and unlike most other snails species, they are dioecious. We have successfully breeds them a few times and below is the pictures of the newest batch of baby Sulawesi orange snails.

Snails Vivariums! An easy solution for keeping pet snails!

 Up on sell now is the newly designed Snails Vivarium! 

  This vivarium is a suitable home for small size pet snails such as trumpet snails and red ramshorn snails! 

  Inside the vivarium include white gravels , plants and a pair of red ramshorn, the plants will provide aeration for the snails while the snails' excretory product will be use by the plants. 

  Caring for this snails vivarium is easy, just change the water twice a week, feed the snails every two days with very small amount of fish food or vegetables. Remember to put anti-chlorine into the water when changing it and do not to put them under extreme temperature or direct sunlight! 

  The snails vivarium is an easy solutions for aquarium keepers interested in snails but are afraid of snails blooming or do not want to take the risk of keeping snails in planted tanks. It is also an ideal product for beginners snails keeper! 

Each set will include two bottles of Snails Vivarium!

Selling each set for only RM10! 

  

Close up on Red Ramshorn Snails

Red ramshorn snails are one of most popular aquarium snails due to its vivid red colouration and hardy nature, this make them one of the best aquarium snails to start with for those beginners snails keeper.
They will not destroy live plants unless it is hungry for a few days already, it will help to clean the tank by eating away organic materials such as leftover fish food, algae, dead carcasses, dead/rotting plants and etc.
Some dedicated owners even rear them in a specialize snails tank and feed them with vegetables such as carrots and cucumber slices. Sadly, overfeeding has causes ramshorn bloom in the tanks of some keepers, this give them a bad reputation among some aquarium keepers, but this can be avoided with some simple method, read about it on Ramshorn Breeding------The Insiders' Notes , this article will talk about the details of ramshorn snails breeding and why the quality of ramshorn in a ramshorn bloom is bad.



Below is some pictures of our ramshorn snails which has gone through proper selective breeding,

Coral stones help to improve the quality of the shells 

Baby Red Ramshorn scavenging for food

With proper caring method, red ramshorn snails can be a wonderful pets! They do not require aeration , will not climb out of water, and does not need to be feed if kept with fishes. 

Get your red ramshorn snails today! It is available for pos laju shipping, check "our product" tab for more information! 

Close up on Sulawesi Orange Rabbit Snails!

Notice the trunk of the Sulawesi Snails?

Close up 

Zig-zag Eel with the Sulawesi Snails

Ramshorn Breeding------The Insiders' Notes

  Red ramshorn snails are known to be excellent scavengers in an aquarium, they eat up some species of algae, any leftover fish food, and decaying plants or carcasses, this make sure the tank's water are not foul by those organic waste. Yet, the ramshorn has one con that makes most aquarists leave a bad impression on them, it is their ability to breed rapidly.

  Without proper precautions and knowledge, adding ramshorn into aquarium will cause aquarists some headache, as within a few months, a bloom of ramshorn will occur in the tank. Those ramshorn will have paler colour compare to those going through selective breeding, making them pests instead of pets.

Why does ramshorn bloom happens? 

  The main culprit is overfeeding. Overfeeding makes the tank full of organic waste which is a food source for the ramshorn, as stated before, ramshorn helps to control organic waste in an aquarium, when there are plenty of organic wastes in an aquarium, they will increase in number in order to clean away all those wastes. Next, is the bloom of algae, algae is also a food source for the ramshorn, when an algae bloom about to happen, the ramshorn eat all of them, so instead of algae bloom , you get a ramshorn bloom! 

Why ramshorn bloom is not good?

  For snail lovers, a ramshorn bloom would be something to be happy about. BUT, the quality of the ramshorn in a ramshorn bloom is far lower than those ramshorn which goes through selective breeding, as those breeding pair keeps on breeding on huge amount and not enough nutrients will be provided for each batch of ramshorn's egg. The ramshorn in a ramshorn bloom will have weaker shells, causing their colour to be paler and will fade easily if not enough calcium is presence in the water.

What is selective breeding?

  In our breeding tank, only ramshorn with the most vivid colour will be left inside, those with paler colour will be remove upon sight. Selective breeding starts with only a pair of ramshorn with the most vivid colour, they will breed the first generation of ramshorn with similar colour, but the first generations have no stable colour genetic, causing some of the rams; colour to fade overtime. So, from the first generation, we choose the most vivid colour ramshorn and breed them for the second generations, then we breed the second generation to obtain the third generation after going through the same process as the first generation. After the ramhorns reach the third generation, their colour will be more stable and that is what we sell to you, a rams that goes through selective breeding. 

  Furthermore, we control the food given to the ramshorn in order to avoid overfeeding and causing ramshorn bloom. This ensures each egg batch was supply with enough nutrients, making the baby ramshorn to be more vivid in colour and has better shell.

Conclusion

  In conclusion, ramshorn bloom can easily be avoided by controlling the amount of their food source and tank condition. Keeping ramshorn are easy and beneficial, but enough precautions must be taken to avoid the ramshorn bloom. 

