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Post by parker002 on Sept 11, 2010 22:00:53 GMT -5
My daughter has a 3-gallon betta tank that houses her shrimps. Lately, there's been some brown spot algae building up and she decided after some research (she's eight and uses Google  ) to buy an Oto catfish, based on information that they: 1) love to eat brown algae and 2) make great tankmates for shrimp One of the things her research told her was that oto's like bog wood, so she bought a small piece of african mopani at the LFS. Specifically it was Zoo Med brand driftwood. I soaked it overnight to remove some of the tannins and we added it to the tank. It's been in there a few days and is now covered with a whitish, cottony substance. It looks like beard algae but is white rather than green or brown. A quick internet search suggests this is quite common and nothing to worry about. I just want to make sure. |
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Post by Carl on Sept 12, 2010 11:55:53 GMT -5
My thought is if this is a bacteria (which is common), is this will disappear; however since the driftwood I have used has rarely had this problem I cannot say for sure. I might add that boiling in salt water should prevent this. I would also attempt to look closely with a magnifying glass so as to discern that this is not Saprolegnia (Fungus), as this would likely be more detrimental to your aquarium. Personally I prefer the use of true driftwoods that are more cured over Mopane wood (Mopane wood is from a tree of the dry sub-tropical savanna rather than a rain forest tree that is popular for aquarium use due to its ease in sinking and low decomposition rate). I then use tannins from Peat, or Indian almond Leaves (such as Bio Lif) to provide my SA or SE Asia water environment Carl |
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Post by parker002 on Sept 12, 2010 14:12:13 GMT -5
I took a couple pieces of it and looked at it under 200x magnification (the one and only time my kids have used their Eyeclops toy!  . It's not white, it's PINK - the same color as my Turbo Start incidentally. And it contains thousands of small, roundish dots. I'm fairly certain it's a bacteria colony of some sort. The ghost shrimp are eating it as well and they're not prolific algae eaters. I didn't boil the wood primarily because Zoo Med claims it's not necessary. Also, on the use of this wood - Zoo Med says the reason to use this wood is that it's ultra-dense, sinks instantly, and doesn't rot. Pretty much exactly what you suggest are the properties of a rain forest tree rather than mopani. I can attest that it certainly doesn't float and is very, very heavy for it's size. I chose this wood over drift wood because of its looks (very cool) rather than tannins or anything. |
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Post by Carl on Sept 12, 2010 14:56:23 GMT -5
Great, I suspected this was bacterial, but it is always best to look closer to be safe  I hope you do not feel you need to defend your decision to use mopani wood, I was giving my viewpoint, mostly based on the reason I get from other's emails.  That said, often what a manufacture claims is not necessarily the best advice to follow (for instance the Terminator UVs that I sell are good products, but the manufacture makes aquarium size per UV claims that simply do not work based on the math). I would still recommend a boil or salt/brine bath prior to use. Carl |
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Post by parker002 on Sept 12, 2010 16:51:04 GMT -5
So you think based on my observations that it is bacterial? I don't want you to take my word for it! And I'm not feeling defensive at all - more confused really. Primarily because the reasons you listed NOT TO buy mopani are the reasons the LFS (and Zoo Med) recommended TO buy mopani. And I will certainly boil in salt water in the future. I should have done that to begin with. That being said, it's already in the tank. Is it harmless? Should I just forget about it and move on? |
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Post by Carl on Sept 13, 2010 9:27:10 GMT -5
Yes, I think this is bacterial based on your observations.
I was giving you an opinion as per Mopani Wood, not facts. That opinion was simply based on the high amount of leaching from this wood. Whether this is a long term problem, I doubt (I do not at least know of any long term problems). Being dry sub-tropical wood, that is not normal exposed to water may or may not be an issue, however it is popular and again I know of no long term issues (only short term with considerable leaching and bacteria)
At this point, I would simply use carbon and brush off (under running water) any bacterial mat growths.
In the future, even just a cool saltwater bath may be fine (no boiling).
Mopani Wood has become popular quickly due to its very appealing appearance in the aquarium. Zoomed has also done a good job marketing this, however ZooMed (& others) have thrust this product on the market without much long term research IMHO. That does not mean this is a bad product, it just means there are some unanswered long term questions about the use of a dry savanna wood for aquarium use instead of either true driftwood or true tropical woods such as Malaysian Wood
Carl
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Post by parker002 on Sept 13, 2010 10:05:25 GMT -5
Interesting commentary, as always. Thanks!
I will go ahead and wash the wood and put it back in the tank. I also bought some (from a different LFS) for my 55G tank - I will soak it in salt instead of boiling it, since boiling would be hard due to its size.
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Post by parker002 on Sept 13, 2010 12:10:51 GMT -5
The wood is proving a little difficult to remove without harming the fish and shrimp in the tank (it's wedged in there). Would it be ok to leave it? It is definitely ONLY growing on the wood and I would think it would eventually exhaust its food source and die off...
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Post by Carl on Sept 13, 2010 14:37:38 GMT -5
Would it be ok to leave it? It is definitely ONLY growing on the wood and I would think it would eventually exhaust its food source and die off... In my opinion you likely will be just fine, just keep an eye on water parameters and more importantly "growths" Carl |
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Post by parker002 on Sept 13, 2010 17:56:17 GMT -5
I ended up being able to "extract" the wood without too much disruption to her critters. I scrubbed it and then soaked it for a couple of hours in hot water filled with pickling salt. I put it back in a few minutes ago.
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Post by parker002 on Sept 13, 2010 20:07:35 GMT -5
This may be deserving of it's own thread, but I added a small Wonder Shell to the tank just now. I ordered them at like 9pm on Friday night and they arrived via the US Postal Service TODAY. I don't know how you do it, but I'm a big fan!!! |
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Post by parker002 on Sept 14, 2010 21:13:17 GMT -5
Despite the scrub and the soak, there are small patches of the pink slime coming back on the wood. It's not as pervasive as it was but it's still there. I'm not gonna worry about it anymore.
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Post by Carl on Sept 15, 2010 9:05:01 GMT -5
Despite the scrub and the soak, there are small patches of the pink slime coming back on the wood. It's not as pervasive as it was but it's still there. I'm not gonna worry about it anymore. You probably will be fine, especially since it is less pervasive now; just keep an eye on it. BTW, as for the fast delivery; we drop off all packages manually and with the USPS they have a Saturday morning pick up and since your package was light enough for the USPS. If this were a more heavy package, we would have had to ship FedEx which we would still drop off for faster service, however it would not be until Monday Carl |
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Post by childofiam on Jan 25, 2016 9:13:13 GMT -5
Hi Parker002, it has been 5 years now with this thread about mopani wood. Are you still using the Mopani driftwood in your tank and if so how has it done?
Richard
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Post by parker002 on Jan 26, 2016 14:05:24 GMT -5
We had it in the 14G tank until just a few months ago when I drained it. One of the big benefits of this wood is that it lasts forever with very little decay.
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) to buy an Oto catfish, based on information that they:
.
