Golden Snail??

[BettaFishGirl]

I found this really shiny golden pest ramshorn snail! Is this rare?? The pictures not even edited, I just took it with a normal camera. Compares to my other ramshorn snails the other ones are nothing like him.

 

[Donya]

Ramshorns have color genes that can be turned on and off, similarly to apple snails and why those come in such a ranbow of hues, although for Planorbid ramshorns the combinations are somehat more limited. This one appears to have the brown shell pigment turned off while having brown on the body. If the brown on the body turns off as well, you get a bright red snail (I have a post somewhere where I enumerated how that works with ramshorns and the various colors that are documented...too tired at the moment to remember where that went, sorry - but the point is they can come in different colors).

 

[Donya]

Oo - just realized you didn't say what the others look like. I was just assuming brown version of the same species, since Helisoma anceps is the dominant ramshorn hitchhiker in the united states. However, you could also have two different species of Planorbid ramshorns. I feel like that's unlikely but not impossible. If you have pictures of the other ones that would tell if there's a species difference.

 

[Colin_T]

I have never seen a snail that colour, so yes it's rare. My ramshorn snails did have spots and stripes in their shells like yours does but they were never gold. That is really cool, and I normally hate snails.

Keep it, breed it and supply gold snails to the world.

 

[BettaFishGirl]

I will get a pic in the morning of the others - but they all have dark brown bodies and shells.

Once I breed them I shall be selling them for 1,000,000 dollars per snail.

 

[Uberhoust]

I got some ramshorns from a local store that have red bodies and very light shells. They interbreed with the normal grey/brown bodies and shells and I get a few different variations.