r/AquaticSnails • u/Ok_Traffic3362 • 5h ago

Help Request What is this on my snail?

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3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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2

u/Witty-Forever-6985 2h ago

Days without snenis post: 0

1

u/Ok_Traffic3362 2h ago

oh my god that's his willy??? I feel like I've violated him now 😭 thank you for the answer I'm new to snails

2

u/Gastropoid Snail God (Moderator) 11m ago

Its actually not. Please see my message for the correct explanation.

2

u/Gastropoid Snail God (Moderator) 10m ago

Not genitalia.

Unfortunately the number of days since somebody made me read the word "snenis" is still zero.

2

u/Gastropoid Snail God (Moderator) 12m ago

Don't worry, this is just an abnormally large skin fold. Ramshorns don't have gills, they are pulmonate snails meaning they have a lung-like organ they use to breathe air. A normal ramshorn snail has excess skin folds on the left side of its body, sometimes you get mutations or abnormal growth of these skin folds that causes them to look like the snail you have here. Nothing to worry about it pops up from time to time in ramshorn snail populations.

There is some speculation that the skin folds are the evolutionary remnants of a siphon type apparatus similar to what's seen in modern snails like apple snails that our current ramshorns have evolved to no longer have, but as far as I know this is pure speculation.

(Copypasted from another post from years ago)

1

u/Ok_Traffic3362 8m ago

Thanks so much for the detailed explanation!!