Ok I have two questions about snails.

1. I have a big male golden apple snail. His shell has seemed to be cracking and/or generally degrading lately. I suspect her has some kind of bacterial problem, would this be true? He is still otherwise eating and being active. He lives in a 10 gallon with a betta, two cherry bards, and an african dwarf frog. I have never had to treat a snail for anything before, how would I go about taking care of this? The ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are all stable and at good levels.

2. Where can I get snails online??? I live in West Virginia and they are now illegal since some idiots have been letting them free and they ate important crops. Will I even be able to get them shipped to me? hmm...

Apple snails shells deteriorate in low hardness levels. They need a calcium supplement to build nice shells. I believe this can be added to the water or in their food.
I also live in WV. When did they become illegal? I've seen them in local petstores still.

wow somebody else who lives in WV! What part are you in? I am in southern WV, near beckley.
Its been a recent thing, the ban on selling snails. One of the fish stores around here still carries them, but thats because the owner whom I know pretty well told me he bought a whole bunch of them before they were made illegal (and I think he may be breeding them.) I need to go get a couple. I thought about attempting to breed some myself so I would always have some, and I could use some of the little ones for feed for my various other fish. Who knows though.

Oh I jsut read on your profile that you live in morgantown, are you going to WVU? We're both 20 also lol. AND we both draw and paint. I am an art student at Concord University.
Did you do the drawing of this goldfish on your avatar? I'm working on several metal etchings of oranda's and fantails and have plans for a series of watercolors on each goldfish breed.

Sorry to change the subject so much, its just weird how much we have in common.

I have a friend that came from Beckley. I am not quite sure where she lives no, tho.

Make sure that you check out www.applesnail.net, there is a ton on info on that site that will get you started with snails properly.

thanks for the site! Allthough I have kept snails for years now and I know a lot about them, I just moved last summer though and the water here is quite different with Ph. Just trying to get used to it all, Ive never had a problem such as this one until I got here.

If you are having a hard time keeping your water stable, try using a substrate with a buffer. A great one is Aragonite sand, also called sugar sand. It is really great for the snails becuase it keeps the water at the proper pH and hardness. A bottle of Kent's liquid calcium wouldn't hurt, either. I used to add about 5 drops per night per 10 gallons until I got my aragonite.