Bristlenose

[Jess Puff]

Interesting... is it a bigger building or something?

[bnoel210]

Its actually smaller, but its brand new and right next door to marys garden.

[Jess Puff]

Well hopefully someone will teach them how to care for their fish...

[bnoel210]

Everytime i have gone there the tanks have been clean and only 1-2 dead in the entire store. Has it been bad before?

[Jess Puff]

Yea, I brought in a couple of Livingstonii that I wanted store credit for and the lady just threw one in the tank without acclimating and the other one was almost dead about a week later. It was VERY sad! I almost bought the one back.

[bnoel210]

Dang

[allierw]

You can use the grape wood. I use that in my tanks. It will leech like crazy for about the first year or two though. The tannins don't hurt anything, just looks unsightly (IMO).

[bnoel210]

Would boiling it help at all? I have 4 pieces that are about 3-5 in each and they are all going in different tanks.

[thorace]

Yeah i read boiling works good.......yeah pet palace should be up in a week i figure.... and they have been doing pretty good with the fish lately jess, you are right it was bad for a while there ......

[mruble]

You don't need to worry about boiling the wood Brian - as clean as your tanks are and all those water changes, don't believe you will have a problem. I am not sure about boiling grapewood, but boiling mopani gets a lot of tannin out - the tank should be able to eliminate the remaining tannin over the next few years!

[ree123]

From a thread on another web site forum page a hobbyist wrote;
"Suitable wood can be found in the fish shop, but you can also use wood from the garden, or found on river-banks and shores. Wood should be cleaned properly with boiling water and then soaked for at least 24 hours before it’s placed in the fish-tank. It is not suitable to use wood that has a lot of resin, such as pine and spruce. Better choices are medium to hard woods, such as cherry, apple, birch and beech."

The question would be what is cleaned properly. ? I would think a thorough scrubbing and bark removal for sure. I would also think the wood should be soaked for more than 24 hours. IMO, more like a week with h20 changes every day for the week.

Also Cholla wood is excellent. This is the hollow wood with all the holes from a cactus plant in Arizona and New Mexico.
I use a lot of this wood.
Sinks well, softens well, and the Plec's love it.
It can be ordered from individuals that live in that area, that collect it naturally.
Look for them on E-bay and Amazon.

[ree123]

On this same or similar subject;
Have any of you ever tried placing dried oak leaves in a tank of angels or other soft water Cichlids ?
Not you African guys/gals, but any of you S.A. fish gurus.
It softens the water and lowers the ph somewhat and triggers spawning on a frequent basis.
I use this trick for the softer water loving Cichlids as well.
Other leaves might work too, but I have always used oak leaves as they seem to produce the best results for me. The bigger the leaf the better.