Best Fake Plants for Fancy Goldfish

From my experience with fancy goldfish they do seem a little picky about what fake plants they take an interest/liking in. Mine seem to go for more colorful varieties such as those that are pink, rather than the more realistic green plants. For mine the below fuchsia colored plant seems to attract their interest the most thus far as they'll swim by and occasionally try to nibble at its leaves.

National Geographic flower plant @ PetSmart

When I asked others what type of fake plant/s they felt were best suited for fancy goldfish the most common response was along the lines of.. "silk plants" as to prevent goldfish injuries (so avoid fake plants that look spiky). Another person suggested low/short plants with really big leaves, they claim it helps catch food which goldfish will eat later. Also fancy goldfish can be a bit clumsy at times so I'd suggest that the fake plant has a wide and weighted base as to help prevent the plant from tipping over. Based on everything here I put together the below image of the types of fake plants which fancy goldfish may like best (these are all from Petco, PetSmart, and PetMountain).

What type of fake plants do your fancy goldfish like?

Betta Aquarium Makeover

I had been wanting to do a desert themed aquarium for some time now but I could never find anything at my local pet-stores of any true interest... until this past weekend at Petco. So, I decided to give Mr. Moto (my blue veil-tail betta) a Cubus aquarium makeover.

Petco now has some gravel-sand type substrate sold in-store (not just online) and it comes in really nice colors like the sienna shade that I bought. I also LOVE succulent plants so I just had to get Petco's light green desert bush, the product says it's not made for water use but... I never listen do I, hahah. For the background I cut out some skyblue colored foamboard which I already had on hand, I believe I got it from Michael's craft store. I think I might add some 1-2cm sized light colored pebbles around the base of the plant later-on, just to add a bit more interest to my design here.

If you've noticed how sparkling clean my Cubus aquarium is looking again I will also be doing another post soon which will be based on... how to remove calcium buildup.

Death by Moss Ball and Review

Sadly with all the different methods of water testing, chemicals and new products that come on the market it can also result in tank fatalities. In under 24 hours I placed an Exo Terra Moss Ball into my tank and lost all of my fish (I did post my review on the product on the stores site as a warning), I had found two fish barely holding on, but they were too far gone to make a recovery.

On the upside, I will get my $5 back for returning the moss ball which I can use toward purchasing new fish. Ironically the same day all my fish had died I got an e-mail from Petco reminding me that it was also my guppies birthday and I can get a 10% discount.
I am still debating loading the video of the night I added the moss ball into my tank so that you can see how spooked my fish were... wish I had realized why they were so scared at the time.

Click image to enlarge

Above are a few images which are inspiring me to create a new aquascape, I especially like the 3rd photo the best.