wood or drift wood

hey peoples!! , is it true that wood or drift wood is very important in bristlenose keeping? and also one of two items you need/should have in a bristlenose tank?

absolutely!! 100% need wood!

why is that Doug? do they get some special nutrients or something?

there are several reasons. Firstly, yes they munch on the wood and the lignin from wood is very important for their digestive systems. The second reason is that wood is very good for water. it softens the water and lowers the pH making it more like their native waters

AH i was wondering on this, i knew that they ate it, but i didn't know that it softened the water, i read once that it just releases tannins that are good for the water, or is that what softens the water?

anyway, good post and some more great info from Doug

James

ahh nice thanks Doug. would you then say it would be bad to put wood in a tank with cichlids because they need harder water?

depends on the chiclids, american chiclids like Discus, angels, ram etc need soft water too, as they come from the same place as the Bristlenose.

African rift lake Chiclids are the ones who like the harder water. And no, its not a bad thing to have wood in their tank because usually in their tank you will have shells, coral sand and other hardening substrates that will overwhelm the softening effects of the wood. It is much easier to make water harder than softer

oh ok cool. thanks Doug