Collecting Leaves for Aquascaping and Fish Fry Food

[Byron]

I came across a good article about collecting dry leaves to use in aquascaping and also as sources of food, especially for grazing fish (otos, plecos, Farlowella, etc) and fry of any species. Studies have shown that fry develop faster when dry leaves are added to the tank; the leaf decomposes, producing infusoria in abundance. I've been collecting oak leaves for a few years now, and I use them in some tanks as authentic/natural substrate cover, and in my 10g of developing fry from pygmy corys and Farlowella. Now that we in the Northern Hemisphere are in the middle of autumn, it is the ideal time to collect leaves. All this is explained in the article, which is from Practical Fishkeeping.

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co....W&email_hash=9357f00ddcdf3a297acf594914ed58b5

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Thanks for the link Byron!! I'm glad to actually see sycamore leaves in there! I've got tons of those all over the place. The only other tree I can completely identify is a silver maple. Young but has good leaves coming off of it slowly. I have a bunch of catappa leaves I bought though so I may do some collecting next year! Lol.

 

[marnold00]

Very helpful and interesting. One question:

If one of my leafy plants (ozelot sword for example) sheds a leaf, would leaving it in have the same effect???

 

[Byron]

Very helpful and interesting. One question:

If one of my leafy plants (ozelot sword for example) sheds a leaf, would leaving it in have the same effect???

A good question. I am not a botanist, but I would assume there may be some similarity, though perhaps stronger with terrestrial vegetation than aquatic. Most of us don't like seeing yellowing/dying plant leaves, so we tend to remove them. They also are more inclined to develop algae, like brush/beard algae. Placing dry leaves (after they have become waterlogged) on the substrate looks natural, and a large majority of our fish come from habitats with a deep layer of leaves over the mud or sand.

 

[marnold00]

Well, the leaves that fall off and get moved somewhere that I can't see easily get left just because I had heard about dried leaves.

This is definitely a good excuse for a walk in the forest some time though!

 

[julielynn47]

Thanks Byron! I was thinking about bringing this up to you just the other day. I remembered you mentioning it in a thread, but couldn't find the thread.

So the walnut leaves are supposed to be used green? Can they not be brown at all?