This has become my favorite tank. I find myself sitting here watching all the little creepy crawlies for hours when I should be doing other stuff.

Two of the vertebrate inhabitants. A Spiny Headed Hill Stream Loach and an Albino Bristlenose Pleco. I love these little loaches. Unlike most Hillstreams these guys don't seem to need the super high O2 content and fast running water to survive. There's two in here and they're fat and happy. My daughter calls them Carpet Plecos because they're flat and look like they've got little fringes all along their edges.




This little mutant is a 2" long Giant Black Malaysian Trumpet Snail. He reminds me of those worm things from Tremors. After I took these pics I noticed he's got company under there. He's busy making babies with another one I forgot was in there. They're hermaphrodites and livebearers so I'll have tons of them in no time. That is sooooo a face only a Mother could love.







This is my favorite Purple Light Foot Mystery Snail. She's not the prettiest but she's always doing something.







One of the color morphs of the European Ramshorns. This one's a pink. They grow incredibly fast and multiply like bunnies. So there's always plenty of them around and the extras make wonderful Cichlid snacks.



Another color morph of European Ramshorn. This one's my older daughter's favorite color. Robin's egg blue with a purple body.





A Gold Light Foot Mystery Snail. This one's always cruising around too.





One of my new additions. Ansolene spixis. It's a type of Apple Snail that only grows to about an inch. They've got neat peppermint stripes on their shells. Mine like to stay buried in the sand though apparently.



Another one. But again you can't really see the peppermint stripes because he's covered in algae. I got this guy cheap because of the algae on his shell. For show he's not too nice but he's great for breeding.



There's thirty five Red Cherry Shrimp and about five or six Yellow Shrimp in there. They're hard to photograph though because most are still babies. This is the biggest momma Red Cherry.





A couple of shots of the whole tank.

A couple more pics of the butt ugly giant Malaysian Trumpet out snooping around for something to eat.







Then the Black Brigs decided to run him over.



Followed closely by the Ivory Brigs.

My son has the same tank. He has a few snails, but want to get him some more. He likes the critters alot. Had some blue crayfish Tasha gave me but dam things ate everything. He has a pair of HRP in there now, and 6-7 Longfin ABN. Seeing your tank now gives me some good ideas Katt, thanks!!! I put 2 plants in and they where gone the next day. Do snails eat plants?? He has a big apple snail and I'm thinking the snail ate the sword plants.

Yup, that'd be the culprit. The bigger species of Apple Snails are brutal on live plants. Supposedly they won't eat Java Moss but I'm not risking it. If they did, they'd have the whole clump gone before I could stop them. My old ones cleared out a whole tank full of hornwort over night. Giant Ramshorns will eat plants too. (they're actually a species of Apple Snail) The little European Rams don't bother plants or anything or anyone else. Their only problem is that they multiply like you wouldn't believe. They're nearly indestructible though as far as water parameters and you can always feed any unwanted ones to your Cichlids like I do. Mystery Snails are awesome too. They come in tons of colors and despite being a small species of Apple Snail won't bother plants. They also lay their eggs in a hard crusty blob above the water line. So if you don't want them to multiply, just remove the "clutch" and throw it away or give it to somebody else to hatch out their own Snails. One thing I have learned the hard way, speaking of the Blue Crays eating everything in your tank, most fish are a big NoNO if you want to breed Shrimp. I had a dozen fancy Guppies in this tank when I started it. I got ten baby Yellow Shrimp, threw them in the tank and the damn Guppies thought it was dinner time. They ate all but the five biggest ones. The only fish in there now are Cory Catfish, Bristlenose Plecos, and Spiny Headed Hillstream Loaches. Recently I added the Cherry Shrimp. Even the little 1/4" babies are still in there so I think I've got a good safe mix of fish now.