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Hi,

What type of DRIFTWOOD would be best suited for my Clown Pleco?

He currently has a couple of pieces of what I think is Mopani but he prefers to rest and hide on a polyresin ornament or one of my plants.

Cheers Stu...

I just take a nice piece of driftwood out of our pond. Then I take some tools (wood carving knife, awl, flat head screwdriver) and scrape all the soft rotten wood off the surface. Then I boil the driftwood for a few minutes and it is ready to add to my tank. This probably isn't the best way to do it (diseases or parasites on the wood), but boiling should kill anything in it. You just have to boil it long enough.

Mine seem happy to eat Mopani, at least judging by how big their bellies are, especially the females.

But I've also got some cherry-tree branches and half a dozen pieces of bamboo-caves (2-3"/5-8cm diameter segments, 5-10"/12-25cm long).

You can literally put any type of wood in the tank, as long as it's not off some poisonous tree. There are few native trees in Europe [avoiding Yew-tree!], so any branches of garden-trees would almost certainly be OK. Softer woods take a bit longer to waterlog to sink, but otherwise it doesn't make much difference. I'm sure they would also be happy eating leftover pieces of pine from diy-projects, although those would look a bit less natural [but more natural than plastic submarines, skeletons, crochodiles, etc, etc].

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Mats

Thanks for your replies.

I think I may try and get some bogwood from one of the local aquatics shops.

'Mats' I seem to be having problems with the hardness of my water, if I incorporated some slate caves within the tank would this have any beneficial effect? or am I best using treatments? Sorry the questions not related to the Driftwood question!

Stu..

Thanks for your replies.

I think I may try and get some bogwood from one of the local aquatics shops.

'Mats' I seem to be having problems with the hardness of my water, if I incorporated some slate caves within the tank would this have any beneficial effect? or am I best using treatments? Sorry the questions not related to the Driftwood question!

Stu..

What exactly are your "problems with hardness"...

Is the water SOFT or HARD? Clown pleco's are likely to be happier in SOFT rather than hard water. Obviously, if the, water is TOO soft (i.e. doesn't have enough buffering capacity), you can have problems with pH crashing.

If you have HARD water, there's not much you can do about it, aside from getting de-mineralized water (That is RO-water in most cases).

Finally, slate has no effect on the hardness of the water, unless the slate is "unclean".

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Mats

Hi,

My PH is very good and stays between 7.0 and 7.2, but my hardness is below 3 degrees and never seems to rise.
Ammonia is 0,nitrate is about 5mg/l and nitrites are negligable.

Not quite sure whats wrong but my live plants look a bit dull also.

Any Ideas?

I wish I had your problem...

I don't think a GH of 3 is a BIG problem. As long as the pH is stable, that's fine.

Now, IF you want to raise the GH, you could add some "crushed corall" or similar to the filter (or the bottom of the tank). But for the Clown pleco's, that's not necessary, they will LIKE the low hardness much better than my local water (which is definitely above GH 10, and probably closer to 20 than 10. Very good for Malawi cichlids).

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Mats

All of the Fish seem fine. Neons, guppies, Oto's and the clown pleco.
I will keep testing the water and monitor accordingly.

Cheers Stu..

I have a half a coconut, with a 3/4-1" hole, in my comunity tank, that come out of a well aged guppy tank.
My royal will not leave it alone.
It has stripped all the "hairs" off the coconut rendering it bald and smooth.
The other fish in the tank thought the coconut of much interest at first as well, until a heathy krib' took it over, inside at least..

I heard limestone is supposed to act as a buffer, and it can usually be cleaved flat enough for caves or shelves.

I prefer what I call African root (swahala wood or Welaby Wood) for my wood eating plecos.
It sinks when dry which makes it ideal for aquariums. A nice sized piece is about
$25 US and you can usually find it at most LFS. I have used it for many years but it can
discolor your tank water so I would always boil this wood before using it in an aquarium.

jackster wrote:I prefer what I call African root (swahala wood or Welaby Wood) for my wood eating pl*cos.
It sinks when dry which makes it ideal for aquariums. A nice sized piece is about
$25 US and you can usually find it at most LFS. I have used it for many years but it can
discolor your tank water so I would always boil this wood before using it in an aquarium.

I'm not sure if Mopani is the same thing or not, but it sounds very similar. It's probably one of those things that have many different names.

--
Mats

Thanks Everyone for your replies!!

I put a PVC pipe "Blank-End" in, with a hole in it, the other night and this has become his new home. These are quite useful because they go upto about 6" dia.

Cheers again Stu..