Why are Red Ramshorns not red anymore?

[CACAdmin]

I have lots of red ramshorn snails. They're always been bright read. Some are in my tanks, some in a large bucket. Quite a few are no longer bright red ... more of a charcoal grey (almost black). This change in color is not restricted to any size/age. I was wondering if it's a food shortage (with so many) or the fact that some are in a bucket with relatively soft water with a lower pH compared to the tanks. Any ideas?

[Melody]

They're reverting to wild form. I had to heavily cull my Red Ramshorns to keep them bright, and then cull again to make them the brightest red with a shell that is reddish and preferrably semi-transparent.

What has happened is they either threw you other color forms themselves, or more likely the group was 'contaminated' with 'pest ramshorns' from plants & the like. It only takes one or so to start muddying your color.

Wild / dark coloration is dominant. If you have any darker Ramshorns, eventually the entire colony will revert to dark snails.

That's why you don't see me selling them often. Although they're prolific, I've been concentrating on purifying and perfecting the strain. Its one of those brainless passtimes, picking through for the brightest reds and chucking the rest into feeder bins. Now I've gotten to a point where there's only a stray or two every couple of months, but I have to keep on them or they'll mix with the reds and I'm back to weeding constantly.

Low pH will show as shell damage, as will a lack of food. Otherwise the lack of food will just slow breeding.... theoretically ;) .

[CACAdmin]

That would explain why I have seen no dark (non-red) ones in my 70g... yet. Just added a bunch of new plants so we'll see. I'm always tossing plants into the 20G and buckets. Of course, as you say they could throw a darker shade and in that case could appear everywhere.

Thanks for the info. I like my little red rams... they add color to the tank... but only if they're red!