my apple snail has a LOT of growth on its shell (algae) and i was wondering if it is possible to clean it besides getting another snail to help it out. oh yea, my temperature is about 20 C is that going to be alright or should i use a heater? thanks for the help!
mark

I won't bother but that's just me. It is nature afterall. Can't have squeaky clean snail shell as well!

20*C is fine for goldies. A couple more degs would be nice.

i wasn't going to bother either, but the growth is getting huge.. it looks like an addition to my plant life! lol

That would look cool!!! Are you able to post a pic?

My snail has green algea on it, I hate it, I want to brush it off haahaaa, so there is no way to clean it?

Jessica

I guess you could wipe it off gently with a cloth. I dont think that would hurt them

Aww i want my snail to have algae it'l look cool.

There is a very nice girl called 'Ang' on applesnail.net who has a picture of her snail with very long alage growing on his shell in her avatar. It looks like the snail has grown a head of hair. It looks cool B)

Personally, I'm kind of a neat freak and I think it's gross... this is as far as I let my early gold's get.. I have to give you a URL:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/airwen_saira...4f5.jpg&.src=ph

What I did was take an old, SOFT toothbrush and gently brush in circles on the shell. It worked great- actually I never got the algae back again, but it could also have been that I didn't have any more algae left to be on the shell.

And if you have more than one snail, usually they'll clean it off.

i'll try to get a picture of my snails hair style after christmas for u guys

my guys always have a little 'afro' of algae. I think it looks cute!

I use these very, very soft sponges to clean the shell lol. Soft toothbrushes work just as good, as do cloths

I have a white shelled snail, but its stained green from algae, is there a way to get it white? suppose I wouldn't mind it too much on a colored one. My daughter doesn't even like it, it looks dirty she says, I did get some off with a wet paper towel, haven't tried the toothbrush, would you know if this one is stained, I bought him that way, am addicted to these snails, bought a little tiny baby one today too, he is sooo cute, hes smaller than a penny..gotta love em

The algae is probably in so many cracks and grooves that it will be very hard to get out, which is why I recommend toothbrush-ing because the bristles make it easier to get in the cracks and bumps in the shell. If you really were desperate, you could paint it with nail polish, but I doubt anyone would want to go that far just to keep a snail white.

thank you airwen, I will give the toothbrush a try, an no lol, I wouldn't use the nail polish, but the thought was nice
do I use just regular tank water? or can I use warm water?

All I did was take out the snail, use an old toothbrush, and dip it in the water periodically. Not much of a science.
You could if you really really wanted to though. Paint him I mean.

Which brand of nail polish do you reccomend airwen? I heard that the fumes can be harmful so you cant use just any nail polish

not sure what brand, but when you paint the snail make sure it doesnt touch his body, let all the nail polish dry before putting him in the tank and be ready because after a while the polish will come off (just like it comes off people's nails)

Yep! I'd recommend for the least fumes going with the more expensive brands, it makes since. I'm not talking a $20 bottle of nail polish here though.. just not the cheap kind that the stores produce that are rip-offs of other companies. I don't remember what I use, I'll go check.

Also for algae control, other snails (especially babies) may eat it off the shells. I recently got an Albino Corydoras Catfish who pecks his algae-eating mouth at the shells like a fussy mother ("You need to get this off more often, tut-tut.").

Corys are such hard working cleaners arent they

am afraid to use the nail polish, however I don't think my white snail is as green looking, I think one of his friends helped him out

It's just an option if you'd really want to. Some people use dots of polish to tell identical snails apart. I always paint mine with clear polish, because it fills in holes in the shell and helps prevent further damage (which isn't a problem if you have enough calcium, but for a while I was stuck using eggshells which was pretty bad. The ones I rescue from pet stores always have nasty shells.). Yup, snailie friends are much more useful than real ones. Haha, kidding.