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My name is Tim Cole, I'm with Austin Reptile Service, I've been keeping reptile amphibians
for over forty years and we're here to talk about cleaning turtle shells. And, the first
thing that comes to my mind is why? Because naturally, in the wild, turtles do have algae
growing on their shells. And one of the things that helps them do is camouflage. And it might
even attract some smaller fish that want to eat the algae which, in turn, could be a food
source for the turtle. So, granted, it may not look nice, it's a natural thing and I
wouldn't worry too much about it, I wouldn't try to take it off. If you use any cleaning
chemicals on a turtle you might actually do more harm than good. One of the ways you could
get algae off a shell is if you dry dock a water turtle for a little while, just kept
him out of the water long enough for that to dry up. But, that would make him uncomfortable
and I think the best thing is just leave it and don't worry about it. If you have algae
growing on the shell on the turtle that your keeping in the house, that's a good sign that
you've got good lighting on your aquarium.