What kind of wood is the best for my Panaque?

[Esther]

I see a lot of different answers to that question on the internet. In the area where I live I can't seem to find anything else than mopani which they don't seem to like (to hard). Driftwood? Never seen it. What is that? Is Mangrove wood better? I want to make the tank like his original habitat. Now I have two types of wood in my tank, one Mopani and another type but also sold as Mopani.

Another question about wood: I took one of the pieces out today because there was a white kind of mould, slimy and it smells to! Both pieces are soaked in a bucket with salt (24 hours) and after that boiled a few times. In the other tank I never had problems with the wood.

So, to cut a long story short what kind of wood is the best and should I throw the smelly mouldy wood away?

Thanks, Esther

P.S. Should I put sand or gravel on the bottom?

[MatsP]

The best wood, in my opinion, is off-cuts from garden trees such as apple, pear, plum and cherry - non fruit ones such as oak, birch and beech are perfectly fine too. There are only a few types of wood you should avoid: the ones with a lot of resin, such as pine, fir, cypress, juniper, etc, and ones that are known to be toxic: cedar, yew and I believe ash is toxic to fish [but I haven't seen any REAL confirmation of this]

Mopani is fine, and I tend to just wash it off in a bucket of water and drop it in the tank. It does sometimes get a bit of fungus growing on it, which an Ancistrus or a Panaque would probably scrape off if it's hungry. Which leads me to think that your tank is freshly set up (or at least the Panaque is new in the tank). If it still gets mouldy, take it out, wash it with clean water and put it back in... It will eventually get waterlogged, and the panaque will help keep it clean.

--
Mats

[racoll]

Try a forum search Esther.

There is a wealth of information on the site about feeding different woods to

Panaque

.

[Esther]

Thanks Mats

@ Racoll: I did but on this side they are talking about driftwood and I never seen it over here. Now I know there's another Dutch name for it and it's a sort of collective term for wood. Or maybe I'm not searching good enough.

[MatsP]

In dutch, I think the word used is "bogwood" (or, rather the dutch corresponding word, which I don't know what it is).

--
Mats

[Bas Pels]

Ester, I'm not exactly certain, but I think

driftwood has been floating in a river or so and landed somewhere. the advantage of using this is than any harmfull thing, such as glucose, has been removed from the wood

bogwood has been dug up from peat. The Dutch word for wood coming from peat (turf) is kienhout.

Real kienhout is hard to get, but in Germany, just over the border near Emmen, you can find nice pieces of half processed wood. For agriculture it is a hindrance, so farmers will gladly grant you permission to take away what's on a pile. In Nl this is illegal (peat areas are protected as nature)

Both kinds of wood are fine for long term use in a tank. However, this half processed wood slowly decays, and personally I like to have a Loricarid in a tank with such wood to eat away the decayed wood.

But for Panaque, you can also use fresh wood, such as Mats explained. After all, in nature they also get fresh wood. However, as fresh wood wil rot soon - and it is intended to rot, make certain the amount of fresh wood is not too large.

[racoll]

@ Racoll: I did but on this side they are talking about driftwood and I never seen it over here. Now I know there's another Dutch name for it and it's a sort of collective term for wood. Or maybe I'm not searching good enough.

Good question.

As far as I am aware, "driftwood" is the term people in the States use for any type of ornamental wood for an aquarium.

Likewise in the UK, we call any piece of ornamental wood "bogwood", whether it has been anywhere near a bog or not.

Therefore in common parlance, they are essentially the same thing.

There are so many different kinds though, it can be hard to understand people when they use these general terms.

Generally as far as

Panaque

are concerned, the softer the better.

[DutchFry]

I'm with Bas on this one. If a trip to Germany is a bit too much for you, try and visit events like Vivariumbeurs or Limbeurs, there's enough great wood for sale!

Furthermore, never boil wood. this destroys the structure of the wood, making it too soft and therefore it will decay much faster! just rinse the wood and use a steel brush to remove dirt/peat!

I know Yucca tree is a real treat for Panaque, but I'm afraid this is not readily available...

[racoll]

Furthermore, never boil wood. this destroys the structure of the wood, making it too soft and therefore it will decay much faster!

