Fuzz on wood

[Narnian]

So I found a few types of driftwood, sticks, etc. outside and have been soaking them for probably 2 months or so. I noticed certain pieces have this white, stringy fuzz stuff on them, but other pieces are fine.

I'm guessing this means the type of wood won't work and it is rotting? If so, I'll pull it out right away. (I don't have a fish or anything yet, just the wood is soaking in an empty tank.) Thank you.

[Sarada]

Sounds more like bacteria to me. I'd take the wood out and rinse it off.

[Oldfishlady]

That can be normal fungus and usually harmless, the wood I collect and use often get this and the plecos and shrimp clean it off.
I would remove the wood and give it a good scrubbing, I like to use a spoon and dig out the soft spots too.
Do you know what type of wood it is? hard wood species are best, I would avoid vines, pine, cedar type woods.

[Narnian]

Thanks for the replies! Hmm, I'm not sure what type of wood it is. I have 3 different kinds that I found, outside, and boiled all of them.

One looks to be like a very hard branch.....sort of like manzanita. This one isn't rotting at all.

The next is a driftwood piece that looks like Malaysian. This also isn't rotting.

Finally, I have some assorted, smaller pieces of driftwood-looking stuff, as well as some cool vine branches I found. These pieces are the ones with the fuzz. :( And they looked so cool too. Do you think scrubbing will make it go away permanently, or will this be an ongoing problem? I just assume take them out, I suppose.

EDIT: Here's a pic of the wood:



The two small pieces, at the bottom left are rotting, and also the vines on the bottom/far right.

[Oldfishlady]

Vines tend to seep sap forever...at least it seems like it...lol.....depending on the species it can be risky IMO
On my native collected hard woods that have gotten the white fungus- resolved on its own after a couple of weeks in the soaking bucket and was eaten or I should say..it appeared that the pleco and shrimp where feeding on it and was gone in a couple of days
I keep wood that I have collected outside in a rain barrel to grow algae on so I can swap it out in my tanks for the pleco fry to feed on...white fungus and all.