White Spotted Rabbit Snail (Tylomelania sp) Snail Species Profile
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The White Spotted Rabbit Snail makes a great addition to an established community tank. These snails are very peaceful creatures and are not aggressive by any means. These snails appear very inquisitive about their surroundings. Rabbit Snails are very active both during the day and at night.
White Spotted Rabbit Snails are slow-moving and have a calm disposition; therefore, you should house them with other non-aggressive tank mates. They get along well with their kind and other snails, and they also get along with shrimp and catfish.
The White Spotted Rabbit Snail has a long dark greyish-black rabbit-like face with the floppy antennae looking like the ears on a rabbit, but it lacks the very long snout which looks like an elephants trunk.
Another rare feature of these snails is that their face has many expressions from smiling to wistful to prankish.
The White Spotted Rabbit snails shells are elongated and spiral-shaped and taper toward a point at the end, making the exterior resemble a unicorn horn.
Their shells' colour is usually black adorned with white spots and whitish shading towards the point, giving some areas a greyish colour appearance.
| Profile | |
| Scientific Name | Tylomelania sp |
| Other Names | Rabbit Snail, Elephant Snail, Sulawesi Snail |
| Family | Pachychilidae |
| Genus | Tylomelania |
| Origins | Southeast Asia |
| Temperament | Peaceful |
| Aquarium Level | All Levels |
| Difficulty | Beginner - Intermediate |
| Shoaling | No |
| Diet | Omnivore |
| Reproduction | Egg-Layer |
| Lifespan | 1 - 3 years |
| Maximum Size | up to 10 cm |
| Water Conditions | |
| Water Type | Freshwater |
| Temperature | 77 - 86 ℉ (25 - 30 ℃) |
| PH | 7.5 - 8.5 |
| GH | 4 - 12 |
| KH | 2 - 8 |
| TDS | 100 - 200 |
White Spotted Rabbit Snails (Tylomelania sp) - Rare Aquarium Snail
Origins of the White Spotted Rabbit Snail
White Spotted Rabbit Snails are endemic to the mountain lakes Matano and Towuti, Mahalona, Lontoa, Masapi and Poso on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in Southeast Asia. The water in their natural habitat is warm and quite alkaline, and the substrate is usually sand which is often littered with rotting vegetation.
Diet
White Spotted Rabbit Snails are continually scavenging leftover food and vacuuming up detritus from the substrate. They also eat algae and plant matter which is usually plenty for them to survive on. However, it would help if you occasionally supplemented this with invertebrate pellets and
algae wafers.
Sexing the White Spotted Rabbit Snail
White Spotted Rabbit Snails have both male and female genders; therefore, you cannot differentiate males from females. Any visual differences are not apparent.
Breeding the White Spotted Rabbit Snail
White Spotted Rabbit Snails become sexually mature when they reach about 4 cm in length. These snails do not grow very fast, so it can take them close to 1 year.
It is not unusual for Rabbit Snail breeding to occur in freshwater tanks provided water conditions are right. However, Rabbit snails have a meagre rate of reproduction, only producing one offspring at a time, so even if you keep them in large groups, it is not likely to over-populate the aquarium.
These snails produce one egg sack approximately every 4 to 6 weeks. Once breeding occurs the snail will leave a small creamy-white egg sack behind. Inside the egg sack is a fully developed baby Rabbit Snail, that emerges within a few minutes looking like a miniature version of the adults.
Another interesting fact is that females can carry sperm long term, releasing the baby snails over several months.
The baby White Spotted Rabbit Snail will almost immediately begin searching the tank for soft algae or other food to consume.
One of the best things to observe about a baby Rabbit Snail is how flawless its shell appears. They have no scuffs or pit marks just a well-formed spiralled shell from apex to aperture.
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