First 3gl. (planted)

My 3 gal. Eclips starts with Hornwort to the left to hide heater and power head pickup tube. A sword in the back right with what i am told is mondo grass front right. started with Beta then added 3 Neon and a Ghost shrimp. I suddenly sprouted snails and got Clown loach to rid them. Side effects to Clown loach are no more Ghost shrimp that I can see but he liked to hide in the hornwort so not sure and clown seams to have taken a fancy to the Betas' tail .

Seams to be running well so far at 1 1/2 mo. Bio wheel seams to be keeping up with fish overload so far but adjusting light to bring out Clown loach seams to have slowed plant growth enough to allow Brown algae to get a start. Boosted light to try to get plants to use more neutrients to kill off algae. Time will tell.

Yeh Clown was an emergency snail removal solution sugested by store and was not in original plans. Was hoping his slow growth would let me get him into a larger tank, did not know about the school size needed vs. agression and health till reading online later. Yes Clown helped with snails but is now a serious problem for both him the beta and me. Looking into bigger tank but don't think I will be able to go as big as needed for his friends (son is looking at 20gl and I am looking at 29gl biocube). Wish I had been told about them needing so many friends before purchase but to late for that kind of thinking. Will check and see if I can return him but not expecting much there.

As for Neons was told 3 or 4 would be ok so went with them and Ghost shrimp to pick up some on bottom. With excelent filtration of tank store figured i could keep 6 - 8" of fish with plants and tank filtration is keeping up with number of fish all water tests are good but with Clown loach stress is getting out of hand and needs fast attention.

Leason learned: "read more first, shop later" and from what I have read hear tonight ask you guys first would be very smart thing.

yeh I already knew I had problems before you said anything just kinda hung as to what to do with him.

As for the mondo grass was thinking I had a problem with it but was not sure if it was Clown loach cause I caught him nibbleing or fertalizer or what but your information explains a lot.