I realize goldies will eat most plants. The only tank I have right now is a 10g with a couple small goldfish in it (they will be upgraded in due time!). I would like to start a planted tropical tank soon, so I wondered if I could go ahead and start any type of plants in the goldfish tank? And if there are plants that goldies won't destroy, can the plant move from the coldwater tank to a tropical eventually without suffering?

Thanks!

I have anacharis, vals, various small potted and an amazon sword in my 55g with 1 goldfish. Seems to be fine.

From what I hear goldies do "pick" on the plants but not as bad is say cichlids that really eat the plants.


my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Sounds like this is more do-able than I thought. I'd love a thickly planted tank but a limited budget means I would have to start small. I love the idea of starting a plant nursery now so when I get a tropical tank up and running I'll have some greenery to put in it!

Too bad you don't have platys for your fish.

You could grow lotsa lotsa plants and have lotsa babies also.

but even with goldfish you can do a lot

__________________
fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

I have a 10 gal tank with 3 calico goldfish (shubukins). I have floating on top of the water hornwort and elodea from my 20 and 29 gallon tropical
fishtanks. The goldfish do not appear to be eating them. These plants
transferred from 76-78 degree tropical heated tanks to the colder goldfish waters.
(Not sure of unheated water temp in goldfish tank.)
Hornwort and elodea can tolerate temps from 50 to 80 degrees F.

I tried adding a few extra plants to my friends 40 gallon goldfish tank and the only ones that seem to have survived is the java fern attached to a piece of driftwood. Also put some java moss in there too but too early to tell how that is doing because it hasn't grown out of the netting I have it in.

Try hardy plants such as vals, java fern and java moss, and anubius. You could also try some floating plants such as duckweed or hornwort. These plants grow quicker than the fish can eat them, they act as a nutrient sponge and also give the fish some vegitable matter in their diet. Just make sure you add lots at once.

A way to stop plants being uprooted is toplace several in a bunch and put rocks around them. Also potting plants can be helpful. Again just pack some stones around the base of the plants to stop them being uprooted.

And also they should be fine being moved from coldwater to tropical. Although the anubius i mentioned might loose its leaves but should re grow them in a week or two.