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.
