Can I keep aquatic plants with my goldfish?

     1. Goldfish uproot and eat up live plants.
     2. Commonly available aquatic plants are not tropical plants that can survive in a tropical tank with the goldfish.

Plants not only add beauty to your tank, they also thrive on fish waste –ammonia and nitrates- and remove them from the tank making the habitat cleaner for the fish. You therefore need to create conditions where the plants and fish can survive in harmony. When plants don’t thrive, they rot and pollute the tank. New plants also bring in infection, so you need to disinfect your plants before introducing them in your system.

Some plants can thrive in the tropical habitat of goldfish and can also withstand nibbling of the goldfish. They are:

     1. Rooted plants: Anubias, Crinum thaianum (onion plant), Echinodorus (sword plants), Elodea (anacharis), Giant Vallisneria, Hygrophila difformis (water wisteria), Mayaca fluviatilis, Microsorium pteropus (Java fern) and Nymphoides aquatica (banana plant).
     2. Floating or rooted: Ceratophyllum submersum (hornwort) -floating plant with no roots, Ceratopteris thalictroides (water sprite)- best grown floating, Limnobium laevigatum (frogbit), Duck weed and Salvinia auriculata.

Encouraging plant growth
Selection of plant is the first most important step. Unless your plant is resistant to goldfish mishandling it won’t survive. The other challenge is tropical climate and temperate water. Strong root system will also help in survival.

These plants need lot of light i.e. more than 1 or 2-lamp setup. Overall amount of light should be much more than what is provided in a normal tank. But lots of light will also stimulate the algae to grow, thus, you need to control the light to perhaps 11 hours a day. You should also keep the tank away from direct sunlight that encourages algae growth.

Fertilize your plants lightly with microelements but avoid phosphates that give tremendous boost to algae growth.

Controlling algae
Algae indicate a healthy tank but wild growth of algae is harmful for your system. If the algae have gone wild, scrape it off when you change the water. Other than that you must keep the tank away from sunlight, avoid phosphates and never over fertilize.

Disinfecting plants
A diluted solution of bleach (1:19) in water can be used to get rid of snails, pathogens, algae and harmful bacteria on the plants. Dip for two minutes and then rinse it carefully before introducing it in your tank.

Keeping plants with goldfish is a challenge but when done successfully what you have is a picturesque tank.