# real plants in a tank with a goldfish?



## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

Has anyone had any experience keeping plants in a tank with a goldfish?
I have had an outdoor small goldfish pond/barrel
And I have a few fully planted low tech setups with various fish and critters, but no tank with real plants and goldfish.
I have done the fake plant thing, but am tiring of the constant glass cleaning. I know that some plants would add to the decor, and I know that they would reduce/use/ the waste that the fish produce, but is it worth it?
Or is this going to be more of a hassle? will my plants just get all mucked up with brown algae etc??
Anyone with any experience?


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## planter (Jun 9, 2008)

Goldfish are not really meant to be kept with live plants. They will almost certainly eat or destroy almost any plant I can think of.

Also planted tanks are generally more labour intensive then tanks without plants. 

You could are some anubias or java fern. The leaves on these plants are thick and tough. They also do not require much in terms of care


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

I think that almost any fish will benefit from having live plants in their tank, you can try and the worst that will happen is the fish eat them. Goldfish being the big waste generators they are can sure use the extra nitrate and ammonia filtering that plants will perform.

Here's a link to the website of a "goldfish keeper" who frequents APC forums and uses potted plants in her goldfish tanks - with what looks like a lot of success.

She uses soil in the pots and covers the top of the pot with ~.5-1.0" river stones the goldies can't root around and dig through.

http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

thanks guys.
actually i have found that keeping planted tanks are less work [remeber i said i have lowtech/low light] than non planted. I find i am cleaning the glass more in the non planted tank.

The only plant i was actually going to try was going to be java fern. I know very well how voracious plant eaters goldies can be.


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

I've probably gone through 30-40 different types of plants with an oranda goldfish.

Java fern, anubias, any mosses do excellent with goldfish IME. The goldfish will try to taste test by nibbling the leaves but otherwise leave it alone.

Any soft plants might survive for a bit, but slowly gets torn apart. lol

Also excellent for a goldfish tank is duckweed and frogbit. Frogbit is too large for goldfish to eat... until they get bigger. Duckweed will be eaten very quickly and turn all the poop green. So duckweed and frogbit are farmed in my other tank... then scooped up and given to the goldfish tank.


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