Planorbarius corneus

Present in the European and Asian stagnant fresh waters, the Planorbarius corneus is one of the most frequent guests in the domestic aquaria. Decorative, with its reddish shell little bigger than 1 cm, with the typical spiral wound on a single plane, it gently cleans the leaves of the plants it is eating, being omnivorous, only the infesting algae, the dead organisms and the food wastes. Self-sufficient hermaphrodite, it easily reproduces gluing to the substrata characteristic flat capsules of 8-15 mm that contain even 40 eggs. The young are seen growing in transparency and come to life in 2 weeks. Obviously, if the fishes do not care, their number is to be controlled © Giuseppe Mazza