Marine Rock

[abirose]

Hi everyone!

Ok so I know that I'm probably not gonna get a definite answer for this but I'd appreciate peoples thoughts before I try it! Well my brother keeps marine fish and as part of the tank he has "live rock". This is basically rocks which have had living organisms on them, this could be things like good bacteria or growths of small corals etc and these flourish in a marine tank.

So as he changed the landscape of the tank, there is basically a lot of this rock left in our garage and the organisms will have died. Now the rock is not smooth, its quite rough and if you scratched it, bits would come off it.

So I'm wondering if I poured boiling water over it to remove any germs its got from the garage, do you think it would be ok for degu? Im worried if it would do any harm if the goos started chewing it, and whether they would ingest it, as setups such as Nightwishravens tend to have smoother rocks and stones in. Its sort of porous rather then solid.

This is a link to what dead "live rock" looks like.

www.google.com/imgres?q=dead+live+rock&hl=en&sa=X&gbv=2&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=LMGUuQPTLNqWcM:&imgrefurl=http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/dead-rock-into-liverock-49190.html&docid=_ovcNK20iF4GVM&imgurl=http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd46/lbmcse/ReefRock.jpg&w=400&h=267&ei=yoquTtr9DJGz8QPltIGeCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1050&vpy=387&dur=15&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=159&ty=188&sig=113790767430309023200&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=212&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:0

I know its a weird one, but lets just say I'm testing your goo knowledge!

[abirose]

Sorry link didn't work heres a pic

[fred]

This is an interesting one My first question would be how hard it is and whether they “eat” it. My girls eat their terracotta sandbath, so nothing would surprise me any more. I would wash a small sample with hot water, bake it briefly in the oven, and see what your goos make of it. If that goes well, the next question would be how they like a patch of these rocks, rather than smooth ones.

[malteser60]

Do you know what type of rock it is?

[NightwishRaven999]

Hello Abirose !
Well this is an interesting question !

I have experience with Marine tanks and setups and from the photo you posted this dead live rock is most likely from Fiji or Tonga.
These rocks are quite valuable...even in the state they are now.
I paid over two hundred dollars for about 50lbs of live rock (which were in the moderate/early stages of conditioning.)

I am not 100% sure of whether or not it is unsafe...it fact, most of what I will say is speculation.

In the aquarium, the live rocks are often used (even in their dead state) to buffer the water and counteract acidity. These rocks mostly contain large amounts of calcium, limestone and coral skeletons which have the ability to heavily alter water chemistry.

Considering this, I am not sure how this would fit in or what effect it would have in the degu stomach.

Dead live rock would not stand up to degu chewing.
I do not think they would ingest the bits of rock, but one never knows.

One thing that is fact, is the roughness of the rock...it will often feel like coarse sandpaper.

I do not really know what to say and I am not sure anyone will be able to give you a definite answer as to whether or not it is suitable to go in the cage.
I cannot find a serious reason why it would not be acceptable.

If you put the rock in the cage, keep an eye open and see if your degus manage to break off bits of the rock with their teeth.