"s g" wrote in message ...
I have a 125g goldfish tank that I will be setting up soon and was wondering
about recommended plants to put into it and dealers.

I have had good luck with Egeria densa, AKA Anacharis/Elodea. I've
had it in tanks for quite a while and I just recently put it in my 6
month old 46gal. It seems to be helping remove nitrates. I'm not
sure if you monitor your nitrates, but mine were well over 40ppm with
weekly water changes. That is a bit high and at that level I'm
blaming some of my algae growth on it. Since I put in the Egeria
densa in my tank about 3 weeks ago I haven't seen any brown algae
spots on the new growth of Echinodorus. These plants are right next
to each other. I can't say that is true for all of the plants, but
things have improved. My nitrates have also dropped to 10-20ppm.

I have had problems with them pulling them out from time to time. If
they get really hungry they will eat anything. I have also found that
you might not want to plant stuff where they like to hang out. I have
one corner in the back that they will pull out everything that I plant
there. In addition as the goldfish grow, they need more space. They
will create the space that they need by removing plants.

One key to being successful with goldfish and plants is don't start
with just a couple of small samples from one of the large pet store
chains. You need to overwhelm them. Get a load of plants from either
a good fish store or from online. This will help signficantly. The
idea is to have more plant growth than what the fish like to eat. I
have enough plants that I don't even really notice if they have eaten
anything. This also helps distribute the abuse onto different plants
allowing them to get a hold in the tank. Most plants die back when
introducted into a new tank. If you add that on top of the abuse of
goldfish it doesn't give the plants much chance.

The other thing I recommend is experimenting. I have been told that
goldfish will eat this or that. I have tried plants that people told
me won't work and they are growing well in my tank. This can also
lead to some failures, which could be considered wasted money.

I currently have the following in my 46 gallon tank:
Echinodorus cordifolius
Egeria densa
Ceratopteris thalictroides or Hygrophilia difformis
Anubias barteri
Microsorum pteropus
Alternanthera reineckii
Crinum calamistratum
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Cryptocoryne ?undulata?

I'd recommend the first 5 most highly, I have also had some luck with
Vallisneria and Vesicularia. They just are not in my tank right now.

Tony