Yellow rabbit snail
Tylomelania towutica
easy careOverview
Yellow rabbit snails (Tylomelania towutica) are the vivid yellow members of the Sulawesi rabbit-snail group — large, slow, characterful grazers with elongated cone shells and the family’s trademark long, droopy face. Their bright yellow foot stands out beautifully against dark hardscape. Like their relatives they breed at a gentle pace, making them a striking, low-multiplication snail for a warm, hard-water tank. Their intense colour holds best in a dedicated Sulawesi-style setup, where the warm, mineral-rich water that suits them also brings out the deepest, most saturated yellow in the foot and face.
Tank & water
A 75 litre (20 gallon) tank suits their size and warm-water needs. As Sulawesi lake natives they want warmer, harder water than most snails:
- Warm water — around 26–29 °C; they need a heated tropical tank, not a cool room.
- Hard, alkaline water — pH 7.5 or higher with real hardness keeps their large shells solid.
- Calcium — a cuttlebone or mineral supplement prevents pitting and erosion.
- A cycled tank, no copper — cycle fully and keep all copper out.
Feeding
Yellow rabbit snails are omnivores that graze algae, biofilm and soft plant matter, but a clean tank rarely feeds a big snail fully. Supplement with algae wafers, blanched vegetables (courgette, carrot) and quality sinking food. They may nibble very soft or decaying plants, so keep them well fed in a delicately planted tank. They graze slowly and steadily throughout the day, so a mature tank with a reliable film of algae plus the occasional vegetable or wafer keeps them in far better condition than sporadic large meals.
Tankmates & breeding
Yellow rabbit snails are entirely peaceful and mix well with warm-water community fish, shrimp and other snails; avoid snail-eaters like loaches, pufferfish and assassin snails. Breeding is slow and undemanding in warm, hard water, so numbers stay manageable — a real advantage over pest species.
Compare with the broader rabbit snail group and the large mystery snail.
Yellow rabbit snail — frequently asked questions
How is the yellow rabbit snail different from other rabbit snails?
It's a specific bright-yellow Sulawesi species (Tylomelania towutica) within the same rabbit-snail group. Care is essentially the same as other Tylomelania — warm, hard, alkaline water and calcium for the shell — but the vivid yellow foot and face make it especially eye-catching.
What water do yellow rabbit snails need?
Warm, hard and alkaline, matching their Sulawesi lake origins: around 26–29 °C with a pH of 7.5 or higher and real hardness plus calcium. They're not suited to cool or soft acidic tanks, where their shells erode and they become sluggish and short-lived.
Will yellow rabbit snails overrun my tank?
No — like all rabbit snails they're slow-breeding livebearers, releasing a single well-developed young in a white egg capsule only every few weeks. Their numbers grow very gently, so they stay easy to manage and never explode like pest snails.
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