1 kinds · tap one for a closer look
Peaceful; harmless to plants and fish.
This one is best kept on its own, or with its own kind.
Peaceful; harmless to plants and fish.
Algae.
Tap a food to see what it is.
Cannot be sexed: it is a hermaphrodite, and populations studied appear to reproduce mainly by self-fertilization.
Common problems. Tap one to see the signs. This is a guide, not a diagnosis.
Egg-laying hermaphrodite · Easy
Lays eggs singly (about 0.6 mm across) and breeds very fast, with generation times under six weeks in the lab; a single snail can start a population.
Any.
Any tank.
Warm water.
Single eggs about 0.6 mm in diameter.
Tiny limpets.
A tiny, flat, cap-shaped North American limpet that grazes diatoms and other film algae. It commonly arrives in tropical and coldwater aquaria as a hitchhiker, and the aquarium trade has spread it worldwide.
American conchologist George Tryon described this tiny limpet in 1863. It has been spread to Europe and Asia, probably with aquatic plants, and often turns up in aquariums.
First described by George W. Tryon in 1863.
10 facts checked with sources
Freshwater limpet snail (pulmonate gastropod), not a fish. MolluscaBase accepts F. californica; F. fragilis and the European aquarium name F. wautieri (Watsonula wautieri) are synonyms. The FWGNA (Dillon) still prefers the name fragilis, so both names are in current use; it is often confused with juvenile Acroloxus lacustris.
MolluscaBase: Ferrissia californica (Rowell, 1863) · Christensen 2016, Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 118: 5-8Legacy has no family field. Older books place freshwater limpets in a separate family Ancylidae.
Christensen 2016, Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 118: 5-8 · MolluscIreland (Anderson): Ferrissia californicaShell length. Sources give 3-4 mm maximum, maturing at 2-3 mm; legacy 0.5 cm (5 mm) is slightly above the sourced maximum.
MolluscIreland (Anderson): Ferrissia californica · Freshwater Gastropods of North America (Dillon): Ferrissia fragilis species accountLifespan not given. FWGNA reports generation times under six weeks in the lab and three generations per year in a Connecticut population.
Freshwater Gastropods of North America (Dillon): Ferrissia fragilis species accountLives attached to hard surfaces and plants rather than in a water-column zone; no source states a tank zone.
Freshwater Gastropods of North America (Dillon): Ferrissia fragilis species accountLegacy has no range field.
Freshwater Gastropods of North America (Dillon): Ferrissia fragilis species account · Christensen 2016, Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 118: 5-8Legacy says not visibly different and hermaphroditic; consistent with the self-fertilization evidence (pulmonate snails are hermaphrodites).
Freshwater Gastropods of North America (Dillon): Ferrissia fragilis species accountLegacy "lays small egg capsules" agrees in substance.
Freshwater Gastropods of North America (Dillon): Ferrissia fragilis species accountNo hatch time found.
Freshwater Gastropods of North America (Dillon): Ferrissia fragilis species accountLegacy story is broadly right; refined to diatom grazing and to its North American origin and invasive spread.
MolluscIreland (Anderson): Ferrissia californica · Freshwater Gastropods of North America (Dillon): Ferrissia fragilis species account