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Rinse them and then soak them right?
Apistogramma Agassizii care
- Thread starter Aquarium guy person
- Start date
No. Collect, rinse off lightly under the tap (frankly, I never do this but I collected from my back garden and knew there were no chemicals used for anything in over a decade), lay out on paper towels to air dry, then place them in a plastic bag. When you add a few to the aquarium, they will obviously be bone dry; let them float, they will waterlog and sink in a couple days. Then you should be able to place them on the substrate in a single layer.
Here's a photo of leaves in my 33g Sri Lanka biotope, and a bunch stuffed into my 10g which at that time was a grow-out tank for Farlowella vitatta fry and Corydoras pygmaeus fry.
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How long do I air dry them and what kind of leaves did you use in those tanks
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I just realized that you use regular oak leaves while my tree is a southern live oak tree
Doesn't matter, oak tree is an oak tree and the issue is that it is safe with respect to using the wood or leaves after either are completely dry (dead dry). Some woods can contain toxic saps (conifers for example, and often evergreens like rhododendrons) and these can leech out. Oak, beech, maple and most other hardwood tree species are safe from that aspect anyway.
On the drying, I just lay them out in a single layer and tend to leave them a day, maybe two days. They will be bone dry and brittle.
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If I boil them just to be %100 safe will that take out any possibility of Infusoria as I want a little bit of this for the babies to eat.
Never boil leaves, there is no value. Infusoria is produced when the leaf begins to decompose. But there are other beeneficial properties to leaves, bacterial in nature. These are very beeneficial in an aquarium. Many fish exporters now put dried leaves in the fish bags. Boiling removes this benefit completely.
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Ok, I just don’t know if my neighbors have used pesticides and if it would have gone through the oak tree or if that’s how that works
With the leaves, we are more concerned with what they may come into contact with on the ground. If there are several layers of dead leaves, then the ones in the topmost layer will certainly be safe if there is something on the soil itself.
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Those are the pictures of the top and the bottom of the leaves I collected I just want to know if there are any visual signs of bad leaves
Look OK to me, but you have reminded me of something I forgot to mention, and that is if you see a leaf that has a bird dropping, just toss it out. Even if you do bother to wash this off, it just isn't worth it. Bird droppings can carry disease.
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My male Apisto has been hanging out with one of my females almost all day now!
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She doesn’t have her own cave but I’m solving that problem now
Good. This is a cave spawning species. The female once she is guarding the egg clutch will drive the male out of the area, sometimes very aggressively. He should be OK in the 40g, but some authors do suggest removing him if it gets too aggressive.
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