Dining with botanicals?

[Tannin Aquatics]

With the enthusiasm increasing almost daily for using botanicals in aquariums, there are all sorts of angles to be worked- assumptions to be reviewed, and yeah, even "myths" to be debunked- relating to their use.

In pervious installments of this blog, we've literally beaten the crap out of the many assumptions that have been made about the "antibacterial" and "antifungal" properties attributed to Catappa and Guava leaves, among others, and have addressed the impact that utilizing leaves and other botanicals has on the closed aquatic environment. We've talked about the collateral  activity that accompanies their use (i.e.; formation of biofilms, algae and support of benthic life forms). We've looked at many different attributes of their use as both  "functional" and "aesthetic" aquascaping "props", and how fishes interact with them.

One thing that haven't really played with much during our explorations of aquatic botanicals is their use as food- or more specifically, supporting fishes as both a direct feeding mechanism, as well as via the life forms they support. Yeah, exactly...food. Now, we have briefly talked about how decomposing leaf litter does support population of infusoria- a collective term used to describe minute aquatic creatures such as ciliates, euglenoids, protozoa, unicellular algae and small invertebrates that exist in freshwater ecosystems. Yet, there is much to explore on this topic. It's no secret, or surprise- to most aquarists who've played with botanicals, that a tank with a healthy leaf litter component is a pretty good place for the rearing of fry of species associated with blackwater environments! (click to read more)