I was reading about bettas and almond leaves. What are they for?

sammie

Indian Almond Leaves are to make the water conditions more comfortable for bettas. They generally soften the water, make it more acidic, and provide mild anti-bacterial and anti-fungal prevention, but will stain your water a tea color. Similar products like peat and blackwater extract work similarly, but none are really necessary for a pet betta.

They are used mostly for breeding and to calm down new fish. Since it is hard to get Indian Almond Leaves around here, I use a mix of different types of dried bannana leaves. They have similar effects with the fish. Using greentea or anytype of natural(by natural I mean fish safe) tea can also be used when breeding. It kind of makes the fish go straight into a breeding mood.

Sushi, have you heard of using oak leaves as an AIL substitute? I've heard a commotion about them at a betta forum, some good some bad. Either way, oak leaves are just as accessible here as AILs so it doesn't really matter to me lol.

I've heard it once or twice but so far a mix of red bannana leaves and greentea are my magic solution. I recenlty got a normal bannana tree that I'm experimenting with. The leaves float longer but don't seem to have the same effect as the red bannana leaves, at least not as fast as the red bannana.

Kissy, the probelm with oak leaves is they can catch mold and fingus when wet so they would have to be changed every couple hours which can cause the fish stress and then they won't breed. I've never used them with my bettas because bannana leaves work for me and I no longer live where there is an osk tree.

here is good article I found on almond leaves
KETAPANG LEAVES OR HUU KWANG LEAVES OR DRY INDIAN ALMOND LEAVES

Indian Almond leaves - the so called Asian Breeding Secret Recipe which creates a natural environment and induces spawning.

Ketapang or Huu Kwang Leaves

Most of the tropical fishes that lives in the rivers and lakes, their natural and best environment is Black Water. Black water have a distinctive brownish tea like colour and contain many dissolved organic materials.

It was first noticed that fishes living around the water where the ketapang/Huu Kwang/Indian Almond trees grew are found much more vibrant, beautiful and healthy. Thus started the practice of putting in ketapang/Huu Kwang/Indian Almond leaves into aquariums to try and achieve the same condition as those found in their natural environment.

The ketapang/Huu Kwang/Indian Almond tree is a big 'pagoda-shaped' tree with distinctly tiered branching. The origin of the tree is in Malaysia and Thailand. A noted pecularity of this species is the tendency for its leaves to turn bright red and fall - a rarity in the tropics where most trees remain evergreen throughout the year. The bark, fruit and leaves of the tree have traditionally been used to treat various ailments ranging from skin disease, dysentery, headaches and colic in children. Research has identified properties which could be used in treating hypertension.

Ketapang/Huu Kwang (TERMINALIA CATAPPA, or commonly called tropical almond, badamier, Java almond, amandier de Cayenne, wild almond, Indian almond, myrobalan, Malabar almond, Singapore almond, Huu kwang, Sea almond, kobateishi) tree is known to produce a poison in its leaves and sap to defend against insect parasites. When the dried leaves falls into the river, a strong brown dye is given off. The dye is full of organic acids like humic and tannins.

So the dried Ketapang/Huu Kwang/Indian Almond leaves actually release organic acids like humic and tannins which lowers the pH of the water, absorbs harmful chemicals and help create a soothing and calm environment for the fish.

What is Humic Acid? Is it a mixture of several organic acids? Humic acids are a complex mixture of partially "decomposed" and otherwise transformed organic materials. The freshwater humic acids can come from a variety of sources, most of which are on land (decomposing terrestrial vegetation.) These substances wash into lakes and rivers, undergoing further transformations along the way, and ultimately into the ocean.

Humic acid contains Sulfur, Nitrogen and Phosphorus in varying amounts. It also contains metals such as Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn etc. which can be 'chelated' in some undefined way. Humic acid can be broken down into two groups based on the polarity and size of the individual 'compounds'.

The smaller, more polar fraction is generally termed fulvic acid and the larger, more non-polar fraction is generally termed humic acid. Humic acids are the end product of microbial degradation of plant and animal debris and are one of the most important constituents of fertile soils.

Tannins, lignins and fulvic acids are sub classes of humic acids. They all tint the water yellow.

Tannic and humic acids may be useful for inhibiting many types of bacteria including cyano-bacteria and are fairly benign for your fish.

Another paradoxical effect of humic acids is the detoxification of heavy metals. Humic material and detritus in the aquarium also rapidly absorb and detoxify many chemicals including zinc, aluminum and copper! One might expect them to be made more, not less toxic by humic acids, but the studies seem to indicate a detoxifying effect.

Also important to know: The harder the water the more ineffective the humic acids - - - more exactly: the dissolved lime in the water produces undissolvable calcium humates. So, the higher the water hardness, the higher must be the supply of humates in order to achieve an acidifying effect. The softer the water, the less humates are needed and the better the effect. It creates a natural environment similar to that of the lakes in the tropical rainforest and some area of the Amazon River. It also induces spawning for most soft water and acid loving fishes. Too much of the ketapang/Huu Kwang/Indian Almond leaves may result in too low the water pH.

Courtesy of Chris Yew.

I believe almond leaves will also harden there scales.

It sounds tricky. What if the tank accidently crashed? Is there a guideline for how many leaves to add per gallon, based on the current ph levels? Just wondering how is all works.

sammie

I've seen some Thai breeders who have tons of leaves in the spawn and fry tanks. Just kind of use what works for you.