The specific name „herculea“ says it all: it is loaned from Hercules, the divine hero of the Greek mythology who had enormous powers. This snail attains a length of almost 10 cm! So the common name „Giant Tower Cap Snail“ is more than justified. The snail occurs naturally in Burma and Thailand where it inhabits rivers with at least partially muddy ground. The species is livebearing, males and females cannot be distinguished externally. The newborn snails are the total opposite of their parents: only 1-2 mm long and extremely tiny! This difference is the more obvious as the close relatives of B. herculea, Tylomelania, give birth to very large youngsters.
Brotia herculea feeds on detritus, which means all kind of dead and rotten material, may it be animal or plant matter. This snail is no algae eater at all. In the aquarium it is best fed with feed tablets. Water plants are left untouched by B. herculea.
For our customers: the snails have code 481311 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
