Bamboo safe for fish?

[TFHobbiest1]

I was making wind chimes a few years back, so I was lucky enough to have some dried/cured, wild cut bamboo in the basement. Anyhow, I wanted to give my recently purchased cherry shrimp a nice natural refuge, so I searched "Is dried bamboo safe for freshwater fish", and wound up here in this thread... and, after reading through the couple posts from people who actually used dried bamboo in their tanks, I grew confident enough to go cut me up some 2" in lengths and proceed boil them. Now, they ain't in the tank yet, (they're currently cooling in the pot), but I do want to offer this long-winded bit of advice to those wanting to use wild-cut bamboo that has been allowed to dry out for a couple good seasons or two: Because it's my belief that you'll want to loosen up the outer skin enough to be able to release and scrub off those little dots of black mold that lie dormant in/on the skin of mostly all naturally harvested bamboo, I STRONGLY advise you to boil your cuts for at least 20 to even 30 minutes... This is just a precaution that I took because, thankfully, I remembered that when I cut the stalks they were covered in black spots that really could not be mistaken for anything other that MOLD! So, anyhow, I just want to let ya'll know that any lil' black spots on your bamboo are are NOT some naturally occurring pigmentation... they are mold growths, that can (and probably should be removed - lol, at ANY cost!!!