Goldfish not eating elodea

[tran duc duy]

Hello,

I've recently bought two bunches of elodea and have planted them in my
10g tank. I've heard many people say that their goldfish have stripped
their elodea bare in a matter of weeks. So far my goldfish have left the
elodea alone. I was wondering if this is common. Will they learn to eat
the anachris over time? Not that I want them to eat the plants, I just
wanted to know. TIA.

Duke

[Melissa Danforth]

Duke,
My comet Ollie nibbled on the bottoms of his bunches of anacharis for a few
days but was much more interested in the hairgrass (soon removed from piglet's
tank). He still nibbles on the anacharis occasionally, but not enough to really
damage its growth. I've got a small mat going on the top of the tank that
creates a nice shady patch Ollie likes to stay in. I'd say the anacharis eating
depends from fish to fish and we just have ones that prefer a different meal
(well, in my case, begging for more food :) ).
Melissa

*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*
Melissa Danforth a03...@academic.csubak.edu
"And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes . . ."
A Midsummer Night's Dream V.i.14-16

[Kathleen Riley Crowe]

When I first had my tank, the goldfish obliterated the plants within a day
or two. I replaced them with plastic plants. A year later, I put live
plants back in and they didn't touch them until about 3 months after I
had removed the last plastic plant. Even now, they will pick out one
or two bunches to gnaw on over time, leaving the other bunches alone.
So, I do think they learn to eat it over time, but not necessarily.

[G. Tong]

In article <Pine.Sola.3.91.96031...@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu>,

tran duc duy <dd-...@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu> wrote:

> I've recently bought two bunches of elodea and have planted them in my
> 10g tank. I've heard many people say that their goldfish have stripped
> their elodea bare in a matter of weeks. So far my goldfish have left the
> elodea alone. I was wondering if this is common. Will they learn to eat
> the anachris over time? Not that I want them to eat the plants, I just
> wanted to know. TIA.

They'll nibble but they won't eat a lot if they're otherwise well-fed.

--
G. Tong
gt...@sirius.com

"Every infinity is composed of only two halves."