Snail Shell With Alot Of Algae

[Lynz781]

I have two apple snails in my tank and both of them have an algae problem on their shells. Is there any way of getting rid of this?

 

[morgan]

Hi, you can take them out of the tank and give them a gentle brush. My Golden Apple Snail gets cleaned by my Common Pleco!

 

[Lynz781]

Hmmm in my experience with algae, you have to be rough to remove it. Theres no way I'd try and brush it off, incase I stress them out. I thought about buying a bristle nosed plec. They had a few in my LFS and they were beautiful but all my fish are two inches or smaller. Are they good algae eaters?

 

[emma12321]

Hi,

Bristlenose plecs are brilliant algae eaters but if it is for your 13.8 gallon tank they get too big. A couple of otocinclus would do the trick and they only grow a couple of inches.

I personally would take both of the snails out and put them in a seperate container for a few days wihout food and they should clean each other, my apple snails are always crawling over each other and don't have algae on them. Maybe put them in an icecream tub floating in the main tank so the temp stays the same.

Emma

 

[morgan]

I used to go to a different forum and there was a person who knew a lot about snails and she said it was ok to brush them gently. I have never done it myself. I don't know if Bristlenoses are good algae eaters or not,not all plecos are. Commons are supposed to stop eating algae when they get bigger. Mine is 10" now and he still eats it, and cleans the snail. I don't think the snail likes it but it does look clean!

 

[Lynz781]

Ice cream tub sounds like a good idea. Do bristle noses grow to about 4.5inches? I actually don't think thats what I saw. They had like armoured plates on them. Either I'm mistaken or the shop is. Anyway, I'll give the tub a try.