Interesting. I always try to boil wood of all kinds. Never had a problem with decay or softeness.

I consider it advantageous, as it kills of any fungus, bacteria, algae or hitching-hiking invertebrates.

More importantly though, it waterlogs the wood quickly, and makes it sink faster. You also remove the worst of the tannins that stain the water.

[DJ-don]

indonesian bog wood is a favourite with mine
same with the malaysian bog wood is also a favourite with mine

[kruseman]

I cook small pieces of bogwood ("kienhout" as Bas mentioned before)too. The pieces will sink immediately and I have never experienced that cooking makes it softer so it decays faster.
The large pieces I didn't cook (all pans in my kitcen are too small)wear off as fast/slow as the pieces I did cook.

FYI Esther: I have some kienhout left over in my backyard.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 27&t=30643

[apistomaster]

I have always used a lot of natural drift wood i collect from local rivers but they are probably much less polluted than any rivers or streams the European public has access to.
Of the wood I have bought, the Panaque sp L204 I used to have also like what is usually sold as Malaysian Drift wood. It seems to be a softer wood than the so called "Mopani" wood often sold for aquarium use.
I had 8 adult L204 at one time and they reduced the sizes of my pieces of Malaysian wood in rather short order and produced an incredible amount of waste for their size. Besides the fact I never could get mine to spawn, I found I them to not be attractive enough as adults for me to stay attached to them. I love the juvenile L204 appearance. They are very pretty species when small. The adults can be hard on broad leaved aquatic plants sometimes. I now only keep species which are not very messy; Hypancistrus and Peckoltia or some Sturisoma, Parotocinclus and Hemiloricaria spp.

[Esther]

Thanks people!

Driftwood is indeed called kienhout in Dutch but I never seem to find this in al the stores in the area (even in the big aquarium stores in The Hague). There aren't to many trees over here and it's also very polluted (many cars and dogs) so I'm a little bit cautious to collect it.

Tomorrow I'm going to The Hague to buy another filter for the panaque tank so I'll check the wood department again. But I'm also going on holiday in September. To Serbia and Germany so I definitely fill my car with wood .

So now the only question I have left is: to boil or not to boil but it's so clean in Germany that I think it's not necessary. In the store's they always say to put it in a bucket of water with a kilo salt for 24 ours......

@Kruseman, I've noticed your ad before. I think Venray is a little bit to far away for some wood but thanks for the offer. I can, however, come by when I'm going to(or coming from) Germany but then again I collect it over there myself.

[racoll]

I had really good results with silver birch (Betula pendula).

I collected thin (<4cm) branches of dead, but dry and not rotten wood.

I stripped most of the bark off with a knife before placing in the tank.

I didn't soak or boil as the branches were too big.

The

L204

loved it, and I had no fungus issues (probably because of the

Panaque

).

[apistomaster]

I hunt for wood which is already waterlogged.
I use a wire brush and straight off the shelf bleach undiluted and scrub the wood down several times. I pressure wash with fresh water each time to remove any dirt and bleach. Allow the bleached scrubbed wood at least 15 minutes between rinses for maximum effect. The wood will look much nicer after this preparation.
I do this work outdoors and wear disposable clothes as the bleach droplets will show on your clothes.
Here the beavers do all the trimming and eat all the bark. All the wood I use was originally cut from or is an actual tree the Beavers cut down. I have no idea what species of bush or tree I find except that I know Beavers avoid conifers and like Aspen, Willow, Cottonwood and there are many other native bushes and trees they eat. Make sure you keep pre-waterlogged wood water saturated if you want it to sink.

[racoll]

I use a wire brush and straight off the shelf bleach undiluted and scrub the wood down several times

In the store's they always say to put it in a bucket of water with a kilo salt for 24 hours......

I would personally avoid the use of bleach and salt in my tanks, but that's just me.

It gives me peace of mind.

I do usually pressure wash collected wood though.

[Bas Pels]

When I got wood from peat areas in Germany, I put it in tanks. I even forgot to scrub the most obvious rests of peat away, which resulted in far too brown water

One piece appered too big to handle, so I intended to saw it later. A week later someone noticed bugs coming from the wood, and suggested drowning them in my large tank - so we did

Harmfull results? None. My fish had a free meal, that's all