Who puts live plants in their goldfish tanks?

[JeffP]

Has anyone tried live plants with their goldfish.

I am thinking about setting up a 50G which is at least partially planted.

[Hypancistrus-zebra]

me, i recommend adding fertilizers, good lighting, with plant tubes. Get some egeria densa, or just a pond weed. Let it get growing in there, like crazy, and once established, place your new little guys in :)

Other wise the plants will struggle to stay alive, grow while being eaten.

:D parrats feather is good too, they dont touch that.

[GTK]

I have a 75 gallon tank with two 8-inch shubunkins, and when my lfs had a sale on Amazon swords I bought a couple. I figured they'd be gone in no time, but three months later they're still about the same size, having replaced chewed leaves with new growth. Didn't expect to have any success, but hope it continues.

[jfthomas]

I added annachris to my g/f tank, partly for looks, but also to give the g/f some variety in their diet. My tank holds two fish, one red-cap oranda and one standard (not sure if it is a comet, as the tail fins are not long)...the tank is a 6 gal eclipse and the fish have been together nearly a year. The standard was my son's and we have had him nearly 2 years. (I keep them at my office, but I'm planning on a larger tank (12-15 gallons) in the near future)

Both fish are incredibly active and routinely feed on the annachris, but it grows well also. I place a few new bunches in every 3 or so months.

Tank parameters are stable, with no ammonia or nitrites and fairly low nitrates...10-20 ppm

john

[wannabesan]

Originally posted by Hypancistrus-zebra
me, i recommend adding fertilizers, good lighting, with plant tubes. Get some egeria densa, or just a pond weed. Let it get growing in there, like crazy, and once established, place your new little guys in :)

Other wise the plants will struggle to stay alive, grow while being eaten.

:D parrats feather is good too, they dont touch that.


BZZZT! Wrong! My comets tore through parrots feather like buzzsaws. Somewhere in my web wanderings I came across an aquarium plant dealer that had along with the various plants for sale, also had complete packages for for several different size tanks. One of the package types was a "goldfish safe" package. It is supposed to include plants that are not readily eaten by goldfish. I'll try to find the url.

[jfthomas]

The site listed below has a few assortments recommended for g/f tanks...they price the group I pasted at the bottom of this post at $35.

As I mentioned above, I have used annachris at the recommendation of my LFS and, while not the most attractive, my fish like it and it adds some interest to the tank. It grows quite a lot even in my small tank w/ fairly low light levels, but the growth is definately not as lush as what it looks like at the lfs. But for a few bucks, I just replace them every 2-3 months.

http://www.trueaquariumplants.com/

Anubias Barteri (1) Microsorium Pteropus (3) Crinum Thaianum (2) Lysmachia Nummulariav (2) Rotala Indica (2) Bacopa Carolinia (2) Echinodorus Amazonicas (2) Echinodorus Bleheri v robustus (2)

[Hypancistrus-zebra]

Originally posted by wannabesan



BZZZT! Wrong! My comets tore through parrots feather like buzzsaws.

Well if ya grow it properly, aswel as egeria densa. It grew faster then the fish could eat it. And I even tried keeping young koi in a 4ft tank for a few months. And they went through it aswel. But they still couldn't keep up with the growth.

[pinballqueen]

My goldfish won't even leave a plastic plant alone, so I never even made an attempt at living specimens....I have a "black thumb" with aquatic plants, anyhow....

[TopCat]

Well I have 3 fantails and a black moor in a planted 10 gallon tank and have no problems so far.

The fish don't seem to nibble the plants that much, certainly the rate of growth exceeds the rate of nibbling and I have to prune the plants every couple of weeks.

I have a powerhead 301 which chucks out a big amount of bubbles and a fluval 2 filter which combined with the powerhead causes a powerful current in the tank.

I feed the fish with a variety of foods twice daily and the lighting is a simple flourescent strip in the lid.

[DeVitaf]

I have three java fern that are doing well in my Goldfish tank...

They have tripled in size.


I also modified my light hood. I removed the flourescent light and added a 55w compact flourescent.

The plants like it, but I think it is too bright for my goldfish.

[Aderynglas]

I have tried to keep fancy goldfish with growing plants and found that they are fine till they get to about 3" body length and then it is just a very expensive way of feeding them :D they even have a serious try at java fern lol. The best I have found are the silk plants, and they don't need trimming/fertilising. I keep a planted tank as well but with non-vegetarian fish.

[sean mckinney]

I have one or 2 of the eldoa's in a tank with fry and initially it got hammered and it was/is being to out strip demand, but I have just cut back on fish food as I was probably over feeding so I will see what happens now. I am not sure if willow moss has survived but it has thinned greatly. In a tank with adult GF the elodas were obliterated.

[Randy]

Some plants that i have in my tank are java fern, hornwort, some type of sword plant. All 3 types are doing very well. The hornwort grows very quickly which is fine. I simply snip the top and replant that portion and it quickly grows. I started with two bunches of hornwort and now the whole back of my tank is covered. Both the gold fish and white clouds leave these plants alone.

[thom336]

there are many plants you can grow in your goldfish tank...
vallis, ludgigia, java fern, java moss, elodia, riccia, creeping jenny...in the end you can have a stunning display. to stop the goldfish uprooting the plants, i recomment you plant them in small pots filled with aquatic compost and topped with gravel.