Putting in nature

[KuhliDude]

I recently discovered some fish keeping YouTubers who put nature into their aquariums. It gives them the cleanest of water and healthiest of fish. To do it they say to find some leaves from a stream and plop them into your tank. Adding even more kinds of beneficial bacteria that turn it into a real ecosystem. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this topic.

 

[Fishies4Ever]

It seems like a very interesting idea. I wouldn’t try until you know more about it, but I can’t imagine that it would hurt the fish I mean there has to be some leaves from trees in their natural habitat. I do know of a YouTuber who has a lot of outdoor ponds and there always seems to be a ton of leaves in the ponds in his videos, but I am not sure about the beneficial parts you are talking about.

 

[Boundava]

Yes you can use many different types of leaves in your aquarium even other things like alder cones and banana wood or other dried pods. Tannin aquatics sells a lot of natural items that you can place on your tank. Keep in mind that that will also change the water parameters, it can lower the pH and it will definitely stain your water. This works for some fish and not so much for others. I personally wouldn't take anything out of a natural river system and introduce it in my tank. But if you live by or have some trees in your yard that would work, and you don't usefertilize or weed killers. Then you can harvest your own natural dried botanicals to use your tank. Oak leaves are one, magnolia leaves, maple leaves, Indian almond tree leaves, and mulberry leaves... I used to have a link to the leaves that you can place in your tank. Not sure where that is right now. Keep in mind when you do harvest these leaves you're supposed to harvest them in the fall when they have fallen off the trees you don't take the leaves off the trees green.

http://https/tanninaquatics.com/blogs/the-tint-1

 

[Essjay]

I would be wary of taking anything from a stream - they could bring all sorts of unwanted things into a tank, from insect larvae to parasites to infectious micro-organisms. Dried leaves as Boundava talks about are good though.

 

[GaryE]

I use oak leaves that have dried on the tree, I pick them in the fall, and they add tannins and acidify water, as well as providing cover for fish that use leaf litter in the wild. In a closed system, if you leave them to decompose, you have problems. The same would be true with taking leaves from a stream, because different tree species have different chemical properties, and you want to control what happens with your water. Leaves are also used by other creatures you would not want to have in your tank, so dry leaves are best.
As an example, maples also add tannins, but they rot so fast they are a negative. You have to learn how to do this.
I use alder cones, though I am less impressed by them, to make a tea to add tannins.
You have to want tannins, which stain the water brown.
For hardwater, tannin hating fish I have added pieces of limestone to tanks. It releases minerals into the water. That would be awful for a cardinal tetra, but good for a platy.
I also collect all my own rocks, and soak pieces of hardwood to have wood decor. Softwood would be a disaster, and rocks that release minerals would mess up my rainforest tanks.

Most short videos are untrustworthy because they don't give background. I use field guides for rocks, and only put natural or unnatural things into a tank if I have a reason to. Nature is very diverse and complex and you have to respect that.

 

[Ram419]

I know of a YouTuber that speaks about what you are talking about. They say go to a local stream or pond and grab some stuff from it. Put it in your tank. The microorganism you get will stave off any unwanted parasites.

Not done it myself. But I have taken the sponge filter, leaves, and plants from my outdoor backyard pond and put in my aquarium.

 

[BettaFishGirl]

Seems like a cool idea, having even more beneficial bacteria, but since it's, well, outside, there could be harmful things on the leaves that could hurt your fish. It could also be completely fine, but I wouldn't risk it.

 

[GaryE]

I know of a social media star who drank 7 bottles of liquor to show how tough he was. He died. Wait, no, three of them did that in separate videos...

I would happily move things between my old pond and my tanks. It would get me hydra and could get predatory insects. A local stream? The fish we keep are tropical, and if you live in a temperate climate, the water will have a completely different bacterial fauna. The viruses in the water will also be different. There are billions of harmless micro-organisms out there,but if you get a dangerous one, consider that the fish from that habitat will have immune system adaptations. A fish from "another world" that has never encountered the disease will be killed. It's that first contact issue.

Streams may also be polluted.

Later this week I'll take a pole with a net on it and try to catch local Daphnia. In decades of doing that I have never introduced any health problems. It's been a successful activity here, and in many tanks. But leaf litter, wood and plants are where the problems live. Why take a rock from a stream, when you you can identify the kind of rocks you want and get them dry from the ground?

I can make 99 youtube videos where removing something from a stream and using it in my tanks will work like a charm. I won't show you the 100th video where it didn't work out. Why take the risk? What do you gain versus what the risk is?

And never, ever put a pet fish or aquarium device into a natural stream. That's where the real danger lies, as we know fish farm produced tropical fish carry a wide range of diseases that could decimate wild populations.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Yep. Introducing rocks and twigs from the local stream is like most things: There can be benefits; there can be risks. In my latest build, I introduced a bunch of rocks from my extremely clean local stream, hoping to jump-start the microbes and get some good biofilm going for the hillstream loaches I planned on introducing. I also introduced plants from many different sources. I know that this approach introduced some beneficial microbes, and now my ecosystem includes some very interesting macroinvertebrates occupying different parts of the tank.

I also lost a bunch of the initial fish stocking. Was it because I introduced some pathogen for which the tropical fish had no resistance? I'll never know, but it's certainly possible.

Some people sanitize everything they put in their tanks, to the point of being control freaks about it. I see this as rather pointless; I like biodiversity in my tanks, and I probably go too far to the other extreme. You pay your money and you take your chances. Make the best decisions you can, select unpolluted water sources, and know that all actions will have consequences to your ecosystem, some good and some bad, many of them unpredictable.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The above is why one should not be using YouTube to get reliable information. It is best used for entertainment not for science or most factual information.

BTW- the reverse of this is true for the same reasons. Putting fish from one's tank back into the wild risks introducing pathogens which we have in our tanks. Our fish either develop an immunity to these things or they get sick from them and we have to treat out fish as a result.

And, as usual, I can find the science on this topic. For example:

	Patoka, J., Bláha, M., Devetter, M., Rylková, K., Čadková, Z. and Kalous, L., 2016. Aquarium hitchhikers: attached commensals imported with freshwater shrimps via the pet trade. Biological Invasions, 18, pp.457-461.

Abstract
The keeping of home aquaria is one of the most popular hobbies globally. In contrast to the ornamental fish trade, decapod crustaceans such as shrimps, crayfish and crabs are relatively new to the pet trade. Nevertheless, the popularity of ornamental shrimp in freshwater aquaria has rapidly increased in recent years. Indonesia is one of the leading producers and exporters of ornamental aquatic animals globally and the Czech Republic is a gateway for these animals into the European Union territory. The pathway for introductions of organisms unintentionally moved in association with ornamental shrimps via the international trade has to date not been evaluated. We
examined a small number of shrimps imported from Indonesia into the Czech Republic in May 2015 and found large numbers of the protozoan Vorticella sp., one species of scutariellid temnocephalidan (Caridinicola sp.), and one species of bdelloid rotifer, associated with two species of atyid shrimps, indicating an invasion risk from fauna carried unintentionally by this vector. Although our observations were limited in scale, we estimate the total number of commensal fauna imported into the Czech Republic with ornamental shrimps via the pet trade to be in the order of hundreds of thousands per month. As attached organisms can directly or indirectly cause diseases in certain
species of decapod crustaceans, we recommend five steps to reduce risks of introduction of ‘‘hitchhikers’’ to aquaria and wildlife.
(paper here Full Paper )

(edited to fix spelling and add punctuation)

 

[Byron]

The above is why one should not be using YouTube to get reliable information. It is best used for entertainment not for science or most factual information.

This cannot be said often enough.