Driftwood Bonanza

[Jools]

Steven, I am sure it will be fine, many fish will eat the "fungus"; in fact they relish it. What sort of fish are you going to have with the wood?

Jools

[EdWalker]

I have 4 plecos in my 55 gallon. 1 albino bristlenose, 1 bristlenose, 1 rubber lip, and 1 clown pleco

There are also 6 corydoras, 2 SA bumblebees, 3 pictus, and a striped raphael.

[Jools]

Those plecos will thank you for that unsterilised wood. Post pics!

Jools

[EdWalker]

Okay, I dropped the pieces that in last night and the Albino immediately had to go check them out. When I got up this morning the regular bristlenose was giving them a try. The rubber lip is still doing his regular "whatever, leave me alone" thing and the clown is chilling, as he always does, underneath the piece of mopani I tossed in there a month or two back. The cories like the new wood as well.

I'll give them all a few days to check these pieces out and then I'll post some good pics up of them Thanks for all of your help!

[TwoTankAmin]

I have used a lot of cyprus. Its quite soft and in 10 yeras it will be gone. It needs to be weighted to stay down until it waterlogs well and even after with many pieces. But it sure looks pretty.

[bekateen]

I have... a lot of cyprus... it sure looks pretty.

Wow, that really does look cool!

I have a few "unknown" pieces of driftwood (literally driftwood, collected along the Washington oceanic coast) that have not sunk in over a year of floating in the tank. None-the-less, the plecos (

L397

and

Peckoltia compta

are the only plecos in the tank) are eating it, and it is slowly getting whittled down, although still floating.

My most beautiful wood is Manzanita. It's not "driftwood" per se, it's just "wood"... (I have wild {natural, not planted} Manzanita trees growing on my property so I can harvest wood whenever I please)...When my

clown pleco

s and L397 do their thing, chewing on the surface, it brings out amazing grain. But it doesn't form grooves like your wood does, TTA... I imagine that's because the Manzanita wood is so dense. Oh, I guess we can't have it both ways.

Cheers, Eric

[Shane]

Nearly all "driftwood" sold commercially has never been in the water. Mopani grows in dry climates in southern Africa and its density is actually a defense against termites.

Manzanita costs a fortune out here on the east coast. Amazes me as in my youth we burned it in massive amounts in California when we would clear a pasture.
-Shane