# What plants do fish prefer to eat? Mollies and Guppies



## jilly (Feb 16, 2008)

Okay, I like my fish in the aquarium too, and I thought I would maybe provide some 'bait' plants to them - i.e. plant some plants they like to eat, knowing they will become 'salad' for the fish, and then crafting my design around plants they don't like to eat, or will leave alone if they have the better tasting plants available - so I was wondering if anyone knew what plants the following fish prefer to eat?

Mollies
Guppies
Platys

These I haven't seen eat any plants actively, but I am not sure if they might

Black Sailfin Tetras
Plecos
Siamese Algea Eaters
Siamese Fighting Fish
Glow-pink Danios


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## lauraleellbp (Jan 31, 2008)

Hygrophilas are the plant that first pops in my head when I think about reports of fish eating the plants...


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 19, 2008)

Hornwort is supposed to be a good salad plant too. I think just about any normal, thin-leaved plant should be fine, except Java fern. It has some kind of chemical that tastes nasty to fish.


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

I have guppies and I've never seen them eat any of my plants, and I have a wide variety of plants in their tank. They do nibble on any algae that dares show up which is just fine by me. 

Siamese fighting fish, or bettas, don't eat plants. They just use them for hiding & resting places causing no harm. I don't have glo-pink danios, but I do have giant danios and leopard danios and they have no interest in eating plants. 

I've heard of a couple different fish eating mosses, but I can't remember which fish they were.


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## trag (Jan 9, 2008)

Elodea and/or anacharis are good nibbling plants, although I agree with the earlier poster, that I've never seen teh fish you mention eating plants. However, many places (all?) you can no longer buy those two plants, as they're considered pests. 

On the other hand, hygrophila polysperma is banned here (Texas) too and I can go down to the San Marcos river and collect all I want for free.


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