# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Goldfish and plants



## chrisjenn (Oct 10, 2005)

Hi
I have 7 goldfish and recently got a new tank eheim 65gallon, eheim 2028 canister filter..can I add live plants with my goldfish? is there other things I need to do/buy/needs etc for this set up. I love to have a really nice plants on my tank. please help. thank you!


----------



## TWood (Dec 9, 2004)

Hi chrisjenn,

The short answer is yes, you can have plants with goldfish. Exactly *how* you do that depends on what you have in mind for the tank. If you want low-light slow-growing plants with minimal care, then anubias and crypts can do well. Such a tank could get by with standard lighting, some Seachem Excel for carbon, and some light dosing of trace elements.

Then you can go 'el natural' with a soil-based substrate based on Diana Walstad's technique. Diana moderates the 'El Natural' forum here, so you might read some of the posts there. Betty posts there and has her own website devoted to goldfish, which also has some plant info:

http://p103.ezboard.com/bthegoldfishandaquariumboard

Or you can go another step up into a high-light CO2 injected tank that requires more investment in terms of time and money, at least initially. Faster plant growth, more varieties, but needs more equipment and tending. I have a 90 gallon of this type, and initially got into plants to serve as a filter, thinking it would _reduce_ the amount of care needed.









So you need to specify a little more about what your goals are.

HTH

TW


----------



## pophead (May 7, 2006)

don't goldfish eat live plants? or maybe their roots?


----------



## TWood (Dec 9, 2004)

> Originally posted by pophead:
> don't goldfish eat live plants? or maybe their roots?


They pick up some of the substrate, filter it in their mouth and spit it out. Delicately rooted plants like hydrocotyle verticillata are easily uprooted, but most other plants can hold their own.

My goldfish take leaves of h. difformis, a delicate leaf plant, into their mouths and scrape off algae and whatever, but rarely remove any actual leaf material. Any plant that is even slightly tougher would easily withstand them.

TW


----------



## JERP (Feb 4, 2003)

I used to feed anubias/anacharis to goldfish....


----------



## TWood (Dec 9, 2004)

I feed mine a high quality pellet, so they will leave the plants alone.









TW


----------



## Lonestar (Aug 9, 2003)

I had gold fish in a 10 gal. tank and planted with Java fern and the fern flourished and spread all over the tank and it looked really nice and natural, no problem with goldfish eating it either.


----------



## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

I had the common feeder gold fish with my plants. They often pick on the finer leaf plants, and uproot many stem plants as the peruse the substrate for bits of food. I found that very annoying, so I decided to remove them to a no plant tank. You'll might be okay with thicker plants like java fern, anubias, crypts and other thicker stem, heavily rooted plants.


----------

