fishlover78

I found this article on another site I belong to: http://thegab.org/Articles/PottedPlants.html I wanted to know if it was good or bad? is it easier to vacuum the gravel because you don't have to worry about uprooting plants? please respond your input would be greatly appreciated! -fishlover78

fishlover78

anyone?

shih-tzu mom

Fishlover-if it is for your goldies it won't last long. i have an artificial in a pot and they root aroung in that -, have mine is a clay pot they knock it over and upside down but it looks ok and they are nice, and the fish like them , with goldies you have to remove plant and clean as all the waste goes into the clay pot. nice, if you train them to use it lol. bella

pepetj

I do keep potted plants in my Oscars-Severums-Convicts tank. I just use standard (no paint, no gloss) clay pots. I put good substrate there (e.g. Eco-Complete), and so far no uprooting happening.

I also keep empty clay pot(s) in several tanks for shelter/play-ground purposes (e.g. betta sorority tank).

This pics shows how it looked as I tried different plants there, the glass wasn't cleaned very well but at least you can see the idea at work.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Attached Images

potted plants in Oscars tank.jpg (98.1 KB, 13 views)

fishlover78

thanks so much to the both of you! I have heard that people buy new plants for their goldfish tanks bi-monthly becasue they get eaten!

Shawnie

pepe you have some really good oscars!! mine would have tore up that bottom and then some by the first hour!!

fishlover78

Lol!

pepetj

It's an ongoing trial and error, hit-or-miss, experiment. Some Oscars would end up ignoring plants, others, well, you know the story: "no-one (plant)-here-gets-out-alive!". I have seen big Swords torn apart into debris or Anubias Afzelii totally vanished from sight in a matter of a minute or two.

The trick here is light: I need low-lights plant because Oscars don't feel comfortable in bright tanks. So I keep 0.25WPG at both ends of the tank but raised to 0.75WPG at the middle, where I potted the plants. I am trying Hygrophila since last week, as well as floating plants (water lettuce, water orchid); my major success so far with Oscars: Vallisneria, Tropical Hornwort, and Anubias Barteri (but requires a lot of cleaning).

Living in the Caribbean has some major disadvantages for fishkeeping as far as fish availability (e.g. no one seems to keep Rainbowfish here, common species just disappear from time to time, as Silver Dollars), higher prices on most equipment (I better not give examples on this statement); however there are some great advantages, despite the obvious year-round warm weather: aquatic plants, for the most part are incredibly cheap (e.g. a bundle of dwarf variety of vallinseria or tropical hornwort or anacharis at sixty USD cents; one unit of water lettuce or water orchid at fifteen USD cents) with the exception of some imported plants (I have paid as much as eighteen USD for one Anubias Barteri or two Black Amazon Swords).

Do you want plants for Goldfish? I could ask one of the local breeders what works for him if that would help.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

fishlover78

well, It and ongoing thing plants or no plants!

pepetj

What are the tank's parameter for your Goldfish?
Temp range, lighting, pH?

I would almost bet that Goldfish would tolerate/ignore Anubias Barteri. These plants do well in a wide range of temperature, light and pH. I have a beautiful Anubias Barteri in my chiller cooled Rainbowfish tank (74-76F), at the lower WPG area and it is thriving. Keeping it clean might be another story... I don't know about Goldfish, Koi or alike keeping, and this is a question I have: Do they tolerate Apple Snails? If they do, then keeping the Anubias Barteri clean will be their job to do.

On the other hand, if your Goldfish are used to moderate lights, or if you can manage to upgrade lighting at desired spot in your tank to say 2 to 3 WPG, you could try Amazon Swords or Black Swords, these would adapt to the lower temp just grow somewhat slower, which isn't a bad thing after all.

Anacharis and surface-floating plants is what I used when I once kept Goldfish in a pond I had (from age 16 to 23) I recall water Orchids, water lettuce, duckweed... then again, I live in the Caribbean so not sure if that would work in other latitudes.

Pepe
Santo Domingo