Whatever I buy dies, and it's really annoying me.

I'm used to the goldfish digging up their plants, and eating them, but this is ridiculous.

I bought a lovely fine leafed plant (whorls of leaves at intervals along thin stems hornwort? cabomba?) for Wonton, my betta, and planted it up in his tank. WHikst he was fairly taken with it, I was less impressed when it shed its fine leaves all over the tank, and sent the nitrates through the roof. I hoovered and trimmed and pruned and syphoned, but after two weeks and still a carpet of leaves, I gave up and slung it.

I replaced it with a rather posh looking plant from Shirley Aquatics. No name for it I'm afraid, but it came planted up, with several stems, with others branching off, and has large, very deeply cut leaves, which are rich dark green on one side and metallic purple on the other.

That was in there less than a week, when I decided to trim off an excessive amount of dead leaves. I lifted it out the water and the stems promptly detached themselves from the pot, releasing THE most putrid smell of rotten eggs and decay. So, that was binned,as it was dead as a dodo.

Meanwhile the amazonian sword in the gf tank is on its last legs- chewed to bits, and full of brown holes, and I am seriously considering just giving up on the whole live plants thing and buying silk ones.

Any suggestions as to what I may have been doing wrong?

maybe you should try java fern its easy to keep, a lot of plant i have bought have ended up rotton in the bin

If you really want to keep plants from shedding excessive amounts of their foliage, you must create an environment conducive to its needs. At the same time, you need to keep the environment conducive to your fish' needs as well. This is not exactly easily done but once you get a good understanding of the particular needs of the plants your trying, everything will flow well.

What type of lighting are you using?

What wattage per gallon are you running?

What is the spectrum of the bulbs your using?

Are you adding anything to the water as far as micronutrients?


The rotting of the roots (sulfuric egg smell) is caused from a lack of waterflow through the substrate the plant is rooted in. Baskets or planting pots that allow water to flow freely through are best. I like the little black baskets myself.

The shedding of foliage is probably due to the plant not recieving the care level it needs. A lack of light is most likely the cause. The lack of light causes the shedding and the shed foliage covering the substrate the plant is rooted in caused the lack of waterflow through the roots. Thus, the rotting smell.

Plants like cabomba and anarchris should not be planted with the stems in the gravel. Instead, the stems should be sitting right at the gravel level so that roots can grow from the stem down into the gravel. Cabomba especially. The roots grow from the stem sides, not the stem base. Anything buried that isnt roots will rot.


I'm going to move this to the goldfish plants forum so that you might recieve some very good additions to my recommendations.

Good luck!

Thanx for the replies folks.

I went out today and got a plastic plant and a silk one, the silk one is for the betta, as I reckon that currently there is not enough substrate in his tank for a plant.

I dug up the rather chewed looking swordplant, and discovered that it was infact rooting itself in the gravel, so I'm keeping it for now- I've moved it to the back of the tank so it's more difficult for the gf to chew it.

Toothless- your post (s) definitely highlighted some of the problems that may have resulted in plant death!
Currently I have a six gal and a 3 gal, neither have hoods. Both are lit by natural light (about 8hrs daylight atm) and a desk lamp that is aimed at them. I assume that this is not really enough for plant growth! As for nutrients, apart from poo and uneaten food (i hoover the tank but try not to disturb the plant) I don't add any. Should I?

The cabombaish thing was almost certainly a victim of my ineptitude, but I'm pretty sure now that the purple plant was a duffer- it came in a black slatted pot like the ones you mention, and was in a prime spot right by the window. I shant be buying from that shop again anyway.

ANyway, cheers for the help. hopefully I can salvage the sword plant from this if nothing else, and nurse it along til I can afford a tank with a light and other such luxuries.

Fugly, that is lousy that you don't have any luck with your plants, and Paul pretty much covered the whole plant area.
Just wonna add, that Cabomba is prone to drop its fine leaves like crazy all over the place when you first get it, and I have bought many that did exactly that. Only my very last purchases haven't done so, and that comes pretty close to a miracle.
As for the purple leaved plant (most likely a Purple Waffle from what you are discribing), well, those plants are not true aquatic plants. Although sold in the plant section in the fish department, they are having a very hard time staying alive after being fully submerged in the tank water.
If you want to, you can pot the sword plant into a small terra cotta pot, and put it in the betta tank for recovery (if there isn't any gravel in the betta's home). That should definetely speed it up, because I haven't seen a goldfish yet that nibbled on a plant and gave up doing that, just because it was in a different spot.
To be honest, I am amazed that the plants in my planted 55gl do so well with the goldfish. That was my very first possitive experience with the plant/goldfish combination, everything else went sour before that one. I have cabomba, anacharis, java moss and java fern, a amazon sword, corkscrew valisneria and a madagascar lace in it, and the tank receives 160 watt of light for 10 hours a day. That is a bit under 3 watt/gallon. Light is definetely a factor when growing healthy plants, but to say in your case it looks like you started out with some problem plants to begin with. There are easier ones around that do well with goldfish...

Ranchugirl- I might try the cabomba again when I get a bigger tank, but it seems to me that in a 3 gal tnak it's just tempting fate to have so much dead leaves- even a week later I'm still finding bits.

As for the purple plant- I had a feeling it was a bad buy. Fortunately the silk plant looks and smells a lot better!

I'm glad to know that there are some people out there who manage to plant up their tanks. I reckon that the size of my tank doesn't help- less to do, more time to chew!

Still, the sword plant has perked up a bit- It's now behind the bubble wall and backed by plastic plants, so it's less accessible- I also tied the stems up so it's not sprawled all over the tank, and the chewed shoots are sprouting again!

So, not so bad after all, and I'm not quite converted to plastic!