Heavy Metal Guppies
 

Would metal ornaments in a (freshwater) fish tank harm the fish?

If so, could you coat them (the objects, not the fish) in some way to make them harmless?

Aluminium/Aluminum or steel for example? A nice shiny piston or a bike chain? Not heavy metals, obviously, but I liked the title.

:fish:

(the other half got a new tank for the prezzie-heavy festive season, and being the sort of nerds we are, we were considering "alternative" tank ornaments).

cheers :)

(other half is an expert metallurgist but relatively novice fish-keeper/killer, so has access to interesting potential ornaments but not to info about their effects on fishykind)

Do tests with cheaper, less personable fish?

Most metals will corrode over time and therefore would be dangerous to fish unless you put something which is less prone to it such as marine grade Stainless steel or perhaps gold. You're better off not putting metals in the water though.

You should be able to get plenty of groovy ornaments for your tank from the local aquarium.

When metals corrode, the effect is pronounced on the metals but negligible on the water, although it does steal some oxygen from the water.
Soluble metals are dissolved into the water from metallic salts, not from hunks of metal. Presuming you'll keep tabs on the water's ph, any metal being absorbed would show up immediately.

That said, the fish most desirable for fish tanks are all candy-asses, so it would be safer to talk to fish experts. :fish:

My husband has a phd in fish ecology. I think that qualifies him as an expert. He's the one that made the above suggestions.

Thanks all, some points to ponder. We googled extensively, and whilst we couldn't find any evidence of metal tank ornaments, neither could we find any advice against it. Given that most sites see fit to warn against even the most obvious potential dangers (such as open tanks/cats, sanitized driftwood only etc.), we thought it was a bit odd.

Zat so, why didn't you credit him in the first place, then?
Since every body of water in the world contain plenty of metal objects, I guess there's no fish. :rolleyes:

I'll be sure to cite all my husbands qualifications next time I talk to him about someone's issues here and post his suggestions.

Also, my parents used to breed fresh water fish as does my brother now. I also have a close friend who has quite a large aquarium who has experimented with different types of tank ornaments.

I hope these 'qualify' me to offer advice on this thread. The reason I didn't cite him in the first place is because I didn't think it'd be necessary to do so in a thread asking for advice.

Aren't most commericially produced tank ornamets made out of a variety of poorly painted plastics (sorry about the alliteration, it was completely unintentional) that tend to outgas a variety of nasty things anyway?

That little diver guy can't be good for the fish.

A lot of the ornaments are nasty ceramic with who knows what type of paint on, but one would assume that the paints do not kill fish or someone would have noticed? Plastic is generally pretty inert, I thought it was usually painted with other plastics? Plastic ornaments do not feature in either of our other tanks, so I've never really considered it. I've made some ceramic tank ornaments and glazed them with food-safe lead-free glazes. We figured that as those glazes are dinnerwear safe and OK to dishwash, they'd also be OK for fish. Pehaps that was wrong? The fish stopped dying after the first few years, though, so maybe the effect wears off? ;)


---


Aliantha, what ornaments did your friend experiment with and what did they discover?

What type of fish did your family breed? Our second pet crayfish was "pregnant" when we got her, and two of her offspring are still alive (in separate tanks) four years later, but that's as close as we've come to breeding anything fishy.

One of the coolest things she tried in her tank was a couple of pool balls (as in 8 ball) They didn't seem to harm the fish at all, probably because they're glazed etc as you say. She also tried driftwood and discovered some types are better than others. Some tend to seep more than others no matter how long you purify them for. Originally her tank had a big barramundi in it with a few catfish and snails, but it got too big for the tank in the end. It was over a foot long and couldn't really turn around anymore. I'm not sure what they did with it, but I don't think they ate it. Probably wouldn't have tasted too good anyway. Now they have crayfish in there. I think they're very cool and they look great. Almost dinner plate sized now though. ;o)

My parents used to breed small schooling fish such as neons and different types of guppies. Also a few exotics such as tiger barbs. My brother breeds cyclids (although not intentionally at first). He has a pretty awesome display. Many of his fish are quite large now, so if you know about cyclids, you'll know the colours you would be seeing. nb. I'm not sure if I've got the spelling of cyclids correct.

thats funny, I have an 8 ball in my tank.

We have a 4 foot tropical tank with Sharks, Tiger Barbs, Gourami, Neons, Moorii, Jumbo Snails and some little firey things that I can recall the name of.

We also have a 3 foot salt water tank, which is the bane of my existence because of the constant adjusting of levels.

Actually, I feel a bit like a mad scientist on the weekends, with all my little kits n testing crap.

Salt water tank? You have my utmost respect and deepest sympathy.:comfort:

beest is thinking about cichlids for the new tank.