Name: Ốc Sula Chấm Trắng - White Dot Rabbit Snail - Tép Sulawesi
Brand: Jack Shrimp

Sulawesi Snail · Lake Matano

Tylomelania cf. patriarchalis

White Dot Rabbit Snail

A black body marbled in grey and dusted with fine white dots across head, foot and mantle edge, under a heavy, glossy black conical shell. This is one of the giants of the genus at 6–10 cm, and it carries the most defensible scientific name on this list.

White dots on blackLake Matano6–10 cm, a large form

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

Lake Matano — and why the 'cf.' stays on

Tylomelania patriarchalis, described by Sarasin & Sarasin in 1897, is a Lake Matano endemic in the Malili system — not a Poso animal. The original description records a black, marbled body with white punctuations, which matches the trade snail well, and several independent sources use the name consistently. We still write 'cf.' because undescribed white-spotted forms exist, including a 'Poso 4 – White', so a batch labelled White Dot may not be one single species.

DISTRIBUTION MAP

An ancient cradle

Sulawesi shrimp are endemic to a handful of ancient tectonic lakes — 1–4 million years old, among the oldest freshwater lakes on earth.

Lake MatanoHome of Cardinal & White Sock (C. dennerli)

Lake PosoHome of White Orchid, Blue Legs (C. “Poso”)

Towuti · MahalonaThe Malili lake system, linked by rivers

IDENTIFICATION

Identifying the White Dot

⚪Fine white dotsA black body with white-grey marbling plus small, evenly scattered white dots on head, foot and mantle edge. Up close it reads as a miniature night sky.

🐚Heavy black shellElongate conical, dark brown to black, and noticeably thicker and more robust than most rabbit snails. Adults usually show an apex worn to a pale stump.

📏Reaches 6–10 cmOne of the largest species in the genus. At that size the tank should be 60–80 cm long or more, with plenty of rock surface for it to work over.

🪨A hard-substrate grazerIt has a robust radula and lives around rocks over sand and silt at 0–10 m. In the tank it needs rock and wood carrying mature biofilm, not bare sand alone.

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

White Dot data sheet

Species data

Scientific name: Tylomelania cf. patriarchalis
Identification confidence: Likely, not confirmed
Origin: Lake Matano, Malili system
IUCN Red List: Endangered
Adult size: 6–10cm
Preferred substrate: Rock over sand and silt

Wild species — natural profile

Lake Matano is 590 m deep, one of the ten deepest lakes on Earth, and holds seven Tylomelania species of which six live nowhere else. The White Dot is among the largest of them.

Origin: Lake Matano in South Sulawesi, part of the Malili lake system. Endemism here is very high, and this animal does not occur in Lake Poso whatever a listing may say.

Natural habitat: It lives around rock over sand and silt at 0–10 m. Matano measures 28.7°C, pH 8.5, GH 7 and about 87 ppm TDS — hot and alkaline, yet genuinely soft water.

Behaviour & diet: A hard-substrate grazer with a robust radula, rasping biofilm and attached algae off stone. The thick shell is the product of millions of years of molluscivorous crabs.

Conservation: T. patriarchalis is listed Endangered by the IUCN, and nearly all rabbit snails in the trade are wild-caught. Growing them on and breeding them is the responsible way to buy.

Keeping note: This size needs a long tank, stacked rock and a fine sand bed. Never keep it bare-bottomed: a rock grazer with no grazing surface starves very slowly and very quietly.

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.