Clear slime on Mopani wood?

[Blackheart]

Okay, so, when I first got my tank around March/April, I had a really good piece of Zoo Med Mopani wood picked out. Put it in there and it had continually grown this clear slime on it. Well, that was in April and I stored it away ever since then in my closet. Dry. The other day, I put it back in my tank... and yet... This slime is.. coming back... what gives? Seriously? What do I have to do to do make this stuff go away?

[somewhatshocked]

That's normal. It's a biofilm that will eventually go away on its own or get eaten by your critters.

[Blackheart]

I never had that extreme of a case of it before and I've kept several Mopani wood before. But why is it still there after all these months?

[gh0zt]

Same thing happened to me. I've used this same piece of mopani for years on and off and it would always grow the fungus. I've had it sitting out the tank for months now and recently added it to a new tank I set up. Film came back and completely covered the fissiden I had attached to it. Looked gross so I took it out and put it back into storage.

[Sarus]

I believe it's a fungus. When you put the wood in the water the fungus spores in the wood start to grow like crazy (this is what I've read, I'm not an expert). I've been told otos will eat it and based on experience my friends otos were VERY fat when the fungus was in the tank (though I can't say for sure that was what they were eating). I read in another thread that you can put the wood in a dishwasher at high temp several times (no soap of course) or boil it and that can help. My friend had a serious case of the stuff and once a week he'd take the wood out and rinse the fungus off. After about a month it was pretty much gone.

[aznartist34]

This fungus grows on most new driftwood that is introduced into a tank. Otos and shrimps will eat this with delight.

[Blackheart]

I'd really like to try to boil this thing, but I have nothing that's large enough to fit it in lol

[pandamonium]

I had that on my manzanita. The way I got rid of it (besides just waiting) was either having my otos eat it. They are FAT now. Or I used a turkey baster and sucked it up, then squirted it out into a filter mesh or like coffee strainer. Works well since the biofilm is too fragile to be scooped at least IMO

[Caleb]

I had the same problem but only on my lighter pieces of mopani. Odd that during the months of soaking I had no slime but when placed in my Tank instantly covered in fungus. I even tried pointing my filter return at the fungus but it didn't help. So I put it in a bucket and cleaned it by rubbing the slime off and squirting it with a turkey baster to get cracks clean, only to find it covered again within days. So I bought 4 Ottos for my 20h & within days most of the slime is gone. However it is now covered in otto poop lol & one otto died cause he overate(or got constipated?) his belly was 3x normal size & had burst. Other than that Ottos worked fine for me.

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[Jegli09]

Yea I would add an otto

[Blackheart]

Yeahhh, any Ottos I would add would more than likely die lol

[Jetbo]

My Nerite Snail cleared it off the Mopani wood in my new tank as soon as I placed him in the tank.

[synthorange]

Snails, algae eaters, shrimp eat up the stuff like crazy.