[A Hill]

Someone was asking about leaf litter. So I figured I'll bump this up.

-Andrew

 

[Craigthor]

Good post!

 

[A Hill]

Good post!

Tom's are probably some of the best!

Makes my measly little guide thing look like a grain of salt in the ocean.

-Andrew

 

[bulrush]

I have used maple leaves in my tanks before with no problems. I just add 1-2 leaves to a 10g tank and the shrimp graze on it for 1-2 months. When the leaf looks skeletonized I replace it.

 

[A Hill]

Its that time again to go collect leaves:thumbsup:

I'll be stocking up and hoping that the stock won't be thrown out:icon_roll

-Andrew

 

[zoologist101]

If you are at all house-proud, have a heavily planted tank, or do not want leaves covering up your precious moss on the tank floor – try a club sandwich.
This is what I do... Stack together 20 or 30 leaves (I use oak) and push a plastic knitting needle through the middle. This can be fitted into a hole in tufa rock on the floor (vertical) or cork bark glued to the side of the tank (horizontal).
There will still be some cleaning up to do when the leaves start to fall apart, but it is far less messy than just dumping a handful of leaves in.

 

[A Hill]

Now that is an interesting idea:thumbsup:

I'll add that in later.

Thanks,
-Andrew

 

[plantbrain]

BTW, th ekleaves themselves do not have much, if any nutrition to shrimps, the fungi/yeast/the other bacteria, then the critters that feed on this community are what the shrimps are really after here.

Tell you what, take a microscope.
Allow a leaf to get well colonized. (1-2 weeks)
Then scrape off some sections and see how much is there.
Then add to shrimp tank and check in 2 days. The area scraped will not have much(control), and the area not scaped will also be relatively bare. The leaf itself is not eaten.........
but will break down and rot, be shredded up but shrimp going after the smaller critters on the leaves. Sort of like a Woodpecker digging worms and tasty treats from the tree trunks, vs getting the bugs that crawl outside. Woodpeckers are not "eating the trees". They do shed them up good however. Any semi resistant organic material that can be colonized and breaks down in the tank without going too fast is fair game it seems to me.

This general idea is not focused on a single plant leaf species, such as indian almond. But whatever is locally available and colonizes well, does not have any side effects or is too messy.

Pine needles might not be that good obviously, but most hardwood leaves ought to work and folks in the tropics can use the almond leaves etc.

Your sponge filters also work for this same reason as organic matter attaches, and forms large bacterial communities which also supports large critters up the food chain.

Now how many of you have noticed how shrimp will pick and hang out of the sponge filters and things that are furry like moss?

They show definite preference.
Using this and shrimp counts per leaf cutting(cut leaf all the same sizes), you can test which leaves are best for your shrimp even if you wanted to based on shrimp selection of feeding substrates.

Now you are testing and getting somewhere.
Look, this is not hard stuff that researchers are only capable of here.
Then you can do other things like pre soak the leaves for 1-2-5-7-14 days time frames and look at how the time of presoak influences the shrimp.
This way you can feed live foods and raise the food simply by placing some leaves every few days in water in a small tray.

You folks can learn a lot more than arguing about Phenolic contents and chemicals that may or may not be in the leaves and which are better.

Stop that and test the leaves to see.
Then you will have a more knowledge, understanding ability to answer your own questions much better.

You really ,do not care about the chemicals, you care about the shrimp.
So focus on them:thumbsup:
Let them chose.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[oblongshrimp]

The leaves not only provide a surface for the biofilm but also provide nutrients for it. I have noticed that when I have added some unhealthy plants to a shrimp tank and they slowly die that I get a bunch of nice brown algae and other biofilm all over the tank which the shrimp just love.

I think the reason people like certain leaves is because they hold together better and don't break down so quickly. If the leaf breaks down to quickly it makes a mess of the tank and is probably releasing its nutrients into the water column to quickly.

 

[plantbrain]

This is why a pre soak is a good idea, this way you get all the critters and by the time the film has grown well on the left, you have leached anything left out of them, so just the critters, which are then fed to shrimp.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[JDowns]

Your sponge filters also work for this same reason as organic matter attaches, and forms large bacterial communities which also supports large critters up the food chain.

Now how many of you have noticed how shrimp will pick and hang out of the sponge filters and things that are furry like moss?

Now this is the only reason I keep a bag of barley still in my overlow. The shrimp love picking at.

Now is it the bag or the barley?

Great. Time to try a bag of marbles. :icon_idea

 

[A Hill]

Tom wants me to test something else too... Maybe I'll hold this one off for a little, I haven't posted any progress on the dye project yet:icon_lol:

Now this is the only reason I keep a bag of barley still in my overlow. The shrimp love picking at.

Now is it the bag or the barley?

Great. Time to try a bag of marbles. :icon_idea

LOL. have fun with that one:hihi:

Another question I have is how important is the light:icon_idea with leaf litter...

Too many questions too little time.

-Andrew

 

[fishsandwitch]

I dont think a leaf offers any real benefit to photosynthetic organisms, so I am going to have to guess not very much

 

[A Hill]

Lets not guess, lets research it then post. Guessing doesn't add anything valuable to the discussion.

Google it if nothing else

-Andrew

 

[A Hill]

Bump for those looking for information.

 

[Snuffelupagus]

Top 10 excuses for a Park Ranger - catching you pulling leaves off an Oak Tree;

10. maybe a bed of them will encourage my kid to hibernate for the winter
9. need them to help jump start my compost heap
8. now that I'm a vegan, I need to replace the down filling in my parka
7. if rose petals help get her in the mood, what will dead oak leaves do
6. these leaves were blocking my view of that hot girl next door
5. if I pick them off the tree now, it's less yard work in the Spring
4. oak leaves could make for a great new source of fiber in my diet
3. need an original item to throw at the bride & groom instead of rice
2. makes great kindling for the fireplace, since nobody buys newspapers anymore
1. I want to line the bottom of my fish tank with leaves to make my shrimp happy[/QUOTE]

#8 and #6 LOL

 

[yikesjason]

This discussion has focused mostly on using leaves for live food cultures. What about the use of leaves for lowering ph and water softening? Many discus and angelfish people swear by it.

Great thread by the way.

 

[alohamonte]

I used palm tree leaves and coconut husks and shells in 55 gal planted community tank for over a year.

My swordtails in particular loved to eat the remaining bits of white coconut meat off the shell.

 

["Got light?"]

Peach tree leaves are the "best"

I've been researching this topic for many weeks....

IT SEEMS THAT PEACH TREE LEAVES ARE THE "MOST LIKED" BY SHRIMP

(when compaired side-by-side with IAL, Oak, etc... shrimp attack the Peach leaf)


.

 

[Soothing Shrimp]

Mulberry.