plants... real V fake

im considering getting plants for my cold water tank i heard that goldfish really lay into real plants, the other option is plastic plants, do they look good in the tank? do they look real or can u tell there plastic?

any suggestions, im sure my goldfish would apreicate

happy new year

Happy New Year to you too !!

The main problem with putting live plants in with your goldies is that they will eat them or uproot them.

I have live plants in with mine and have avoided the uprooting problem by planting the around some pieces of bogwood and so far........no probs.

They have eaten a couple of the lants a bit, but by no means decimated them so that doesn't bother me.

As far as fake plants go, you can get some really good fake plants - silk or plastic - that look great in the tank.

The only reason I have put real plants in the goldies tank is I had an algae problem that I thought might be less if there were a few plants in there, and I had some plants left over after planting the tropical tank.

Have a look in here
https://tropicalfishfanatics.forumotion.com/your-setups-f18/mary-s-coldwater-tanks-t82.htm

at Marys tanks which have fake plants and looks really nice I think.

Ah that's nice of you to say so, Diana. Thanks.

I'm going to add some more "faux foliage" to the larger goldfish tank to hide the airpump tubing.

IMO Tropical tanks are better with real plants but I was too lazy to put them in the smaller tanks/goldfish tanks so I just have them in the larger ones. That said, the planted tanks are definitely easier to maintain as I don't get the same level of algal growth as I do in the non-planted ones.