Gardening Goldfish

[Ricrhys]

In my new tank I'm trying to grow a bit of a carpet of Eleocharis acicularis 'mini' it seems to be doing well if it wasn't for my night time gardener the 2" goldfish, I was wondering if anyone had any luck with something similar to what I'm thinking, I was going to place some sort of plastic mesh above it for a month or two to let it get established and stop the night time gardening, nothing so chunky it won't let the light through just to stop any foraging till the root system gets established.
I guess the question is is it worth it or will it get ripped up even with an established root system in a sand substrate.

[Jen1981]

Haha goldfish just love to pull up plants, that will never stop, mine will pull moss off a rock until it’s all gone (they don’t eat it) I’ve yet to find a plant they will not destroy, I have large Anubias that they never touched for over a year then one day they just went to town on it, it has 3 leaves left & slowly starting to recover

[Ides of March]

From what I have discovered, goldfish will try to eat anything.

Depends on how well you are to cover the plant. The goldfish will only grow much larger and stronger.

[Ricrhys]

looks like the lawn is doomed

[plankton]

You can try feeding the goldies loads of fresh veg, but they will normally rip/eat you out of plants in the tank.......

[Ricrhys]

Well I'm not sure what the long term plan for the Goldie is but I'd like to give the lawn (Eleocharis acicularis 'mini') a chance to get a really decent root system established so that it stands a chance against the boisterous gardener, all the little strands that are being pulled up are carpeting at the top of the tank so I'm hoping they will do the same when planted.

Anyway for the last couple of weeks I've been keeping my eye out for some plastic mesh to put above the lawn to give it a break, turns out I had a load in the shed, perfect! just hope it’s not shading too much. I gave it all a trim today too to give it a boost.

[Ric]

...and you've told your goldfish, of course, to leave the mesh alone and not to squeeze him/herself in below the mesh

Hope it works.

[plankton]

....or not to pick it up to get to the lovely veg underneath......

[Ricrhys]

Stern words have been had!

[Ric]

Is it working? Or has your fish found a way to get to the plants yet?