# Robust Plants and algae eating fish for Goldfish Tank



## skyedale (Mar 14, 2011)

I recently did a big tank shuffle and consolidated 9 tanks to 4. OK - a tech from Big Al's did all the heavy work - I directed.

My 75 gl heavy planted that used to house my fancy goldfish became my consolidated community tank. Rather than move the plants in the 75 gl I left them there. In many cases the plants had been there for 2-3 years.

My new goldie tank is 55gl. There are 4 goldfish that are over 4 years old and big. There is one small ryukin, but he is growing quickly. I run triple filtration for the size of tank. The filtration consists of, one 50 gal. Eheim canister, one Fluval G4 internal filter and one Aqua Clear HOB for a 70 gal. I know it is way over filtered but it keeps the tank water in good shape for goldfish. The temp on this tank is also on the cool side - averages about 69-71F.

The only plants that they are not eating is the Java Fern. Having said that, the goldies take great delight in uprooting them daily even though they are anchored with rocks or wood. Big goldfish are great at rearranging aquascaping. If a piece of wood is too big for one to move another helps.

Other plants that they used to leave alone like Amazon swords are now used to graze on. When we did the tank consolidation I left the 3 flying fox in the 75 gal. because they were too hard to catch with all the plants. The result of not moving the Flying Foxes is huge algae growth on the anubis plants. All the anubis are now back in the community tank were the are being cleaned by the various algae eating fish. I would move them back to the goldie tank but by the time they are cleaned they had set down root systems. 

I need suggestions on what plants I can put in with the goldfish. The tank looks so bare compared to how it used to look. Because of the size of the goldfish any small algae eaters will just be a snack. The same would be true of any other sm. algae eating fish. I once made the error of putting in Octo Cats with sm. goldies. That worked until the goldfish became big enough to try to eat them. I lost two big goldfish and both Octo's because the octo's raised the spiked top fin and even thought I managed to remove the octo with plastic tweezers the mouth damage to the goldfish resulted in an infection that couldn't be controlled.

Soto recap I need suggestions about plants the goldies won't devour and algae eating fish that can survive in a cool tank and are too big for the goldies to eat. Pleco's are out of the question because they love eating the slime coat on the goldies. I tired bushy nose, but they don't seem to handle the cool temp, plus they are not a cheap fish to loose.

Many thanks in advance

Judi

As a footnote my 75 gl community is in my opinion stunning with all the plants and assorted fish. To think this all started with a 5 gl hex tank and one sm. veiltail goldfish.


----------



## zfarsh (Apr 7, 2011)

Java Fern, Bacopa, Hygrophilia, Anubias (but keep in shades). All these are low light / low tech plants, compatible with your goldies.


----------

