Indian Almond Leaves

[three-fingers]

Yep, the Indian almond leaves are meant to have different tannins which have great anti-[pathogenic]-bacterial properties too.

Though tannins from wood would be equally as good in most cases, the leaves - as mentioned - also provide some enrichment for the fish, being able to scavenge through them. I also think they look quite good.

I'm using half a leaf in a 15l with a male Betta splendens.

Shrimp love picking at them too.

 

[rdd1952]

I've never used IAL, but I was thinking if I were to try some out, would it be possible to pour hot ( not boiling ) water over the leaves in a big jug, leave them to stand for a couple of weeks, and then bottle the resulting liquid to use in the tank, whilst throwing the leaves away? Sort of like an infusion to leach the properties from the leaves.

The biggest potential for problems I could see here is that as the leaves deteriorate, they could (probably) be creating ammonia in the water similar to dead leaves in our tanks. In the tanks though, we have a bacteria colony to handle the ammonia as it's created. That wouldn't be the case though in the jug so it's possible that the water in the jug at the end of several weeks of soaking could have a high ammonia content which you certainly wouldn't want to put in your tank.

 

[kizno1]

how many Betta imbellis do you think i could have?
do i need to seprate the eggs when there born?
and is there any other fish that they could live with?

 

[pippoodle]

my betta imbellis are sharing with , harlequin rasboras , rice fish , golden ram , corys , shrimp
they mix with nearlly any peaceful community fish

i'm not sure on breeding as mine arent old enough to breed yet

 

[kizno1]

i think i might just have a pair and some corys or shrimp. do you think they would be ok with sparkling gourami because i really like them

 

[kizno1]

i use indian almond leaves even in all my tanks now and will be using them with my new splendens when i get him it's said the tannins improve their general health and can help during breeding

i use one leaf in large leaf in larger tanks and half a large leaf in the smaller tanks - just under a half leaf in 60 litre

if you only need that half a leaf how dose it make it better for them to forage in
or do you just top it up with half a leaf every couple of leafs and leave them in until the deteriorate