Planorbidae, common name the ramshorn snails or ram's horn snails, is a family of air-breathing freshwater snails, aquatic pulmonate gastropod molluscs. Unlike most molluscs, the blood of ram's horn snails contains iron-based hemoglobin instead of copper-based hemocyanin. As a result, planorbids are able to breathe oxygen more efficiently than other molluscs. The presence of hemoglobin gives the body a reddish colour. This is especially apparent in albino animals.
Albino planorbid clearly shows the reddish-colored body tissues due to the pigment hemoglobin
View of the sunken spire of the shell of Anisus septemgyratus
Planorbarius corneus. View of the sunken spire (held facing downwards in life)
Planorbarius corneus, common name the great ramshorn, is a relatively large species of air-breathing freshwater snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails, or planorbids, which all have sinistral or left-coiling shells.
Image: Posthornschnecke 1
Image: Planorbarius corneus 001
Together with a Lymnaea stagnalis snail.
Eggs, not more than one day old, together with several feeding adults. The clutch is 12 millimeters long. Also, a snail's mouth with its radula can be seen clearly.