Mahogany Trumpet Snail (Melanoides maculata)  is a rare and useful tropical aquarium inhabitant.

They grow no longer than an inch in length yet they rapidly become part of a formidable army of digging snails! These snails are livebearers and as such give birth to fully formed miniature replicas of the adult snail. All of the snails are female and are able to reproduce in this way without the need for fertilisation. Thus one snail rapidly becomes two and so on.

Their foraging habits can mainly be observed at dusk when the snails are most active. They will use their strong foot to push themselves deep into the substrate where they gorge themselves upon uneaten fish food and micro-organisms. Their digging habits have long been noted to help prevent the build up of toxic gases in the aquarium substrate. They will not eat aquarium plants, in fact they help to aerate plant roots reducing their compaction.

An excellent little scavenger for the freshwater aquarium and a prolific breeder.

Feeding - Algae, shrimp & bloodworm pellets, algae & variety wafers cooked leafy green vegetables

Health Additives - SnailStrong Liquid Calcium.

pH - 7.0 - 8.5 (less than 7.0 and shells corrode)

Temperature Tolerance - 18-28 Degrees Celcius

Preferable Temperature - 24-26 Degrees Celcius

Stocking rate - 10 snails per 2.5 gallons

Do NOT keep snails with loaches (sucking loaches are ok), pufferfish, crabs, crayfish or large aggressive fish as they will kill snails.