Plants with my goldfish

[sandman]

Hello, I am wondering if someone might be able to help.I have a 120 litre tank with 4 medium sized comets, and 2 small fantails in it.Having set up this tank with plants to begin with, the little beggers have eaten them all and now I am having to put plastic ones in just to give it that underwater feel.What plants could I put in , that would stand up to the fish and their hunger for vege?Also I have read that these fish will eat lettuce.How would you give it too them?Just chopped or blanched or just tear it up and drop it in? Thanks sandman

[Caryl]

Firtly, the goldfish will quickly outgrow that sized tank and in the meantime you will stunt their growth. I would like to suggest you keep the fantails in it and put the comets in a pond - a much more suitable environment for them. Comets need space to swim as they are quick and lively. The fantails are much slower and don't need so much room to swim.

Goldfish nibble at all plants and some are worse than others for doing it. I collect oxygen weed from the local river as it is free and easily replenished. You might also try Java fern and water sprite although they will tug on the sprite endlessly then eat the exposed root - which kills off the rest of the plant :roll:

Just drop the lettuce in - wash it first to get rid of any pesticides which may be present.

[Jo1]

Try Blue Hygro, ludwigia, Accorus, Mondo Grass. The 2nd two are not true aquatic plants but they are tough and can be recycled ie put them back in garden to recover. Blue hygro is better later in the season when it has hardened up a bit.

[alanmin4304]

Use Elodea canadensis (oxygen weed) from a local waterway it is cheap, good for them to eat and easy to replace. I feed masses to my turtles (keeps a couple of weeks in the fridge).

[jayci]

What do you do about the parasites that maybe living on the oxygen weed you have collected?

[Caryl]

I collect my weed from fast flowing areas so not sure what sort of parasites have ever been attached. never had a problem. I have to be careful the council hasn't recently sprayed the banks though

[Caper]

sandman...did you know that peas are good for goldfish as well, mine get peas once a week!

Caper

[alanmin4304]

If you are worried about parasites you could pay heaps for a few pieces from the pet shop ( I probably came from the same river.) I don't know the situation now but years ago I used to sell 300 bunches/week to the shops in town and they would have mainly ended up with goldfish. MOST CREEBIES WOULD BE GOOD TUCKER.

[Whiskas]

Also note that if you take oxygen weed from waterways it may be the invasive kind, so when cleaning out your tank make sure you dump the old water on your garden not down the sink. If it is put back into the waterway it may just take over a place that was once free from it.

[sandman]

Thanks for all the info.I will try the peas Caper thank you for the help.

[jn]

if you're really worried about parasites you can use bleach 1 part to 19 parts water (plain bleach with no additives) soak for 2 mins. OR potassium permanganate a teeny tiny amount diissovled in water to make a dark pink colour, soak fir a half hour or so. That will also kill snails. Dunno if bleach kills snails? I expect it would...but I think the bleach may be harder on the plants. I've never tried either with oxygen weed personally though but its fine with other plants.

I think someone here once recommended anubias also? Basically the stuff with tougher leaves

[davidb]

can anubias handle the lower temps jn?

[Dixon1990]

I just used potassium permanganate on the plants i got from the river.

[carla]

OR potassium permanganate a teeny tiny amount diissovled in water to make a dark pink colour, soak fir a half hour or so. That will also kill snails.

But not snail eggs I suppose? :roll:

[jn]

Snail Prophylactics

To guard against unwanted snails, use a weak potassium permanganate solution. The Manual of Fish Health recommends a concentration of 10 mg/l as a 10-minute bath as a general disenfectant for aquarium plants. Then rinse them in running water. This kills snail eggs and parasites and might guard against algae spores.

Alum is also useful. Get "Alum U.S.P." at the drug store. Soak the plants in a gallon of water that has up to 10 teaspoons of Alum. The Alum kills microscopic bugs. Longer soaks (2-3 days) will kill snail eggs and/or snails.

from http://faq.thekrib.com/snails.html

[jn]

oh.. and I'm not sure about the anubias temps. I've never had any myself but I have a cold tank and someone had once recommended some for me so I assumed they would be ok.. mind you I think at the time I was asking about plants that weren't fussy abot lighting! So might pay to poke around on google or post in the plants section