On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:55:43 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:06:50 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:49:19 -0700, "Mike" wrote:

That was a 40 gallon. Had a plectotomus(sp?) in there that grew from
a couple inches to about a foot long. Good glass cleaner.

--Vic

How big was/is your tank. I have snails in my 15gal aquarium, and I'm sick
of squishing them.

--Mike


Vic, did you mean one of these guys?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plecostomus

Sure enough. Just the one kept the 40 gallon glass crystal clear.
Never bothered the other fish either.
When we decommissioned the tank I took it to the pet store in a bucket
and they put it in a big tank there. Caused quite a stir with the
customers in the store when I brought it in.
Thinking back it was bigger than a foot, maybe 15-16 inches.

I've not had an aquarium for a long time, but I lucked out when I first set
one up. The book I bought said, "Do not put snails in the tank to keep it
clean." According to the book, they multiplied like crazy and eventually
scratched up the glass. The plecostomus was a good critter

We always kept a few corydoras around. They helped with the cleanup.

Had them too for bottom cleaning.
I never even thought of putting snails in my tanks, but for a while we
had live aquatic plants. The eggs (or whatever snails have) came in
on the plants. You just couldn't tell, so we went to plastic plants.
Not a single fish complained about the lower ambience.
I haven't had a tank of fish for about 8 years, but the empty tanks
(40, 15, 5) are sitting in the basement taking up space because the
wife has ideas of starting them up again. I doubt that'll happen.
In the meantime she found these huge glass goblets that hold over a
gallon each and put a red betta in one and a blue in the other.
Very low maintenance - she changes the water and washes the goblets
about once a month. And bettas are pretty fluttering around - one on
the nightstand and the other on the dresser.
It was a good idea of hers. No honeydews about pumps, heaters, etc,
so it's fine by me too!

--Vic