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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V2 #211
>After putting in a few branches of rose wood (i.e woody stems from garden
>roses Rosa, rather than rosewood), I lost a lot of fishes. Including about
>ten african tetras (a mix of Phenacogrammus and Nanaethiops) and a pair of
>Nannochromis. Within about fifteen minutes...the fish were either heavily
>breathing, upside down or dead. The survivers were a couple of tetras, a
>pair of Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi, a Panaque, a couple of Ctenopoma and a
>Malputta and Badis. With the exception of the mouthbrooders (which are
very
>hardy) the survivors were air breathers. Needless to say I whipped the
wood
>out at once.
>
>I *don't* know whether I disturbed some sulphide in the sand (but there
was
>no bad eggs smell) or the wood was toxic. But at least that is one wood to
>be wary of.
Garden roses, (one of my onter hobbies) with the exception of a few "old
fashioned" types (which are not grafted, but are solid plants from root
tips to leaf tips) are very vulnerable to disease and pests, and have often
just been sprayed with pesticides, many of which have stern warnings NEVER
to use them around ponds populated by fish, even plants which you have
never sprayed may be sopping with "systemic insecticides" which are
introduced into the plants, along with fertilizer, and can render the
plants toxic for six months or more, and unfortunately many of these
pesticide chemicals are much more toxic to fish, which don't go through the
cycles of natural selection which produce insects which require massive
doses of pesticide to kill.
In short NEVER PUT ANY PART OF YOUR ROSE BUSHES INTO YOUR AQUARIUM if it
isn't naturally toxic it is probably loaded with artificial poisons that
you or the plant shop that it came from may have applied to it.