# ping pong balls - camphor - toxicity?



## tanker (Mar 13, 2010)

I'd read on the forum that bettas might like to play with ping pong balls, so I picked up a packet at the shops. When I opened them, they smelt of camphor, so I've googled and found that ping pong balls are made of "nitrocellulose, camphor, dyes and other agents". I don't know whether camphor is toxic to fish (not to mention the "dyes and other agents"), so I'm not going to risk using the balls in the tanks, just in case. But I am curious. Has anyone come across this before or know whether camphor is a risk to fish? For the people who've used ping pong balls, were yours made of camphor?


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

How interesting...I did not know that and if I would have known that I would not have put ping-pong balls in with my Oscars for toys......but it did not cause any problems for them and they carried them around in their mouths and I left them in the tank all day on most days......however, this is in a 75g tank that got 80-100% water changes twice a week with massive filtration and that may have been why they didn't cause any problems.....not sure I would use them in a small tank......


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## tanker (Mar 13, 2010)

Yes, thanks. I'm not comfortable with putting them in there unless I find out for sure that there is no toxicity issue (ie camphor won't hurt them, or the camphor in the balls doesn't leach into the water). I would feel terrible if it hurt the fish. I just hadn't seen it mentioned before and I'd read references to using the balls on several sites.


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