# Water column feeding plants



## WillowNatalia

My goldfish tore up my original attempt at an El Natural, but I really want to try again. But that's neither here nor there. What I would like to know is, other than Java Fern and Anubius, what plants have you found to work well that are water column feeders? In other words, plants that don't need to have roots in the substrate.

Here's where I'm going - a live wall. I was flipping through a Drs. Foster & Smith catalog and came across something called a Grid Clip. It's sort of like a veggie clip, but it holds a bit of mesh for gel-based or frozen foods. Well, a thought came to mind: what if I used four of these clips to hold up a large plastic mesh in which would be plants such as Java Fern and Anubius. They are very pretty plants and the goldfish doesn't really seem to munch on them, so that's good. But, what else is out there?

Any ideas? Has anyone tried this or something similar? I'm still working on a way to keep the goldfish from tearing up the new version of the tank, but for now, I'd like to figure out this living wall concept.


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## Zapins

All aquatic plants feed primarily through the water column and secondarily through the root system (though some plants are heavier root feeders than others). As long as there is sufficient nutrient levels in the water column, then all aquatic plants can be grown floating.

You can use clips if you want.

Your choices are really very limited when you keep goldfish. If I were you, I'd ditch the gold fish and get tropical fish instead. Tropical fish are smaller, make less mess, won't eat your plants, live in warm water (that helps grow plants better), and are much more colorful, varied and aren't bred to look like genetic experiments.


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## WillowNatalia

Zapins, I've had my goldfish for over a year now and while he's "just a fish" he's mine. I knew he'd be messy going into it, so that's not really a problem. And, he's not one of those bubble-under-eye or googly-eye or bumpy head (lion head I think) or other, to me anyway, odd looking goldfish. Just a plain old white and orange fantail.

I would like to have more tropical fish, though. Currently I've got 3 each black skirt and fruity tetras, 3 rasboras, 1 clown loach and a handful of ghost shrimp. Oh, a leopard danio and a dwarf pea puffer. I've been thinking about getting more danios but I think I've got a pretty good balance right now.

Yeah, you're right about most plants being water column feeders. I just wondered if there would be plants that are better suited to it than others. I wouldn't use val or sag because they tend to do better as rooted plants, but anubias (as far as I know) doesn't really care to have it's roots buried.

Thanks for the reply. Any other ideas, anyone?


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## dwalstad

Floating plants are premier water column feeders, while Anubias and Java Fern are slow-growers. Thus, they don't really remove that many nutrients. 

Zapins is right. Combining plants with goldfish is difficult. That said, I've seen small tanks with Goldfish and great growth of Vallisneria/Swordplants. However, you need the lighting, the soil substrate, the hardwater, and getting new plants safely established. All this is very, very tricky.


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## Diana K

The planted wall sounds interesting, but you could get a similar effect by planting the Java Fern and Anubias on a piece of driftwood. They will fill out and can fill up a large area of the tank wall over time. 
I hope all those fish are not in the same tank! That is a Noah's Ark that does not take into account that some of your fish are warm water fish, some are cool water fish, and most are social or schooling, and do much better in a group of their own species. Golds and Clown Loaches get big enough to eat most of the smaller fish. Puffers nip. A lot. They can be fine for months, then one day you come home to missing fins or dead fish. I see 4 or 5 different tanks here, based on fish size and water temperature preferences, and a species tank for the puffer. 
As bad as or worse than the distorted bodied Golds are dyed fish.


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## Philosophos

You could probably incorporate some bladderworts or liverworts. Riccia, utricularia, etc. just fine if you don't mind pumping in some CO2. If not, there's always a wide selection of moss to fill the gaps in with.

-Philosophos


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## early bird

dwalstad said:


> Floating plants are premier water column feeders, while Anubias and Java Fern are slow-growers. Thus, they don't really remove that many nutrients.
> 
> Zapins is right. Combining plants with goldfish is difficult. That said, I've seen small tanks with Goldfish and great growth of Vallisneria/Swordplants. However, you need the lighting, the soil substrate, the hardwater, and getting new plants safely established. All this is very, very tricky.


*I have to agree with you there, goldfish & plant's is a tuff 1
I have 8 commons & a wild grass carp in with them & plant's 
don't stand a chance, that's why I use their waste water to 
fertilize my plant's that I have going in other tanks & it works.👍*


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