Feeding twigs??

[Alexx]

Hello everyone!
I was wondering if I could feed fresh oak twigs to my wood eaters. Any of you do that?? If so, please share
Thanks.

[Mol_PMB]

I do use oak, but I generally dry it thoroughly (6 months or more) rather than use it fresh. I also find that they prefer the wood in the middle rather than the bark.

At first I thought this thread would be about feeding Farlowella twig cats!

Would be interesting to see if others have used fresh timber.

Cheers,
Paul

[Lycosid]

I have occasionally used fresher pieces of wood in my tank with Farlowella and a bristlenose. For some types of wood they strip the bark pretty avidly. However, I wasn't attempting to feed them, but landscape the tank, and they ate off the wood in the process of waterlogging it.

I will note that oak twigs are a pretty good source of tannins, and if you put in too much fresh wood for the volume of your tank this can alter your water chemistry. For some fish it will alter it helpfully, but do pay attention to this.

[bekateen]

I've used fresh broken oak branches and twigs (with leaves attached) safely to feed Panaqolus. And yes, the water is altered by the tannins.

Cheers, Eric

[Alexx]

Very interesting...I mentioned the oak because I know a lot of people uses the leaves but maybe there are other kinds. I was thinking maybe something like Linden twigs too since the Linden is softer than oak!!

[bekateen]

There are many threads here on safe woods. You'll need to do a forum search. Check the "tank talk" forum and also the "speak easy" and Pleco forums.

Cheers, Eric