General Care Discussion

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:38 pm **Algae on shell?**

Is it normal/OK for a RES's shell to be covered in algae? I adopted my turtle, Toby, about 4 months ago and his shell had quite a bit of algae on it. When I look at pics on this site, all of the turtles have such nice, shiny shells. I tried to clean his shell with an algae mitt, but he did NOT enjoy it, so I stopped. Is the algae just an aesthetic issue or is it harmful for his shell? He is otherwise healthy.

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:46 pm

The algae will NOT hurt your turtle. All turtles in the wild do have algae in their shells. The algae is perfectly fine. You can try to get a bit of it off by scrubbing very gently with a toothbrush, otherwise you can leave it on.

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:29 pm

I agree with Emma.
If you have a soft (clean) toothbrush, try doing just little bits at a time over several days. I think slowly but surely it'll come off.

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:06 pm

Algae didn't seem to bother this guy

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:09 pm

Wow, that looks like fur!

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:21 pm

Thanks for the info everyone! I'll try a soft toothbrush and see what happens. Thankfully he doesn't have as much algae as the fellow in the picture!

General Care Discussion :: Algae on shell?

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