Planted Tank For Goldfish

by Anand
(Kolkata, India)

Can Goldfish be kept in a planted aquarium?

What type of plants will help goldfish grow fast?

---

Grant's Reply

Hi Anand

Yes goldfish can be kept in a planted aquarium, but there are a few problems.

Goldfish are omnivorous so they enjoy chewing on plants.

On the Website page aquarium plants there is a selection of plants I found that goldfish tend to leave alone.

Use Vallisneria as a background plant and one of the hygrophila species as a foreground plant.

Hungry goldfish will chew on Blue Hygrophila.

Red Hygrophila or Red Bacopa can be used to create interest.

Goldfish are primarily bottom feeders so any plants that you want to grow need to be planted deep enough so the goldfish don't disturb the roots. The larger the goldfish, the deeper they need to be planted.

For goldfish to grow fast, they need protein which plants provide very little.

Ideally the protein source should be from live foods such as mosquito wrigglers or similar.

A plant goldfish do enjoy is Elodea Crispa or E.Canadensis, more commonly known as oxygen weed. They will strip the plant down to just stalks very quickly.

Regards

Grant