Bogwood Problem

[smig]

Hi, We have a couple of Clown Loaches in our tank which have kept going into a hole on the piece of Bogwood in the tank. Now that the fish have grown on the last occasion they seemed to get stuck. We had to take the wood out and shake them loose but they seem to be fine. Is it safe to saw off part of the bogwood where the hole is or will this contaminate it. Thanks

 

[holidayinn]

Hello, welcome to the forum.

I found that Clown Loaches liked to hide themselves in anything they could find from time to time. The tighter the fit the better for most of them. Indeed, when cleaning the tank I used to take ornaments out of the tank, give them a good shake, inspect them and 10 mins later find a CL dropped out. In short, I've found the behaviour you describe quite frequently with my CL, in that they are not stuck, they just like to sometimes hide in something that procides a tight fit, so personally would leave the bogwood as is. HTH.

 

[waterdrop]

Interesting question! I don't know to what extent the "seasoning" of bogwood is just a thin layer around the exposed surfaces.

My assumption would be that yes, you could widen or otherwise cut the area to eliminate the danger and perhaps the bogwood might do a further minor release of some tannins as that area soaked and adjusted. You could of course take it out, cut it, soak it and pour more boiling water over it for a bit if you wanted to.

Will be interested to hear if any members have any direct experience cutting bogwood that's already been conditioned.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[smig]

Interesting question! I don't know to what extent the "seasoning" of bogwood is just a thin layer around the exposed surfaces.

My assumption would be that yes, you could widen or otherwise cut the area to eliminate the danger and perhaps the bogwood might do a further minor release of some tannins as that area soaked and adjusted. You could of course take it out, cut it, soak it and pour more boiling water over it for a bit if you wanted to.

Will be interested to hear if any members have any direct experience cutting bogwood that's already been conditioned.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks for the replies I.ll consider replacing wood Cheers