I had a HUGE algae problem for awhile. I am not sure why it was so crazy! Now it's under control between my snails and Emerald catfish. I was told at first to use real plants in the tank and it would cut down the algae. It didn't. I was cleaning it ALL the time which I didn't want to do because the constant cleaning isn't good with how sensitive they are. I don't use products when cleaning my tank because it can cause problems with the toads. I do a thorough cleaning every few months where I remove the toads and everything else and clean each thing individually and clean the tank with my own natural cleaner that I make and throughly rinse the tank and replace things. This gives me the opportunity to get the calcium deposits off the side of the tank so I can enjoy watching my toads. This algae problem is what got me to start doing research on adding other things to my tank. I heard others saying that they have other living aquatics in their tank and said basically what I mentioned regarding size of tank, types of fish and emphasis on extra cleaning. It takes more work to have fish/snails, etc because you have to do more cleaning. We had a Golden Mystery snail in one of our fish tanks and then one day she started to lay egg clutches. We decided to keep the clutches and see if we would get snails. Oh did we ever! Our original snail ended up dying not long after the snails began hatching and we started seeing tiny snails crawling on the sides of tank. Of all of the snails that we saw only 10 babies survived. I had read in one of the reports that you can have snails in with the FBTs. Nobody stated how long they had their snails or fish with their toads but I decided to give it a try. I grabbed one of the snails and put him in with my FBTs and crossed my fingers. My snail did really good, so I added another snail and kept my eye on them to make sure that they were doing ok. I checked on their shells to make sure the toxins did not affect their integrity and they were still good. The algae level was still crazy though, so I got an Emerald catfish to help out which is also when I added the air stone. The Emerald is doing great, the snails are doing great and it's been 4 months. As I mentioned earlier the snails are doing so good that they are mating and laying clutches! LOL!! But as I mentioned, I keep a VERY clean tank. The snails and catfish ignore the FBTs and the FBTs ignore the snails and catfish (the catfish is too big for the snails to even consider eating!). Now, I can't speak of any other type of snail or fish, this is just my experience with these kinds.

Oh, and as for the petstores having fish in inappropriate sized tanks with mates that may not be the best, you have to remember. Their number one responsibility is to make money! This is why when you go into PetSmart or some place like that they will load you up with all kinds of things, even if you have something they will tell you something else is better. You always want to do your research before buying or adding something! If you buy an addition then you want to keep them in quarantine for awhile to ensure that they are healthy before adding them to your population. Also, I do have a bala shark with a red tail shark. They have been together since they were frys so they aren't bad with each other. The bala does not nip at him nor he to the bala, but they do chase eachother around the tank. I am very cautious in ensuring that nobody gets hurt! When I got these guys the person who I got them from had a bala shark, red tail shark and African Electric Yellow Cichlid together in a 10 gallon tank. This is VERY inappropriate! I am sure it was fine originally when they were all babies but as they got older the cichlid began nipping at everyone. He was removed from the tank and put in another tank and now everyone is happy! Oh, and as soon as I got them home the bala and red tail were switched to my 30 gallon and just recently in my 55g. Eventually the balas will be too big for the 55g and I will have to come up with something else, which I may donate them at that time. PetSmart states that they need a 44g tank, but all my reading says that because they get to 14 inches they need an 80g p/bala.