Black Dov Rabbit Snail

A near-black body usually dusted with fine white dots on head, foot and mantle edge, under a long dark brown to almost black spire. A handsome, understated snail — but the name 'Black Dov' corresponds to no described species at all.

Dark body, white dotsNot identified to speciesProbably Lake Poso

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

Probably one of Lake Poso's black forms

No Tylomelania carries this name and no scientific source uses it; the retail pages that print T. gemmifera on it are simply copying each other. The most reasonable inference is one of the black Lake Poso forms: that lake alone holds at least four undescribed black types in the Sulawesi Keepers catalogue. Lake Poso does have a described black species, T. carbo, but its shell reaches only 16.5 mm, so it is almost certainly not this animal.

IDENTIFICATION

Identifying the Black Dov

⚫Dark body, white dotsBlack or very dark brown, and in traded stock usually finely white-dotted on head, foot and mantle edge — which is exactly why it blurs into the White Dot.

🐚Long dark shellElongate and sharply spired, dark brown through brownish-yellow to almost black. Imported adults nearly always show a worn, eroded apex.

📏Realistically 4–6 cmListings often say 5–8 cm. On the animals that actually arrive, the honest figure is around 4–6 cm measured with the snail fully extended.

⚠️Overlaps with White DotThe labels 'Black Dov' and 'White Dot' are not cleanly separable in the trade. Do not house them together if you want to keep a line pure.

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

Black Dov data sheet

Species data

Scientific name: Tylomelania sp. "Black"
Identification confidence: Not identified to species
Origin: Sulawesi, probably Lake Poso
Name wrongly applied: T. gemmifera (unsupported)
Adult size: 4–6cm
Preferred substrate: Rock, wood and fine sand

Wild species — natural profile

Lake Poso holds four described species and around ten unnamed forms, at least four of which are black snails. That is precisely why a black Sulawesi snail is so hard to trace back to a species.

Origin: Sulawesi, Indonesia — unconfirmed. Lake Poso is the most likely source of the black forms reaching the South-East Asian trade, but no source actually confirms it.

Natural habitat: The ancient Sulawesi lakes offer rock, submerged wood and sand flats. Poso's catalogued black forms include both wood-dwelling types and thick-shelled rock types.

Behaviour & diet: It grazes biofilm and detritus, moving slowly and steadily by day and night. Which substrate a given form can feed on depends on the shape of its own radula.

Conservation: Wild-caught. Because nobody can say which form this is, its conservation status cannot be looked up either — one more reason to grow the animals on and breed them.

Keeping note: Offer rock, wood and fine sand together and let the snail choose where to feed, since you cannot know whether you have a hard-substrate or a soft-substrate form.

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.