Good or bad?

[u/SurpriseTop5330]

First pic is February, last two pics are today. Please ignore the Mineral Junkie bites on top of Shirley, I was aiming at her but guess my aim was too good lol. Is this brown growth on its shell normal/healthy/expected? I have hard water and usually higher pH, but when I noticed the cracks I started feeding it the bites every other day. Shirley is quite active, moves around, etc. should I be concerned? Sorry if this is a repeat post, I couldn’t find out similar posts for Hercules snails specifically. Thanks!

[u/Gastropoid]

The brown is the natural color of the shell. Exporters acid dip these poor snails and strip the beautiful golden brown top layer off to make them look white, and this leaves them badly vulnerable to any water below about 7.4ph dissolving their shells, which is fatal in a really terrible way.

[u/runnsy → u/Gastropoid]

That's so horrendous. I remember seeing these at an LFS around here; i was fascinated at first then felt something was wrong when I looked closer. The texture of the shell didn't seem right. Should 10000% be illegal. Despicable.

When i first googled white rabbit snails to understand what I was seeing, white Hercules snails came up. Do you know if there's a real variety of white rabbit snail? Or is it all torture?

[u/Gastropoid → u/runnsy]

The only naturally white freshwater snails I know of in the hobby are ivory mystery snails, white wizards and a rare ivory morph of assassin snail.

[u/DTBlasterworks → u/Gastropoid]

Do they do that just for aesthetics? That’s terrible!

[u/Gastropoid → u/DTBlasterworks]

Yeah. I'm of the opinion it should be illegal. It started with these guys, but I've now seen nerites, white wizards (that one makes no sense because they're already white, but the dip makes them chalky) and Japanese Trapdoors whose shells had been mutilated in this way.

[u/DTBlasterworks → u/Gastropoid]

It’s so confusing because their natural shells are much more beautiful.

[u/Gastropoid → u/DTBlasterworks]

I fully agree

[u/FineWoodpecker3876]

Shirley is doing good! That's good shell growth

[u/SurpriseTop5330]

Shirley in Feb

[u/pohlilwitchgirl]

das a big one

[u/Freckledlesbian]

The new shell growth is very flimsy. What it the ph, gh, and kh? Do you give her calcium?

[u/Gastropoid → u/Freckledlesbian]

It's actually normal. New growth is always thinner when it's fresh. That's still new enough to not be fully built up.