Goldfish Setup

[jamesbarr]

So recently goldfish have gotten my attention. They are cheap, not too ugly and they are hardy. Only problem, they eat live plants. As a result they arent used in planted tanks all that often. When googled the results are pretty much a resounding no go.

However, I like to try to push the boundaries and experiment a lot. That being said, Im not above asking for other peoples personal experiences to draw from and to help set the parameters of my experimenting. This definitely helps me to reduce the amount of capital lose if the plan flops and also helps me to find success.

So I have been wondering, if there was an abundance of easy to get food like duckweed (i got some in a bunch of plants I got, and as expected its now growing quite well in my tanks) do you think that the goldfish would leave my other plants alone?

Im imagining that I would let the duckweed grow in the tank, and supplement it with the excess from other tanks. This would create a shady/ low light environment which would be good for anubius or java fern. The duckweed would love the nutrient rich water column provided by the goldfish and would grow rapidly but also be managed by the fish who would use it for food. If it got out of hand, id just manage it with more fish

I would go with a super basic looking tank. Maybe a piece of drift wood to attach my anubius and one for java fern. Otherwise just some big round river stones and a sand substrate (because I have those and Im cheap ).

So thats my plan. Has anyone got any words of wisdom for me?

Edited April 1, 2013 by jamesbarr

[jvision]

IME, you'd have to have a giant tank with a single small goldfish to 'allow duckweed to grow'. For the most part, the goldfish will eat it all in a very short period of time.

[Fisher]

Go for broke!

Browse the web for posts that refer to "plants that taste bad to goldfish." Maybe if a goldfish had a choice of shrubbery, it would be inclined to

to the shrubbery that does not appease it...

Gold fish generate waste like a race horse, so they say. one more impetus for aquaponix.

edit: spelling

Edited April 2, 2013 by Fisher

[jamesbarr]

IME, you'd have to have a giant tank with a single small goldfish to 'allow duckweed to grow'. For the most part, the goldfish will eat it all in a very short period of time.

IYE are there any plants that they will leave alone? I reading in places that anubius and java fern are generally safe. The thing that Im seeing most is that peoples goldfish are ripping plants out of the sub when they are rooting around. So if any anubius or java fern were to be anchored to DW do you think they would be safe? Id be ok with avoiding sub anchored plants if there were some out there that could be attached to DW and be left alone.

Go for broke!

Browse the web for posts that refer to "plants that taste bad to goldfish." Maybe if a goldfish had a choice of shrubbery, it would be inclined to

to the shrubbery that does not appease it...

Gold fish generate waste like a race horse, so they say. one more impetus for hydroponix.

Hmm, I like the idea for going aquaponic if they decided to devour my plants. Java fern and anubius are the common ones people call safe, along with anarchis which apparently grows in fast enough that it will deal with nibbling. Ill keep digging for the mean time, hoping that they dont change into the fish who say 'Ekke Ekke Ekke Ekke P'tang Zoo Boing Zowm'

Ive been entertaining the idea of trying out a riparium in the even that I cant keep plants with goldies otherwise.....still thinking about that

[jvision]

In ponds, plants seem to fair a lot better bc the fish are eating a lot of algae and bugs; however, aquariums seem to be a lot more prestine, so they get hungry faster, an also seem to get bored. Boredom is the big problem bc, while they probably don't eat plants like Java fern or Anubias, they will chew the plants up quite readily.

If you are going to try, start with small fish in a big tank and feed well. Of course, that's goin to mean over filtration and copious WCs