The Effects Of Almond Leaves

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

§tudz

A True Oddball
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
Messages
1,621
Reaction score
0
Location
UK, Nr Chester
Hi all,

I recently imported almond leaves to go in my A. panduro tank, and after a week I am amazed at the effects.
Today I 'fished' out the male and female to give them a once over, making sure everything is ok.

And look at the colour differences. These fish are fed mainly on Tetra Prima and frozen bloodworm.

Before:

Wild FEMALE


Wild MALE


After:

Wild FEMALE


Wild MALE


Look how deep the colouration has become on the female, she was always a pale yellow before the leaves, and the male is an amazing steel blue colour. Where as before he was a drab browny grey. The orange in the fins was and still is very bright too, if not brighter.

Amazing I think is the only word to describe it.
 
How long have you had the fish? Are they spawning? Spawning fish or fish about to will look amazing. The leaf might have put them in the mood these type of fish in the wild are found hiding in fallen leafs.. Yes the leaf can effect your water chemistry. What's your ph before and after?
 
Ive had these for a few years and they are a wild breeding pair, they recently spawned and I have about 40 fry (pics can be found on the net, as I cant post to the forum they are on, but a hint is North Wales Aquarists Society)
They hadnt coloured up like that before when spawning, and I have kept them in a ph of 7 but the last 11months they have been in 7.4 (and thats what they spawned in this time)
I am unsure on the surrent PH, I havent tested it.

The reason for adding them was for breeding purposes, but they spawned before the leaves arrived :)
I will check the current PH for you though.
 
Ive had these for a few years and they are a wild breeding pair, they recently spawned and I have about 40 fry (pics can be found on the net, as I cant post to the forum they are on, but a hint is North Wales Aquarists Society)
They hadnt coloured up like that before when spawning, and I have kept them in a ph of 7 but the last 11months they have been in 7.4 (and thats what they spawned in this time)
I am unsure on the surrent PH, I havent tested it.

The reason for adding them was for breeding purposes, but they spawned before the leaves arrived :)
I will check the current PH for you though.

Not really a fair comparison, why not take the pics while the fish are in the tank like the before pictures?
 
TBH that question I think has been posted for little more than to provoke a negative answer.

So here you go...

If anything a fish which has been taken out of the water will be paler due to the stress of being netted and the leaving the water, and I couldnt take a picture of them in the tank as the water VERY dark almost black due to the large amounts of tannins secreted by the almond leaves.
 
Wasn't trying to provoke anything mate, just wondered why you took them out to take the picture. You answered that in the second half of your message. What would have been a more interesting test if you took the before pictures of the fish out of the water too then.
 
A very interesting thread, if you see anymore +ves, let us know! :good:
 
The reason they're darker will be because of the tannins in the water, it's a form of camouflage, fish can darken/lighten their colour to best match their environment.

Nice thread though, really high lights what effects, changes in environment have on fish.
 
I have to disagree with that, at least for this instance, as the water was this dark prior to adding the almond leaves, as it was stained by tanins from monapi wood in the tank.

I agree fish do colour differently to lighter and darker environments, but the same dark/black water had not changed the fishes coloration before.

Granted in the original pic they are in clear water, but those original pics are from jan 2010 in an old setup. But they were the same colour until adding the leaves
 
Ah that's fair enough then, If you ever need to off load any fry I'd happily buy some, the parents are great specimens.
 
I will probably post an ad on here and on AC when they are ready, wont be for a while yet, the fry are VERY slow growing, took about 5months+ for them to reach sellable size from the last batches. and this batch is only 8days old :)

I also have 200+ Neolamprologus brichardi fry, again still growing on :) and Ive just have some mbuna spawn too. Finally my fish house is starting to produce some nice fish :)
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top