Indian almond leaves

[Rain man]

I have an adult trio of Dicrossus maculatus, the female would lay eggs and
hide them under the java moss,10 days later I would see about 6 to 10 free swimming under her and as time passed the number would get lower and until there were 2 or 3 left. After this happend twice I decided to try the leaves with no other changes in the tank setup or chemistry. Wow!! unexpected results, now both females are raising 40 to 60 fry each,and this is the 3 month with no noteable losses.

 

[Chris(wildcaught!)]

I found these leaves at my local aquarium shop, however they are not in the form of complete leaves, instead they are somewhat crushed and sold in "tea-bags", the seller says it has beneficial effects for treating water, same as mentioned previous in this thread.

I have been thinking abut buying almond leaves for a while now, but in this form the whole thing with keeping leaves in the tank are somewhat gone.

Anyone who has been using this "tea-bag" leaves variant, and want to share the experience?

 

[retro_gk]

I haven't tried "ketapang tea bags" but, I do make a sort of blackwater extract by boiling 6 leaves in a liter of RO and straining out the liquid. Very potent stuff, too much will kill your fish!! I find a capful in about 5 gallons of RO makes for a nice dark tank.

 

[brad]

Anyone who has been using this "tea-bag" leaves variant, and want to share the experience?

Yup. The same as letting them soak in the tank. I use them in my HOB filter to treat my holding tank water before doing water changes.

 

[DH247]

Has anyone seen a reduction in brown algae (cyanobacteria) from using Almond leaves? I have a bunch coming but I've got a bloom on my hands and it's covering all my plants and my driftwood.

 

[Apistogramm-Sam]

Brown algae and cyanobacteria are two different organisms from two different Domains. Brown algae are diatoms, having appeared in the fossil record in the early Jurrasic period (~185 million years ago). Cyanobacteria are from the Domain Eubacteria; they are much older, with fossil records dating back to the Archaean and Proteozoic eras (approximately 3.5 billion years). The most common form of cyanobacteria encountered in aquariums forms a slime-like cover on almost everything and has a very distinctive, unpleasant smell. Diatoms form a brown sheen on the glass, rocks, etc. They do not emit an unpleasant smell, and feel rough in comparison to cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are blue-green in color. If your tank is filled with blue-green slime, then you have a bloom of cyanobacteria. If the tank is covered in brown, then there is a bloom of diatoms. Assuming the pH drops low enough from the addition of almond leaves/extract, then the brown, diatomaceous algae should disappear. Cyanobacteria have evolved to live in more extreme conditions, and thus will require more effort to eliminate.

 

[DH247]

Awesome. Thank you for the info! It is diatom algae. I am doing more research into it and will be taking appropriate measures to keep it under wraps! Cheers,

Cam

 

[beleg]

A question,
can i collect almond leaves from tree while they are green and then dry them to use? Does this cause a problem? Any ideas?

 

[Mike Wise]

The Indian Almond is not a true Almond (peach family), but a tropical tree. It is always best to allow the leaves of any tree to drop naturally. This allows the tree to move nutrients & sometimes toxic chemials out of the leaf before it falls.