should every ornament be boiled or heated?

Should ornaments and decor you buy at the pet shop be boiled or rinsed with hot water before you put it in the aquarium? If its new and never been in a aquarium before wouldnt just rinsing it with cool water be good enough? Also say I take a item out of a aquarium that has sick fish then i leave it out of the water for say 6 months. Would i still need to boil or rinse it with hot water before putting it back in or would any bacteria or something else be already dead anyhow cause it had been out of the aquarium for so long?

It is always safest to thoroughly clean anything that goes into a tank with hot water. As for anything that was in a sick tank, it should be thoroughly cleaned when it is removed from the tank. If you don't want to boil it, you can use bleach. If you use bleach, you must be sure there is no trace of chlorine left on the item prior to returning it to any tank. This can be done with repeated rinsings, time, or doing a soak in water treated with a chlorine remover. Always check the item to be sure there is no chlorine left on the item before returning it to a tank.

with unknown!

just sucks you cant boil the fish or live plants you add to the aquarium lol I do everything else

I agree too, i usually rinse everything with hot water and it makes the job.. my opinion i never liked to use bleach on anything that has to do with aquariums...

the old principle of dont put it in your mouth if you dont know where it has been, kinda applies to fish also. anything new always boil it first to be sure, unless it is ALIVE.. then other precautions should be taken...

i took a risky chance and ordered a cocomoss (half coconut shell with java moss attached to it) from overseas should be in next week hopefully it dont have any bad stuff with it