Snails' Caring and Tips

Snails are amazing creatures in the aquarium, they are beneficial to your aquarium ecosystem since most of them are able to clean organic materials which will pollute your water, some specialize in cleaning algae while some specialize in cleaning organic materials in the substrates. They are always a fine addition to a planted tank or community tank.

Caring for snails is very easy and simple compare to caring of fish and other aquatic animals, they are quit hardy and require little attention. But, for them to thrive in your aquarium, you still need to put a little effort when keeping them.


Buying Snails
When buying snails, try to avoid mature snails, this is to avoid buying an old snails since snails have short life span. Avoid buying snails that come from outdoor ponds since there may be carrying disease or parasites transmitted through birds' dropping. However,aquarium snails are free of disease since there won't be bird's dropping in an indoor aquarium isn't it?

Introducing to aquarium
First, you need to make sure your aquarium temperature is not high, snails aren't afraid of polluted water but they are vulnerable to high temperature. Room temperature around 27 to 30 degrees work the best.

When first introduce into an aquarium, some snails will have air bubbles trap into their shells when transferring them from one place to another, this will cause them to float when release into the aquarium. This is actually not a problem or disease and it won't harm the snails, they will be back to the surfaces. Ramshorn snails are known to trap bubbles in their snails often.


Behavior of snails first introduced into aquarium
Ramshorn snails will be actively moving around once introduced into an aquarium while the trumpets will not move for a long time, sometimes until nights fall since they are only active during the evenings or nights. Apple snails and Sulawesi snails will either be active or inactive when introduced into an aquarium, this depend on the aquarium temperature and water quality.


Feeding
Snails in a planted tanks or community tanks don't need to be feed,, they will eat up the organic materials inside the tank. Snails won't attack plants except the big and hungry apples snails, those apples are known to cause massive destruction in planted tanks.

If you are keeping snails only in a tank, they will need to be feed once a day every two days, algae pellet or fresh vegetables are their favorite.

Disease
Aquarium snails are only known to have the shell's corrosion disease which is not transmittable or harmful to other snails or fish. As the name implying, this disease corrodes the shells of the snails, it is normally not fatal. This disease can be found on every kind of snails, this is cause by insufficient amount or calcium in the water. It can be easily cure by adding in lime stones or coral stones into the aquarium, frequent water change will be effective too.Please be noted that some snails have a little corrosion on it's core or "center", it is not considered a disease since this is normal on all sorts of snails even if sufficient calcium is in the aquarium. Sulawesi snails will always have a corroded shell's ends that cannot be cure or explain.


Breeding
Ramshorn snails lay jelly like egg sacks on the surfaces of the aquarium or any ornament inside the tank, this can only be seen by good lighting

Trumpet snails lay their eggs insides the gravel while the trapdoor snails will give birth to small trapdoors directly.

Sulawesi snails will lay egg sacks which are white in colour and can be seen by naked eye, each sac contains one to two snails.

Apple snails will lay lots of eggs which is pink in colour above water level.


Penang E-aquarium
If you have any question, feel free to send an email to us or comment in any post, we will be glad to help you.

Apple Snail - The first class pet snail

Apple snails are popular aquarium pets especially in the western country where they are put together with other small to medium size fish in an aquarium. Their attractive appearance and relatively big size make them a popular choose to the hobbyist , apple snails usually come in golden-green colour with or without stripes and can grow up to around the size of an adult's fist.


Basic Care & Requirement 
  Apple snails are quit hardy and require minimum care for them to survive, but they will need good water quality and sufficient amount of food to thrive in the aquarium. Apple snails will eat any leftover fish food or vegetables, they will even help you to clean up fish's or other snails's carcass. But, apple snails are known to attack live aquarium plants, this renders them unsuitable for planted tanks. To keep apple snails, you will need to have a well enclosed tank since they are known to escape overnight!


Breeding
  Apple snails are known to breed in the home aquarium, according to most apple snails breeder, sufficient amount of food, suitable temperature and clean water will result in apple snails breeding. The eggs will be lay above water level, so make sure your tank still have some space for them to lay their eggs.

Local Breeders' Note
  Local breeders stated that apple snails thrive in our humid and hot temperature, breeding will mostly occurs around May to June and November to December. Sufficient amount of food is the key to successful keep and breed those golden apple snails.
.

We currently have some young apple snails for sell, check the our product page for more information. 

Snails in Aquarium!

Red Ramshorn snails

Apple snails

Trapdoor snails

Trumpet snails

Sulawesi Orange Snails

Some snail species, for example, the ramshorn, trumpet, trapdoor and sulawesi snails are beneficial to aquarium ecosystem as they help to remove unwanted organic matters such as algae, leftover fish foods, carcasses, and rotten plants in tank without disturbing live fishes and plants. Furthermore, they would not need to be fed and are not parasite-carriers due to their species and home-bred origin.

Distinctions between species:

Red ramshorn snail  – specializes in removing algae and has vivid red colour; 

Thorn trumpet snail  – cleans up other organic matters, even those inside the gravel or sand, as it likes to burrow.

Trapdoor snail- act as an early alert system to the aquarist, it will hibernate once there is some problem with the water so the owner can take notice of their aquarium bad condition.

Sulawesi orange snail- not much benefit compare to the others but it sure is cute! 

If you are interested in any of the snails, visits the "our product" page and contact us now!