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Recently I purchased a 2.5 Gal Minibow, male Betta and a book on Bettas for my 12 year old grandson... He's maintaing the tank quite well - his Betta is thriving - and my grandson appears to have quite an interest in fishkeeping! However, the tank is beginning to develop "brown spots" on the acrylic - so we'd like to get an algae eater to eliminate this... Due to the fact that the tank has no heater along with the small size, what type of algae eater would you suggest? I thought about getting a snail - but since I've not had any experience with snails I don't know what they would require as far as water conditions and temp.... I would greatly appreciate any advice that you can provide.

To thine own self be true...

Snails really are the only thing that you could really keep in there. I'd suggest malaysian trumpet snails as they don't eat plants, and stay small.

With a tank that small, I'd really try addressing the problems that are causing the algae rather than the end result.

^_^

snails or one of those soft magnet cleaners.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

i don't like snails for cleaning b/c they reproduce really fast. that's why i try not to keep them in my tanks.

not all snails are asexual and reproduce like rabbits. Apple snails dont. I don't believe that the trumpets do either.

Actually, I've opted to go with the magnet cleaner route.... The tank doesn't seem to have a lot of algae, so I believe this should do the job! Thanks!

To thine own self be true...