aquatic scavengers?

[beckdg]

people use apple snails in planted tanks all the time. if they're fed well there shouldn't be any issues with the plants.

[jclee]

I will admit that might have been my problem. I let a few of the eggs hatch, and so they might have been competing for food, thus the plant munching.

However, for use as scavengers, that poses a problem, since, if you're feeding them enough to ensure they won't eat the plants, they might be less motivated to eat drowned crickets. I don't know how likely that is, though.

[beckdg]

true... but still brings me back to my original answer.

[trayp]

As I have kept cories in the past I would go with them or shrimp. I really enjoyed keeping cories but keep in mind that they are shoaling fish so the larger the number the better as long as they have adequate space. they come in various color morphs and species but, they all will shoal together if mixed. They need meaty foods in their diet but they also need algae based foods as well. Cories can grow up to 4" so take that in to consideration as well.

Glass shrimp are inexpensive and are good at cleaning up left over food. It really doesn't matter on the size of the cricket because glass shrimp can grow to about an inch and a half and I have seen just one of them devour a dead neon tetra so I think a cricket would pose no problem. I'm sure other fresh water shrimp would do the trick but I have no experience with them.

If you dont mind the sight of them you can also try freshwater snails. Trumpet snails are considered a pest because they are live bearers and prolific and i do mean prolific, but they are very helpful. They eat detritus and other waste products and because they bury in the substrate during they day, they aerate it. Apple snails are good too but I think you have to have calcium rich water so their shells wont dissolve.

All three of these will definitely eat any dead crickets but they are bottom feeders so their food must sink to the bottom. Sometimes ghost shrimp will venture into other levels of the water column if its anything they can walk or climb on.

I might get in trouble for this, but since we are on the subject this was my 56 high planted with cories and ghost shrimp. I also had 6 female bettas, one male betta and about a hundred trumpet snails that went on duty after the lights went out! Oh how I miss my wet thumb!