Advise about number of Ramshorn snails, please.

[KateW]

I'm hoping someone can advise me about our Ramshorn snail problem, please.
Our small wildlife pond which is 6ft long by 2.5ft and 1ft deep, has had a Ramshorn snail population explosion!! I am suprised that after our very cold winter (pond frozen solid for 3 weeks in Jan/Feb) we have any left but am slightly concerned at the high number. They are all about 1/4" (5 - 8 mm) in diameter, very small so I think maybe young ones. How many can a small pond support? There are literally hundreds of them and they are clustered in plants, around the edge, on rocks and floating around in the water. We have had a couple of clumps of frogspawn, now hatched but no sign of the tadpoles. I have read other topics about this and understand this is fairly normal and trust that they are in the murk somewhere. Will the snails affect the tadpoles or other pond life and should I rehome some or is it quite Ok to leave so many and let nature decide?
Many thanks,
KateW.

[dampflippers]

Before I read the full post my answer was going to be "at least 2".

Ramshorns are meant to be better than the normal pond snails which are quite partial to live pond plants. I don't think you have too many, but other people might think different.

[hedgehugger]

I started out with about 5 Ramshorns (my pond is approx 2x1 metre). They soon multiply into LOTS

I have no idea how many are in there (there are other snails too) I always have snail eggs drifting around the pond on plantlife, and even some laid on another Ramshorn!
.



The way I see it is as long as there is enough in the pond to feed them and everything else there isn't too many. They do get picked out of the pond by birds, some die and you see the shells floating. Some got frozen to death this year (encased in ice).

I did see loads hanging around the frogspawn this year, and presumed that they ate some, but certainly didn't eat enough to make a difference in numbers of tadpoles. The tadpoles seem to 'hang around' the Ramshorns and quite often feed? on their shells.

[KateW]

Thanks for your replies hedgehugger and dampflippers. It sounds as if I need to monitor the situation but leave well alone for now. I am now wondering if I have revealed the Ramshorns where before they were hidden...when I cleared out a lot of choking plants last November and donated them to a friend who has a huge lake ...and now presumably many new Ramshorn snails!! I have added a few small native plants as recommended on this forum which I bought yesterday from a local garden centre, so am hoping the snails don't munch too fast. I noticed that they were selling Ramshorn snails, 10 for £5.99. Hmm......

[dampflippers]

Today I spotted little tubs containing a few ramshorn snails and a bit of Elodea being sold for £8.99!

[hedgehugger]

Shocking the prices for pond stuff @ garden centres!
I bought a basket of water cress for £8.99 once, got eaten overnight by slugs
Then I discovered you could buy a bag of salad for 60p and take the water-cress out and just float it in the water
As for the Ramshorns they were £1 each they err got missed by the cashier and we didn't point out that they were resting under the other stuff!

[animartco]

Sorry to give you bad news but ramshorns are predators and love tadpoles! Perhaps if you fitted some thrushes with flippers?

[dampflippers]

Originally Posted by animartco

Sorry to give you bad news but ramshorns are predators and love tadpoles! Perhaps if you fitted some thrushes with flippers?

Surely they will only eat dead tadpoles and frogspawn? I can't imagine them eaing live ones, or tadpoles hanging around long enough to be eaten.

[animartco]

Ramshorns are voracious hunters. They can actually swim, downwards. They have a very supple mantel which can quickly extend out a long way from the shell, and wrap around a tadpole or other passing prey, and hold it while they feed.

[dampflippers]

Goodness! Have you observed this yourself?