Name: Ốc Sula Baby Random - Baby Rabbit Snail - Tép Sulawesi
Brand: Jack Shrimp

Sulawesi Snail · Unsorted mixed juveniles

Tylomelania spp.

Baby Random Rabbit Snails

An unsorted lot of mixed juvenile rabbit snails, sold cheap because it is genuinely a lottery. Nobody — us included — knows which species are in the bag until the animals reach about 3 cm, which takes roughly a year of growing. You buy an unknown, at the price of an unknown.

Unsorted mixed juvenilesIdentity unknowable nowCheap: it's a lottery

A rabbit snail is not a cleaning crew — it's a collector's animal, and it has to be kept like one.

— Jack Shrimp Farm

ORIGIN

Not a species — an unsorted lot

'Baby Random' is not a species, not a colour form and not a locality. It is a mixed lot of unsorted juvenile Tylomelania, usually under 1–2 cm. The reason they cannot be identified is concrete: juveniles have thin, pale, under-sculptured shells and have not yet developed adult body pigment. T. marwotoae, for example, hatches with a black shell and only turns white as an adult. So we print Tylomelania spp. — plural — and we attach no lake at all.

IDENTIFICATION

What you are actually buying

🎲Genuinely a lotteryYou receive juveniles with varying colours and shell shapes; you cannot pick a specific morph. The low price is because of that, not because the stock is poor.

⏳A year before you knowNot until about 3 cm — roughly a year of growth — do shell shape and body colour become clear enough to guess at. Before that nobody can tell, seller included.

🧬Grown together, they hybridiseTylomelania species interbreed. Raise a whole lot to maturity in one tank and the next generation will not be pure anything.

💧Juveniles are more fragileThin shells erode fastest when KH drops, and small bodies tolerate swings less well than adults do. A properly matured tank is not optional here.

WATER

Ideal keeping conditions

26–30°

Temp C

7.5–8.5

100–200

TDS ppm

6–12

3–8

The Sulawesi lakes are hot and alkaline but genuinely SOFT — Matano measures 28.7°C, pH 8.5, GH 7, KH 5 and around 87 ppm TDS. So do not chase a very high GH: a stable alkaline pH and enough KH to buffer it are what matter. Stability still beats perfect numbers.

SHELL

KH is what keeps the shell intact. An eroded apex is completely normal on a wild-caught adult — the warning sign is fresh erosion or pitting at the NEW growth near the aperture, which means KH and minerals in the tank are dropping.

SPECIES DATA

Baby Random data

Species data

Scientific name: Tylomelania spp. (mixed juveniles)
Identification confidence: None — an unsorted mixed lot
Origin: Sulawesi, lake not determined
Size as sold: 1–2cm
Identifiable at: About 3 cm / roughly 1 year
Suited to: Growing on, not pure-line breeding

Wild species — natural profile

These are wild-caught Sulawesi snails like the rest, only unsorted. The profile below describes the group rather than a species, because in this lot there is no single species to describe.

Origin: Sulawesi, Indonesia. Tylomelania occurs nowhere else — in the Malili and Poso ancient lake systems and in rivers across the island. A mixed lot cannot be traced to one lake.

Natural habitat: Habitat depends on the species: sand and silt beds, submerged rock, or waterlogged timber in current. Because this lot is mixed, offer all three kinds of surface.

Behaviour & diet: Juveniles graze the same biofilm and detritus as adults but eat less and more slowly. They need well-established biofilm plus powdered or slow-dissolving sinking food.

Conservation: Rabbit snail stock is essentially all wild-caught and many species are threatened. Raise a whole lot to maturity together and you get hybrids — separate them once identifiable.

Keeping note: Grow them in their own tank on fine sand with some rock and driftwood, changing water little and often. Move each one out as it becomes identifiable if you want pure lines.

BREEDING & SHELL

Why rabbit snails stay rare

🍼Live-bearing, not egg-layingMales and females are separate animals; the female broods in a uterine pouch and releases one fully-shelled crawl-away juvenile.

1️⃣One baby at a timeAbout one juvenile per female every 4–6 weeks (broods hold 1–7). This is exactly why rabbit snails stay rare and expensive.

🐢Very slow growthRoughly a year and about 4 cm to reach maturity. Lifespan 1–3 years, with records up to 5.

🐚Shell & mineralsHold KH 3–8 and feed enough calcium. An eroded apex is normal; erosion on new shell growth is the alarm.

HYBRIDISATION

Different Tylomelania species DO hybridise in aquaria. If you want to keep a line pure for breeding, keep one species per tank. Mixed-species tanks are for display only.

FOOD & SET-UP

The matching set-up

COMMON MISTAKE

Rabbit snails are NOT an algae crew. They graze biofilm and detritus, they will not clear a nuisance-algae problem, and they must be fed. Keeping them 'to clean the tank' is the single most common reason they quietly starve over a few months.

FEEDING

Omnivorous, mostly biofilm, detritus and blanched vegetables. Add White Powder + Yellow Powder 2–3 times a week, plus blanched pumpkin or cucumber for growth. A Sula Sand substrate holds the alkaline pH long-term and gives the soft-sediment species somewhere to plough for detritus.