Ramshorn Genetics

[garfieldnfish]

I found 2 blue ramshorns in my out door plant tank a few months ago. All the others are brown. They came in on plants. I do not have these type of ramshorns in my other tanks. Plenty of mini ramshorns but these guys get to be 1/2 inch in diameter. I took the 2 blue ones and brought them inside and added them to my Mystery snail tank. They promptly laid an egg cluster on the sealant. It hatched and all of the baby ramshorns are brown. One of the adult blue snails since died. I know for a fact that the mother had to be a blue snail but I do not know how this works with ramshorns. Would the off spring, once adults, reproduce and have some blue babies?
Also is there a market for these ramshorns? I feed mini ramshorns and MTSs to my assassins snails, but I have not added the larger type ramshorns to their tank as I don't want them to spread to other tanks.

[Kunsthure]

Without being a snail geneticist, it appears that the blue is a recessive trait and brown is dominant. If you have two brown snails each carrying the recessive gene then there's a 25% chance you could get a blue snail from those two.

Yes, there's a market for ramshorns. Just check out Aquabid.

-Lisa

[garfieldnfish]

So this seems to work like with BNs and albino BNs. I will keep them then in the mystery snail tank to see what the babies will produce once grown.

[DogFish]

Originally Posted by Kunsthure

Without being a snail geneticist, it appears that the blue is a recessive trait and brown is dominant. If you have two brown snails each carrying the recessive gene then there's a 25% chance you could get a blue snail from those two.
-Lisa

I am also NOT a Snail geneticist, But I agree that Blue and Red are recessive gene's in Ramshorns. I had done a pretty good job of culling the Brown feet out to get Reds. Even had some reds that had a light golden cast to the shell. Brought in some Zipper loach and pretty much whipped-out the snail breeding program.

Looking for through my tanks for more of the Gold tinted Reds now.