Collected Driftwood

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jbnebres

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2008
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NE of Asian Arowana F
Quick question people..
When it comes to stream/river/lake collected driftwood, has anyone ever had negative experience such as parasites or disease brought by them?

Just curious b/c I collected some waterlogged driftwood and I left them outside to dry for a week then scrubbed them down yesterday. They were too big to fit in oven or pot to boil so I scrubbed them down with boiling water. I now have a couple being weighed down in water in a plastic rubbermaid bin.

So has anyone ever actually had negative side effects from collected wood.
(When I say collected wood, i mean adequate hard wood, not soft rotting wood).
 
yeah theres been a thread or two where its been decided that new wood was to blame for killing fish..

if its too big to boil letting it dry then soaking it again should take care of any parasites.. as for disease you could always just treat the bin with whatever would be safe for yer stock... might be overkill but id rather waste some meds than have to replace fish..
 
I've used a pressure washer on locally collected driftwood with no fishy problems. I also try and pour boiling water over it if possible.
 
jbnebres;2054480; said:
Quick question people..
When it comes to stream/river/lake collected driftwood, has anyone ever had negative experience such as parasites or disease brought by them?

Just curious b/c I collected some waterlogged driftwood and I left them outside to dry for a week then scrubbed them down yesterday. They were too big to fit in oven or pot to boil so I scrubbed them down with boiling water. I now have a couple being weighed down in water in a plastic rubbermaid bin.

So has anyone ever actually had negative side effects from collected wood.
(When I say collected wood, i mean adequate hard wood, not soft rotting wood).
Click to expand...

I've used literally tons of drift wood over the years, some directly from rivers others washed up on both freshwater and salt water beaches. I've never had a problem with it. A friend did use some drift wood he had been using as decoration around his house and it killed every fish he put in the tank. after talking to him I discovered that a year or two before he had his yard sprayed for insects and the wood had been sprayed with the poison. He took the wood out and the fish began to live. So it is a good idea to know where your wood comes from. I use wood directly out of a river or pond for similar reasons live rock is used in salt water, for the organisms that live on it. Most if not all parasites that might be transfered that way have complex life cycles that cannot be completed in an aquarium. I have not had problems with wood in freshwater or live rock in salt water. If the wood comes from a relatively clean area I wouldn't worry about it.
 
nice feedback guys. thanks. I mean i figured if there was a lot of running water opposed to still, stagnant-fertilizer-run-off bodies of water, the driftwood would probably ok. I think if anyone else would like to collect Dwood, just make sure its not a soft bodied tree or simply rotting.
Again, thanks for the replies. I'll post some images of collected Dwood one of these days.
 
This is a no brainer but also make sure the wood is old/dead enough not to have any resin/sap that may harm the chemistry of your water
 
I found a nice stump, I soaked it for a day and then scrubbed it and poured boiling water into the 5 gallon bucket it was in. Got my fingers crossed, Testing it in my new setup tank fist, 7 neon tetra's and 3 gourami. The tetras are cheap and the gourami well, I had to move them out of the main tank to make room for my new rainbow fish. If all goes well I will put the other half into the 55 gallon, but I want to see this driftwood in the setup tank for at least 4 weeks with no ill effects; before I risk my sharks.
 
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