Black skirts and Driftwood

I added a cool piece of driftwood to my 55 last night. My black skirts have gone nuts. One has a big gap in his top fin. They have chased each other more than usual. 2 are hiding in my water sprite and appear exhausted. Ever heard of this before? Before the driftwood, they were fairly calm

The added tanins in the water. maybe it's like cat-nip to them. have you done any testing on your water?

i havent tested, I did kinda wonder if that may have been the case.

no ammonia showing...ph is 6.2. I might should raise that a bit...

I think it is a simple matter of a change in the landscape and territories. We might think they're just swimming around randomly, oblivious, but they likely have defined territories and swimming patterns, and this new object might have been a bit alarming to them.

This is assuming the wood was meant for the aquarium and has no toxins or other elements that could be harmful to the fish.

Tetras in general will be more at home in a tank with tannins from driftwood, so I would think that aspect would be more likely to calm them than freak them out, but yo never know!

they seemed better last night, the driftwood is meant for aquariums. I think everything is much better now.