Hi,
I was wondering if anyone knew of a plant like wisteria? i have tried many types of plants, but they don't seem to survive (they look sickly or my goldfish eat it). Wisteria seems to grow very fast, plus it won't get the thick hairy red algae stuck to it. I have a pretty strong light, and I'm looking for any plant which won't get algae stuck to it, and grows fast. I have tried java ferns, Anubias, java moss, swords, and a few others, and they die a horrible death from one of the following:
1)goldfish eat it
2)they just don't do well, turn brown
3)heavy red/black algae infestation, killing it. Even scrubbing it off weekly doesn't help, stuck so hard leaves fall off. I have tried with fingers and a soft toothbrush.

Wisteria seem to grow so fast the goldfish can't eat it fast enough, and they don't get the icky algae stuck on them much. and if they do, I can just cut that part off since it grows so fast. Any suggestions? I want it in my 75 gallon, so it can't be too massive . I'm not sure what it is (probably over stocked? I've got 6 big goldfish in there, and I admit I probably give them a tad too much food) but with certain plants they get absolutely covered in hard red/black algae. So any suggestions on what type of plants I could get would be great!

What kind of lighting do you have on the tank? Use any type of fertilizers?

You know, I find that odd. Wysteria requires more maintenence and light than some of the other plants suggested on this forum. Its weird that the algae doesn't grow on the fine leaves too. Do you know what kind it is? I've never heard of it. What plants have you already tried?

I use some plant tabs placed in a little plastic pot the roots of my plant goes into. I have some power compacts (4 x 65 watt) on my tank. so i have almost 4 watts per gallon. Algae does grow on the wisteria, but its usually loose green stuff that easily washes off. It does occasionally get the black/red hairy algae, but i just cut off that piece of the plant and its good to go again.

What kind the algae is? I'm not sure but its either dark red or dark brown/black. It clumps together in strands and sticks to the leaves so that it is extremely difficult to remove unless the leaf is cut off.

I have tried some varieties of anubis (they got covered in that algae and got all gross). I got some crinum natans and same thing . My favorite was echinodorus 'rose', looked so nice but again overcome by the red algae plague. I have tried vallisneria but it seems to not do well in my tank. java fern did great in my tank, but its roots (not sure??) spread all over the place, and although the plant looked great, it spread these wierd brown chunks everywhere. I only tried it with that one plant though.

The first thing I thought was that the wisteria might just grow fast enough that it doesn't let the algae grow... So you could try other fast growing plants. Maybe anacharis, hornwort, or creeping charlie would do okay.

Was your java fern tied to anything? I remember hearing a few other people say their plant sent out a lot of root-type things if it wasn't tied to a rock or ornament of some sort.

Not a clue about algae though...haven't been plagued by it (knock on wood). Good luck dooming it though!

It was not tied to anything, just in the gravel. And all this brown guck went everywhere. I didn't realize it should be tied to anything! I don't have any ornaments or wood in the tank, its already cramped enough in there with the plants.

Thanks for your suggestions, of those plants any suggestions which one I should try first?

Java ferns aren't really required to be tied down, but if you do it encourages them to attach their roots just to the rock and not send them out all over the place. You could probably get roughly fist sized rocks and tie the plant on with fishing line and have it attached in a few weeks.

Any of them you can get easily will be good. I've seen anacharis (might also be called elodea) and hornwort more often that creeping charlie in local fish shops, though. Anacharis is probably the easiest to keep alive - they aren't terribly particular about water parameters, or light, and don't seem to mind goldfish 'redecorating.' They grow like crazy and will probably need pruning, but you can replant what you trim.

mkinga, is this algae you describe "red brush algae?" Here's a link, its toward the bottom of the page. http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

Good to know what it finally is! It indeed is brush algae