Apple Snail (Pomacea bridgesii, Pomacea canaliculata, Pomacea diffusa, Pomacea haustrum, Pomacea paludosa, Pomacea maculata)

Apple Snails are one of the largest freshwater snail species and a popular member of the home aquarium. Aquarium hobbyists welcome Apple Snails for their attractive appearance and size as well as their scavenging habits and are often included in the aquarium as a cleanup crew, apple snails feed on detritus and algae in the aquarium, helping to keep the tank clean.

Apple Snails are unique because they have a lung and a gill, so their mantle cavity is divided, which separates these two respiratory structures. Apple Snails have unique anatomical adaptation which allows them to be amphibious, which enables them to live both in water and on land.

Apple snails can grow relatively large, so it is advisable to keep them in large aquariums where they will welcome a wide area to graze on. You must know that these snails will eat live plants, so it is not recommended to house them in planted tanks or make sure you provide your snails with plenty of supplemental food.

There are numerous different types of Apple Snails, all displaying different colour variations from pale olive to dark green, golden, blue, purple, pink, jade, albino, yellowish-tan, brown and also black. Apple Snails also have a variety of shell shapes, sizes and patterning from striped, thick bands to dark spots.

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Feeding

In the aquarium, Apple Snails will not only eat vegetables and fish food pellets, but they will also eat other foods available to them. These snails will occasionally eat live and frozen foods such as brine shrimps, dead fish as well as insects.

As their main diet, Apple Snails will eat microscopic vegetation and algae that grows on the sides of the tank as well as on decor and rocks in the aquarium.

Apple Snails will happily climb out of the water to reach any food that has appeared above the waterline. Due to their ability to do this, they have become a nuisance in Asia, where they feed on crops.