Grapevine Twists as Driftwood?

[necigrad]

Appreciate the info, and now for a question to expand on something.

Some Local Fish Stores will sell grapevine twists advertised as ‘driftwood’. Do not buy this, as grape wood WILL develop an unsightly fungus that will never subside, and can be harmful to your fish.

What does thi fungus look like? I bought a piece of "wood" (don't rmember if it specified "drift"wood) from Petco fro something like $10. It said that it was both teranium and aquarium safe. Having it in the tank for a few days, it now has so white (for lack of abetter term) "spooge" leaching out of it. I dont recall it specifing as any type of wood, so it might or might not be graevine. It's several inches in diamater and had bark, but also has a very smooth rounded area as well.

 

[J double R]

the fungus most often seen with grape wood is indeed white/grey. try scrubbing it off or re-boiling your wood and put it back in the tank. sometimes, in the case of driftwood, the fungus will go away or die off on its own, in other cases, you must select a new piece of wood.

 

[J double R]

grapevine/grape wood are generally not good.. softer woods are not good because of easy rotting as well as sap leaching (which is another reason why you want to find a dead piece). sap can leach from pine and cedar for YEARS after it is dead. good hardwoods like oak are optimum and will work well.

 

[necigrad]

Not sure what I've got yet. I did notice, however, that the snails that I don't want may be eating this stuff. I think I'll wait for a bit to see what happens, be it that the stuff disappears or grows back. If it keeps coming back, or they stop eating it, I'll have to get new wood.

 

[necigrad]

Well, good news. The snails seem to be doing some serious damage to this stuff. I still don't know if it's fungus or not, but I'm guessing if they snails keep eating it things will be all right.