question Bird Feathers as Homemade Aquatic Decor

[Keyeno]

Starting off with, hey! I just joined because I thought this place might be able to help. I tried Google and FB to try and find this out to not much avail.

But would real bird feathers work as aquarium decor? Plastic ornaments always make me nervous because they can be pretty sharp at times. I know feathers are part of the debris of aquatic nature and if they would be safe as more... homemade aquarium decor ideas. Obviously after enough inspection for things like mites and such.

Thanks for any insight on this. :)

[Brandy]

Mites would just be food for fish. As long as the feathers are clean of any dyes or chemicals I think they would be safe, though they may not last very long in the tank. You could dip them in boiling water to kill any potential parasites, but I think it is mostly poop from fish eating birds, not feathers, that can carry fish disease.

Take pics, this is an unusual idea, and I want to see how it turns out! 🙂

[Gestaltgal]

I want to see how this turns out, too! I would love a few pictures when it comes together. What kind of bird feathers are you thinking of using?

[Kirsten]

I'm not sure how well feathers would hold up in aquarium water with the onslaught of algae, bacteria and hungry fish and snails, but if they're clean and bleach-free, I think it's worth a try! My cat loves chasing peacock feathers, so I have a whole vase of them, and they've come in serious handy when I just want to shake some algae off a plant or nudge something without trying to stick my whole hand and arm into my not-very-accessible tank.

When in doubt, live plants and natural hardwood (marketed for aquariums) and rocks are best, but keep an eye on a feather and your ammonia levels and see how it does!

[PotatoFish]

I'm just theorizing using some science...

The bird feathers, if natural (no dyes) and sterilized (boiling), should be OK, kind of like adding leaves. There is a lot of surface area to them (see picture). Each feather has tons of barbs, barbules, and hooklets, so there's a great deal of surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow on...however, I think that if algae starts to grow on the feathers, it would be quite difficult even for an algae eater to remove. 

Also, the feather parts I listed above are meant to lock together and kind of be waterproof/water repellant ("like water off a duck's back"). With boiling, I don't know if it would weaken the structures of the feather.

These are just my thoughts. Perhaps someone else here is far more knowledgeable on the subject.

[shkote]

This post made me giggle. Those little Budgies in the thumbnail used to be in the same room with some of my tanks. They can be pretty messy when they molt, and the feathers alway seemed to find their way into the tanks. I eventually got tired of picking them out (along with fishing out bird seed that got thrown around and decided to sprout in the tanks) and moved the birds to another room. They were smaller feathers and mostly floated. I did also have a issue with powder down residue on the surface when I'd find feathers in the tank. It never affected my fish in any way that I could tell.