It's common hobby knowledge that bringing things into tanks from outdoors is hazardous. But is it true?
Yesterday I was kayaking along, collecting plants and driftwood for my tanks. It has overnighted in an unused aquarium, and today I'll rinse it to use it in tanks. I live in a populated region that is lousy for farming - it has not very rich rocky soil, and a lot of naturally occurring pine trees (as well as planted forestry monocultures of pines). There are few fertilizer dumps hitting the water, and few cows pooping along the riverbanks. In late summer, my favourite paddling river does get polluted from human activity (some agriculture and lawn ferts), in that there is algae and greenish water in August.
Collecting aquatic plants isn't illegal here.
So here's my question. What predators, parasites and diseases have people actually added to their tanks by wild collecting wood, plants, gravels and especially live food? I've done this for 25 years. Once or twice, I introduced tiny dragon fly larvae that grew fast but didn't catch any of my fish before I saw and removed them. Hydra? Yeah, I have introduced 3 species I could identify - green, tall and short. They were a problem, but more a nuisance. Pest snails? Yes. LIke hydra, they got in before I started using outdoor supplies. Diseases? None.
I culture bug outdoors all summer, aiming for Daphnia but thanks to the neighbour's cat knocking the screens off the tubs, sometimes mosquito larvae and other bugs. The fish eat them all. None have been trouble. The only problem I've created doing this has been hydra introduction occasionally. The species I now have photosynthesizes and isn't big enough to harm fry. It's just ugly on the glass.
So what has REALLY gone wrong for people who collected their own rocks, wood and live foods? Is this just hobby lore? Give me examples of what you've experienced.
Like in everything in this hobby, knowledge is survival. You can test rocks or use a field guide. You can identify hardwoods and avoid resinous pines. I used to admire the twisty driftwood in local stores, but thought it was too expensive. I met the supplier a few years ago. He was an avid sports fisherman and had taken to collecting nice pieces of weathered driftwood when he was out in his boat. He'd gather up hundreds of pieces in sight of a city of 3 million, downstream from the Great Lakes. Some of the pieces came from at the end of my street. He'd sun bleach them all summer, stick slate to weight them down and sell them in the Fall to all the local stores. Hobbyists would tell me they wouldn't collect from nature because it was unsafe, then spend $30 on a piece from the river beside the place where we were talking...
Yesterday I was kayaking along, collecting plants and driftwood for my tanks. It has overnighted in an unused aquarium, and today I'll rinse it to use it in tanks. I live in a populated region that is lousy for farming - it has not very rich rocky soil, and a lot of naturally occurring pine trees (as well as planted forestry monocultures of pines). There are few fertilizer dumps hitting the water, and few cows pooping along the riverbanks. In late summer, my favourite paddling river does get polluted from human activity (some agriculture and lawn ferts), in that there is algae and greenish water in August.
Collecting aquatic plants isn't illegal here.
So here's my question. What predators, parasites and diseases have people actually added to their tanks by wild collecting wood, plants, gravels and especially live food? I've done this for 25 years. Once or twice, I introduced tiny dragon fly larvae that grew fast but didn't catch any of my fish before I saw and removed them. Hydra? Yeah, I have introduced 3 species I could identify - green, tall and short. They were a problem, but more a nuisance. Pest snails? Yes. LIke hydra, they got in before I started using outdoor supplies. Diseases? None.
I culture bug outdoors all summer, aiming for Daphnia but thanks to the neighbour's cat knocking the screens off the tubs, sometimes mosquito larvae and other bugs. The fish eat them all. None have been trouble. The only problem I've created doing this has been hydra introduction occasionally. The species I now have photosynthesizes and isn't big enough to harm fry. It's just ugly on the glass.
So what has REALLY gone wrong for people who collected their own rocks, wood and live foods? Is this just hobby lore? Give me examples of what you've experienced.
Like in everything in this hobby, knowledge is survival. You can test rocks or use a field guide. You can identify hardwoods and avoid resinous pines. I used to admire the twisty driftwood in local stores, but thought it was too expensive. I met the supplier a few years ago. He was an avid sports fisherman and had taken to collecting nice pieces of weathered driftwood when he was out in his boat. He'd gather up hundreds of pieces in sight of a city of 3 million, downstream from the Great Lakes. Some of the pieces came from at the end of my street. He'd sun bleach them all summer, stick slate to weight them down and sell them in the Fall to all the local stores. Hobbyists would tell me they wouldn't collect from nature because it was unsafe, then spend $30 on a piece from the river beside the place where we were talking...
