Driftwood Questions

[Kittiee Katt]

So, its only one question for now, but I'm bound to have more later down the track.


I brought a big piece of driftwood last week (maybe the week before) and have had it soaking for about 5 days now. I'm a little concerned as the water in the bucket has an oily type film on the surface, I'm wondering if that's normal? I've only ever sank one piece of wood and can't remember this happening with that one.. The container I'm sinking it in has never had oil in it, so it wasn't in the container to begin with.
It was sold to me as 'goldvine', whatever that is.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Woefulrelic]

When water becomes stagnant it will develop a film that could be comparable to oil. If you circulate the water it should disappear. If it doesn't you're not dealing with stagnant water and should wait for someone who knows more than I. That said, I wouldn't use it until I figured out what was going on. On the plus side that film will keep you from culturing mosquitoes.

 

[convict360]

If ever in serious doubt about coatings etc, boil; then lightly sand down the exterior of the wood. Trouble is this can ruin the profile of the wood, but I'd imagine it's likely the wood you have doesn't have a coating...did it look shiny when you got it?

+1 on the stagnant water, I've seen it come off wood in the past; strong chance its nothing to worry about.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Thanks guys, unfortunately I can't boil it, I'd need a 44 gallon drum and a bon-fire to do that I'll chuck a power head in there to see if that helps. Thanks again.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Hey guys, another question, how would I go about putting drift wood in with my silver dollars? I've not put my piece of wood in a tank yet (I've been lazy) and I'm wanting to put it in the 5ft tank when I move everyone around, but I'm not sure what the chances are of my dollars hurting themselves on it. It has a few twisty branches on it and I'm worried that they may hurt themselves, has anyone ever had dollars do this? Should I just leave it for when we get the freebie set up instead or am I just being paranoid again?

 

[Woefulrelic]

If they are pre-soaked (not buoyant) I would just chuck em in. Most driftwood isn't sharp, so it's not much different from other ornaments. The SD might run into it still, raised scale here or there but they would be hard pressed to do any lasting damage to themselves. Pacu are the only fish I've seen beat themselves up time and time again.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

If they are pre-soaked (not buoyant) I would just chuck em in. Most driftwood isn't sharp, so it's not much different from other ornaments. The SD might run into it still, raised scale here or there but they would be hard pressed to do any lasting damage to themselves. Pacu are the only fish I've seen beat themselves up time and time again.

Yeah, its all sunken and has been for a few months now.

The reason I'm worried is because of how hard they smash into the glass if they get startled. And while I do take every precaution not to startle them, I have younger siblings that come to stay with me that are almost guaranteed to jump around near the tank, (even after the thousands of "if that tank smashes while you're in front of it" talks) Then there's friends that have heavy footsteps "stomping" past their tank, that scares them as well. And I'm worried that if the dollars hit their eye or god knows where else on a branch, it will cause a serious injury. Two Bucks (my male) knocks himself out on the glass almost every time the kids are here, and if he hits the glass hard enough to knock himself unconscious for a few seconds (longest was almost 5 minutes!) what would happen if that glass, was wood?

Does all that make sense? I feel like its just a jumbled mess but don't feel like it can be worded any other way.

 

[Woefulrelic]

I understand, and I haven't kept SD so someone more informed may be able to assist you more appropriately. That said I was SUPER sensitive about adding driftwood with my rays, because one eye injury can spell doom for ray, and so far things have been well. I feel like hitting the wood won't be particularly more damaging than hitting the glass panes, because they have a good bit of give to them and the panes can just stun fish. That said, better safe than sorry.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

I understand, and I haven't kept SD so someone more informed may be able to assist you more appropriately. That said I was SUPER sensitive about adding driftwood with my rays, because one eye injury can spell doom for ray, and so far things have been well. I feel like hitting the wood won't be particularly more damaging than hitting the glass panes, because they have a good bit of give to them and the panes can just stun fish. That said, better safe than sorry.

If that's the case I recon I'll wait for someone with experience in this area before making any decisions. Thank you for taking the time to answer me.

 

[Frank Castle]

I don't really have much to add, I think it was all pretty much covered. I don't recall any of my fish inuring themselves on driftwood or rocks much.....my male GT got spooked last week and ran into a rock, but before that I never seen anything like it. I never kept SDs either, so I wouldn't have much input on them, if any. If it makes you feel more comfortable, you can snap off or cut any smaller pieces of the wood that may cause injury and just file/sand the sharp edges down to smooth it out, convict360 had the right idea, just apply it for a different reason now.

Kittiee Katt