How to mimic deep leaf litter?

[duane stuermer]

Good tip about the magnolia leaves, my tree just dropped, so I'm soaking a 5 gal bucket full, to add to a wild type betta tank.
The water has turned quite dark after just a couple days.

 

[duane stuermer]

Might be time to change the water on the magnolia leaves.

 

[duane stuermer]

Decided today after 2 weeks of soaking, was a good day to toss some magnolia leaves into the tank I've been preparing for wild bettas. Putting them on the dark side of the tank.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all.
They look really good, it will be interesting to see how long they remain intact for. Do you have problems with the leaf fragments ending up in the gravel? I tend to leave mine until I have a bit if a mulm layer and then have a very occasional syphon, but I use sand so the leaf fragments are always on top of the substrate.

cheers Darrel

 

[duane stuermer]

For me, the maple leaves break down fairly quickly, especially with the cichlids chewing on them. It will be interesting to see how the magnolia leaves hold up.

 

[aquaticclarity]

Night and day differrnce between white and red oak leaves.

I like the smaller leaf size of the white oak leaves I get but they only last a few weeks or so. The red oak leaves on the other hand are holding up in most of the tanks going on 3+ months now! And as a bonus the red oak leaves turn an incredible deep rich purple red and have a really attractive shape. The down side is there neatly hand size size.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The red oak leaves on the other hand are holding up in most of the tanks going on 3+ months now! And as a bonus the red oak leaves turn an incredible deep rich purple red and have a really attractive shape

I like Quercus rubra and Q. coccinea leaves as well, they were planted a bit in the UK for Forestry, but they didn't do very well and they like acid soils, so there aren't many trees near us (it is all limestone here). I always go and get my Oak (Q. robur) and Beech (Fagus sylvatica) leaves from a wood on the acid "green sand" about 10 miles away, but I don't know if it really makes a difference.

cheers Darrel

 

[duane stuermer]

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Looking good, I love the way that Magnolia leaves skeletonize.

cheers Darrel

 

[duane stuermer]

At this point most of the magnolia leaves have skeletonized. whether this be to snails, or normal decomposition, not sure.
There has not been a large detritus buildup.
Below is when they were first dropped in.

Now

 

[Heartnet]

In the hopes of creating as close to a leaf litter biotope as I could after watching this biotope video, I ordered indian almond leaves in bulk.

Here's how it looks so far. I'll be adding more leaves as the tannins fade from the WC's.

The back wall is an entire sheet of 2" poret foam. The tank uses hamburg matten filtration.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I can't see your picture, but if you haven't seen this it is well worth reading <http://www.seriouslyfish.com/all-the-leaves-are-brown/>. I like HMF filtration and Poret foam, although I don't think any-one is importing it to the UK at present.

cheers Darrel

 

[Heartnet]

That's an excellent article, and I actually bookmarked it.

Here's the direct link to my picture if you don't see it. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/JeffChouMing/DSC_0072_zps97157de7.jpg

 

[Cooder]

Very interesting thread, thanks guys, some good reading their,

I get the feeling this technique would work excellently with most apisto species...

 

[Jonathan A]

I had this very question a little while ago when buying some A. Bitaeniata from Ted Judy. So I went and bught ~250+ Indian almod leaves. Turned out pretty well [excluding pesky snails.....this is why we can't have nice things...]

Day one (waiting for leaves to fall)

couple weeks into it

Female w/fry emerging

After a few months w/o leaf replenishing