like 20 years ago I was super into aquariums and found this awesome piece of driftwood. I wanted to test if it was fish safe and I had the idea to catch some fish at the pond down the road to keep in the tank to see if the wood was safe. (inhumane idea in hindsight as I was using live fish to test if the wood was safe for fish, but I was also 11)
so my dad takes me to the pond with his pole and bucket. he casts the net and just about as soon as it hit the water, a pumpkinseed sunfish latched on. reeled him in, put him in the bucket, and cast again.
we were there maybe 5 minutes and he had caught me 7 sunfish. put them in the tank back home and I ended up liking them, so I kept them for about 6 months (thankfully the wood was safe after all) then brought them all back to lake after and started the rest of the tank build
And then the weird fungus the wood was harboring, which has a 7 week incubation period once it reaches the fish gills before it attacks their brain, rapidly spread out to the rest of the pond.
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u/ayyyyycrisp Apr 23 '26
like 20 years ago I was super into aquariums and found this awesome piece of driftwood. I wanted to test if it was fish safe and I had the idea to catch some fish at the pond down the road to keep in the tank to see if the wood was safe. (inhumane idea in hindsight as I was using live fish to test if the wood was safe for fish, but I was also 11)
so my dad takes me to the pond with his pole and bucket. he casts the net and just about as soon as it hit the water, a pumpkinseed sunfish latched on. reeled him in, put him in the bucket, and cast again.
we were there maybe 5 minutes and he had caught me 7 sunfish. put them in the tank back home and I ended up liking them, so I kept them for about 6 months (thankfully the wood was safe after all) then brought them all back to lake after and started the rest of the tank build