Is there a good "gardener" for FW planted tanks??

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Hi,

It ocurred ot me that it would be cool if nature had a what I call
"gardener" that would tend to the plants in a tank. :)
take care of dead leaves, chop down if the plant gets too big.
Basically what I am looking for is a worker to do my dirty job. :)

Is there such animal suitable for a tank?

[Rocco Moretti]

wrote:
> Hi,
>
> It ocurred ot me that it would be cool if nature had a what I call
> "gardener" that would tend to the plants in a tank. :)
> take care of dead leaves, chop down if the plant gets too big.
> Basically what I am looking for is a worker to do my dirty job. :)

I don't know about the latter (how big is "too big"?), but some plant
safe snails and shrimp do a reasonable job of taking care of dead and
dying leaves, as well as keeping algae in check. Not perfect, mind you,
but they try to help, at least.

(Look at amano and cherry shrimp, as well as Malaysian trumpet snails
and the plant-safe apple snails.)