Thread: Are Buckys fish friendly/aquarium safe?

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While feeding the piranhas last night my wife and I decided we need to redecorate their tank. Time to pull out all the plants and rocks.... We'd like to put a full bucky (less the legs) in there but I need to know if the materials used on the bucky are fish/aquarium friendly first. I think the bones themselves are safe for the fish, but I'm more interested in the hardware holding all the bones together. Is it just steal that's going to rust? I could look at replacing all the hardware with stainless steel. Are there any other alloys or compounds in a bucky that may dissolve into the water. I don't want to just dump a skeleton in there and end up killing off my fish.

If not a bucky, does anyone know of a full size skeleton torso decoration for a large fish tank?

Hey Pod, that's a good question. I'm with you on the hardware, you could replace it with stainless. Or maybe arrange it like you want and then bond it together with aquarium safe silicone. My concern would be with the plastic leaching something into the water over time. Although, with regular water changes, even if it did it may not be an issue. Might be a gamble, but man, a full torso in a piranha tank would be awesome!!!!!!!!
If you do it, post up some pics!

Oh, be carefull here. Years ago, my sis and bro' in law gave me a nice ceramic skull for Christmas. After a few days I lost a few fish. Big tank, no big deal, right? Wrong. Within a week we lost an entire school of mature Tinfoil Barbs. Those things were bullet-proof. Something in the finish on the skull must have been toxic. My advice? Don't go there.

Unless you know kind of toxins are on the blucky I would not chance it.
last year we put some spookytown figurines in with the betta and he died. not sure if that was why but it's not worth the risk.

you could however try it on those feeder fish?

I think the Bucky would be fine with fish. I would go stainless on the parts. I had a skull in my tropical fish tank for years and it was fine.

Pod, I have the MSDS on the resin in a Bucky if you want to slog through it. Just PM me if you want it.

Thanks all for the replies,

savagehaunter, thats good to know that you have a skull in a tank for years without any issues. Makes this project worth pursuing.

Pumpkin Butcher, I hadn't thought of that, but thats an excellent idea. I could remove all the metal hardware and reassemble the resin bones with aquarium safe silicone. I think that's better than trying to replace all the hardware with stainless steel. Plus it should hold what ever pose I try to place it in better.

I think the first step will be to try a all the bones in a smaller tank with some cheap feeder fish for a month or so. Hoping to try to get this all together before our halloween party. If it all works, I'll be sure to post some pics here. Will be cool to watch them swim in through the ribcage!

Hey Pod, why don't you try..................,Naw ,that's probably not a good idea,might get the law involved