Macadamia Nut tree leaves in aquarium

[shaun64326]

Hello

I thinking about setting up a small tank for some apistogramma trifasciata. I have a very large macadamia nut tree in the forest just behind my house which drops leaves that would be perfect for the tank. Would they be safe to use in there?

 

[tjudy]

I have no idea about that species of tree specifically, but there are a few considerations to think about with just about any leaf, especially ones we are unsure of:

1) Green leaves contain more possible harmful chemicals than dried leaves do.
2) Leaves that have fallen naturally and are brown and dessicated have had many chemicals removed from the leaf by the plant prior to letting it drop, and are therefore less likely to cause a problem.
3) Test the leaf by boiling it to make a tea and then pouring the tea into a bucket with water from the tank you want to use it in; then test all chemical paramters to see what the tannins from teh leaf will do to your water.
4) If the tests fall into a tolerable range, test for toxicity by putting some feeder guppies or goldfish into the bucket.

Assuming that all tests result in there being no suspicion of problems, I woudl still not use the leaf in a tank with a very rare or valuable fish until I had tried it out on something replacable.

 

[mlaursen]

Macadamia leaves can contain cyanogenic (cyanide like) chemicals that can be harmfull to animals, this is concentrated in the Seeds/roots/ and especially prevalent in the leaves. I would advise caution in using them. This question came up a while back on a dart frog forum and the general response was to avoid at all cost

michael