In a goldfish tank, generally hobbyist would avoid putting in live plants and the main reason is because they can ended up being destroyed by your pets. Goldfish are notorious for uprooting plants (even the toughest type), tearing apart the leaves and creating a whole lot of mess. Thus plants are best left out if you have a goldfish tank but however for me there are one exception of course and that choice of plant is water sprite.
Being fast growing sometimes doesn’t guarantee that it can survive in your goldfish tank. Even with its rapid regeneration rate, this might not even be enough to fill your goldfish’s appetite. In order to counter this, what I usually do is to ensure that my pets are well fed and this means that they would be less likely to chew on the plants to fill their stomach. Thus you might want to ensure that you do not skip any day without feeding your pets or else your plants might suffer the consequences. I had a bad experience once when I actually miss the normal feeding schedule for my fish and ended up losing the whole stalk of fresh leaves getting eaten up, leaving nothing except the branches! Don’t say I don’t warn you.
After all the fiasco and trouble, you might be asking why would you want to have the water sprite inside the tank in the first plane and create all the problems. Well for me, with presence of plants, first your goldfish will fell more secure and with the dense vegetation, they won’t get stressed and startled easily. Second, as we all know, plants are known to improve water quality and the remove the excess of nitrate present in the water. With it around, you will notice your pet goldfish are usually more active and display vibrant colors. Finally you will also need plants to induce goldfish to spawn and provide a hiding place for their fry. Find out more about goldfish reproduction.
