Jelly bubbles on drift wood???

Hi all

Please give advice if you know what causes these jelly bubbles on my driftwood... I've lost 2 fish about this.
It is a new piece I picked up near a local dam in Pretoria didn't soak it very long, and when I first saw this jelly bubbles, didn't gave much thought about it. But when 2 of my fish died, I took out the wood and washed it properly. Now every 2-3 days new jelly bubbles form over the wood, particularly over the little holes bumble bees made. Can anyone please give advise? Don't want anymore casualties

 

I would boil it for 2 weeks if i were you,how does the driftwood feel.Hard or soft?

What fish did you lose and what is your average PH?

(the jelly bubbles are a clear sign that you didn't boil it long enough,i have the same on my new driftwood but i got it at a LFS and haven't lost any fish to it)

 

Apparantly the jelly like substance is caused by sugars in the wood? It should go away over time but as DC said, maybe remove the wood and boil it for a few weeks. I usually put my wood in a bucket and fill with hot water from my tap. I do this morning and evening until it stops discolouring the water. Depending on the wood, this can take a long time.

Oh yes, I also add coarse salt to the water initially to hopefully deal with any potential nasties trapped in the wood.

 

do you have any snails in the tank?

 

Any pic's. Sounds like that normal type of fungi stuff that grows on newly submerged pieces of wood.

This shouldn't cause the fish to die, and they sometimes eat it. After everything has leached out this will disappear.
The fish could have died from parasites that were present in the dam, if you collect wood from local waters it is best to boil or bleach it to kill everything off.