drawf plecos

Question
Hi there! My mom seems to think that the drawf pleco will be the be all end all to cleaning our small 2 gallon tank regularly, while I on the other hand, am actually planning on treating it as the fish it is instead of just a "filter"

Currently, we have two betas in two seperate tanks. The first is in the 2 gallon, the other in a smaller, 1gallon (ish) tank. We are also planning on getting two gold fish this weekend, along with the plecos (one for each cage) to go in another 1 gallon tank.

Fresh foods I can do, but what about the lack of a filter or algae growth? Will drift wood make up for the lack of natural algae growth in the tank? Let me know things I should pick up while I'm at the petstore :) Cheers!

The larger tank has a tiny snail co-habiting with the betta.  

Answer
Hi Ashley;

The most important thing you are going to need at the fish store is a bigger tank. ;-) Your tanks are just too small for anything but your bettas. Even goldfish are too big and need a ten gallon tank for each one because they are messy and get HUGE. Plecostomus and goldfish need filtration too. Even dwarf plecos get 3.5 inches long and need at least a fifteen gallon tank. Here are profile pages about them and a few others to help you know more;

http://www.firsttankguide.net/goldfish.php

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/329.htm

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/charts/good_bad.html#dwarf-plecos

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/beginnerinfo/a/fishcalc.htm

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/aquariumstartup/a/newtankmistakes.htm

Here's my page about new tanks when you get your bigger one;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

Have a great time!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins