Bamboo safe for fish?

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islander671

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Anyone ever use natural bamboo sticks for aquarium decor? Is it safe for the fish, The ones i have are "untreated" and the Dat and Clown knife dont seem to have a problem with it, but do you think in the long run it might bother them? Clown knife loves to weave between the sticks at night.hehe
 
The bamboo will certainly rot unless you varnish it. It is also good to boil the bamboo be4 using it in your tank, as it may contain harmful foreign organisms. If it is unboiled and unvarnished, your water will be brown, your bamboo will rot and your fish may get sick or die.
 
Kutty said:
The bamboo will certainly rot unless you varnish it. It is also good to boil the bamboo be4 using it in your tank, as it may contain harmful foreign organisms. If it is unboiled and unvarnished, your water will be brown, your bamboo will rot and your fish may get sick or die.


Yeah i would be careful sticking something organic thats not "dried out " properly.
We dont know what the bamboo could leach out into the water and i agree with
Kutty, it will eventually rot out and will make a mess of your water.
 
redtailfool said:
or you could use the bamboo as background decor. Stick it behind the aq glass.
hehe..good idea, hadnt thought of that. i bought an excess of the stuff in 6 ft lengths so ive got plenty to use.
 
I have live bamboo growing out of several of my tanks. I also use bamboo garden stakes for my dats. I silicone seal them to clay pot shards to make waving forests of bamboo for the dats to feel secure in. The garden stakes from WalMart are kiln dried so I don't worry about anything getting to the fish. The bamboo will decompose faster than driftwood but, I only have to replace the wood about every 3 years.
 
Oddball said:
I have live bamboo growing out of several of my tanks. I also use bamboo garden stakes for my dats. I silicone seal them to clay pot shards to make waving forests of bamboo for the dats to feel secure in. The garden stakes from WalMart are kiln dried so I don't worry about anything getting to the fish. The bamboo will decompose faster than driftwood but, I only have to replace the wood about every 3 years.

that sounds intersting what you do with the silicone. is it really effective? for some reason i only noticed this post now. thanks maybe will experiment a little more with bamboo. i like how it looks in the tanks.
 
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