i've found a few dead red rams in their tank as of late so was looking closer and have found what i think are hydra attached to all the snails.
could they be killing the snails, from what i have read i thought the oposite was true
or could this be a different external parasite that looks like hydra you can see with the nakid eye?

Hydra don't normally eat snails. They eat small microorganisms and fry that float by. If they truly are hydra that you see, they were probably just using the snails as places to anchor themselves. That shouldn't have killed the snails. How big are the ramshorn snails? Some species are very tiny and some are big which is why I'm asking. Because snails have that shell, they don't really get external parasites. They get things that will live on their shells, mostly algae. They can get internal parasites like worms. Few parasites can be seen with the naked eye. I can't think of what they might be if not hydra. Nothing else similar in appearance and size comes to mind.

the rams are about dime sized, well the adult ones i have had for a lil while, those are the ones i am finding dead,looks to be a few more dead now too
seems to be alot of babies appearing in the tank now too so i guess i'll see if those survive or start to disappear.
i dont think its a water issue as its clean and changed often, however i have yet to figure out how to vaccuum the bottom without sucking up all the babies?
they are in a 10 gallon tank that is cared for and fed exactly the same as my other 2 10's with spixis and apple snails as well as my 20 with canas, and none of those tanks have lost a single snail and breed rapidly much to our puffers delight hehe
in reading the site i see you keep snails and paradise fish, have you ever kept snails in a tank with paradise fish? cause i have read paradise fish eat hydra, but i do not know if they will eat the snails?

I put some trumpet snails in my paradise fish tank. They ate some but some persist and still lived in there until I put some parasitic medication in there that unfortunately nwiped them out. Paradise fish will eat small snails.

Normally when I gravel vacuum, the snails only get sucked half way up the lift tube and then fall down. I also vacuum into a bathtub so I can pick out fry if I want to. I don't find snails are in the bathtub after gravel vacuuming. What kind/brand of gravel vacuum do you have? When an adult snail population crashes, that often results in noticeably more babies (assuming they weren't killed also) as there's less competition and predators for them. Adult snails may eat snail eggs which can keep the population in check some.

Your puffer eats apple snails? Apple snails are pretty big, even the babies. Do you have a freshwater or saltwater puffer?

i'm not sure what brand of vac i have but guess i will have to try a smaller one on the snail tanks then, cause the one i have is large and has sucked up snails on me before cause i scooped a bunch out of a pail last time i tried
my puffers are freshwater, well brackish, 2 figure 8 and a green spotted, and ya they manage fair sized snails, they just chomp a way in past the snails door and chew them out