I have a new flatmate. Well he's not really flat - more like a wheel shape. Gus has gone and bought a snail to keep in the fish tank with Frankie the wierd eyed goldfish. The snail is there to keep the tank clean, as Gus is getting fed up having to remove all the green algae. And this is the one thing in the flat that he can't bleach.

I'm not so sure about this. A few years back, when we lived in Newbury, I bought a biorb - basically a spherical fish tank. I had quite a few fish - mainly mollies. Then a certain person decided that the tank lacked greenery and so bought a plant from Ikea. The plant had its own free gift - a small snail. This snail seemed innocent enough - soon it was breeding like a chav / tasmanian / southerner (take your pick based on your country of origin). Quite how it achieved this on its own is a genetic mystery - but anyhow, soon the biorb was over-run. Gus started to remove them - he was taking out about 20 a day. Now I don't like escargots in garlic sauce, so he couldn't get rid of them. Then he started squishing them in situ (Gus has a dark side).......eventually we sought a remedy and bought some fish to eat the snails. Which they did, and then ate all the other fish as well. It was survival of the fishest...sorry fittest. And then, those snail eating fish cannibal monsters themselves died - presumably of indigestion. The whole episode was very traumatic. Who knew fish were such hard work.

So I am worried that we will see a repeat of the whole sorry saga. Gus does not agree with me. Apparently this is a non-breeding snail........hmmmm.....not sure how Gus knows this about the snail........perhaps they are kindred spirits..

And Frankie the wierd eyed goldfish is most put out by this new arrival - he's swimming around menacingly. and believe me, with those bug eyes, he really does look scary.