Will gold fish eat java fern?

dereks

dereks

AC Members
Mar 7, 2006
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I have some java fern in with my dad's black moors and they leave it alone. I have some java fern and a sword plant in my tank at home and just added some gold fish hoping that they'll have the same reaction to it that my dad's fish had, I read somewhere that fish think java fern tastes nasty.

What do you all think will happen?

They seem to be leaving it alone so far so they aren't devouring it at least.
 
Goldies generally do not like the taste of Java fern or Anubias :)
 
Cool, thanks. I've really been wanting a planted aquarium and they couldn't stand the high temps of the discus tank. Then the other tank I wanted (rainbow fish) I ran into a snail problem. The only snail eaters I could find compatible with rainbow fish were loaches, which for some reason don't like my tank, they get ich in may tanks. So anyway, I figure the goldfish will eat the snails, the plants should like the cold water, and I shouldn't have difficulty with disease in goldfish.
 
My goldfish used to love eating sword plants. If they weren't chomping on the leaves they were digging them up and laughing at me as I re planted them.

Hence my tank now only has one plant, in a plastic tray above the water line.
 
GazP said:
My goldfish used to love eating sword plants. If they weren't chomping on the leaves they were digging them up and laughing at me as I re planted them.

Hence my tank now only has one plant, in a plastic tray above the water line.
Click to expand...
--- lol. You showed them! :)

Every time I've had goldfish they at least nibble on the java, but usually, I've discovered, only if something is wrong - they are upset about something.
(Like the stupid squirrels doing swan dives from the oak into the pond... grrrr! They've totally dented the screen and it's now popping off, I saw birds on yesterday taking a bath! Ugh, more work. *sigh*)
They only nibbled at the banana plant now and again, so that might be safe to keep.
 
Cool, thanks! Any ideas besides anubias and java fern? I think it'll look fine with just java fern in there though, it's a pretty easy plant to decorate with and seems to LOVE cold water.
 
It really does depend on the fish. My goldfish don't touch the anubius, bolbitus, Amazon swords and crypts in their tank. Java fern, on the other hand, they didn't eat it but they sure did like tearing up the leaves.
 
I fought like crazy to try to get a planted goldfish tank.

They ate the java fern, java moss and an anubus plant. They tore apart the E. amazonicus and ate it. I finally got an E. bleheri Amazon sword. I kept them in the substrate by weighting them with some slate on all sides. They finally got established and really took off. They all bloomed and produced several more.
 
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