South Florida Plants that Replace Catappa Leaves?

[GreenSorceress]

Has anyone tried adding local botanicals instead of catappa leaves to their aquariums? (Specifically hoping to find someone in south Florida who has similar local plants to me.)  I'd like to harvest some leaves from my yard that way I know there have not been pesticides applied. I figure this would be a more environmentally friendly thing to do rather than ship leaves halfway across the planet. I have dried leaves in my yard already. 😅 I was considering trying with coco plum leaves, coconut husks, mango leaves, and FL avocado leaves. Looking for any input. 

[JettsPapa]

Hello,

I'm not in south Florida, but it's my understanding that just about any leaves from hardwood trees are fine, as long as you get dry fallen leaves with no remaining green.  I've personally used magnolia, cottonwood, sycamore, and at least three species of oak leaves, along with sweetgum balls.

[Odd Duck]

I’m not in Florida, but I know I’ve heard of people using mango leaves.  I would definitely NOT use regular plum leaves but I don’t know about coco plum since it’s a completely different family.  Prunus family leaves can contain cyanide but coco plum isn’t prunus.  Wish I was more help, but at least one useful tidbit, hopefully.

[FLFishChik]

I’m in FL. and as @JettsPapa has mentioned, you can use any hardwood leaves that have naturally fallen and completely dried out (no green left and no picking leaves and drying them). You Can use Oak, Maple, Laurel Oak, Ash, Birch and Magnolia. Stay clear of pine needles. 

[Lennie]

there are lots of botanicals listed here. Maybe you can find any of them in your area?

https://tanninaquatics.com/collections/aquatic-botanicals?page=1

[Odd Duck]

On 8/31/2023 at 4:09 PM, Lennie said:

there are lots of botanicals listed here. Maybe you can find any of them in your area?

https://tanninaquatics.com/collections/aquatic-botanicals?page=1

I can’t tell you much about any of those except the “Live oak leaf litter” doesn’t appear to have any live oak leaves and their description doesn’t at all fit with live oak leaves.  Live oak leaves are often at least as big or bigger than my hand and are never the small oval leaves they show in the picture.

The rest may be 100% correct but knowing this one is very wrong makes me concerned about the validity of others.  Their Catappa leaves look correct and the very few that I can identify are correct, but I can’t identify very many and my distrust is flaring when they can’t correctly describe or ID live oak leaves.

[JettsPapa]

On 9/1/2023 at 8:49 AM, Odd Duck said:

I can’t tell you much about any of those except the “Live oak leaf litter” doesn’t appear to have any live oak leaves and their description doesn’t at all fit with live oak leaves.  Live oak leaves are often at least as big or bigger than my hand and are never the small oval leaves they show in the picture.

The rest may be 100% correct but knowing this one is very wrong makes me concerned about the validity of others.  Their Catappa leaves look correct and the very few that I can identify are correct, but I can’t identify very many and my distrust is flaring when they can’t correctly describe or ID live oak leaves.

I don't know where you are, but the live oak leaves in southeast Texas are about 2" long and 3/4" to 1" wide (in other words, they look just like the ones on that website).

[Odd Duck]

Really?  For me, they look like this.  In DFW metroplex.

 

Maybe they were mis-identified to me when I moved to Texas and I never thought to doubt it?

Edited September 1, 2023 by Odd Duck

[GreenSorceress]

I agree with @JettsPapa , the live oak leaves in Florida are small as he describes. 
 

I have bought from tannin aquatics and liked them but just didn’t want to pay their prices anymore. I’ve seen some of their botanicals in my area but don’t want to pull from areas where I don’t know about pesticide use.

[FLFishChik]

@Odd Duck

heres a screenshot of Southern Live Oak from the University of Florida website

[JettsPapa]

On 9/1/2023 at 10:21 AM, Odd Duck said:

Really?  For me, they look like this.  In DFW metroplex.

 

Maybe they were mis-identified to me when I moved to Texas and I never thought to doubt it?

There are a lot of species of oak, but I believe that is post oak.

[JettsPapa]

On 9/1/2023 at 11:39 AM, FLFishChik said:

@Odd Duck

heres a screenshot of Southern Live Oak from the University of Florida website

Here a picture of one I just pulled out of the tank on my desk (it's been in there for a while).  This size is typical for the leaves from the live oak trees I'm familiar with.

 

[GreenSorceress]

From a live oak in Florida:

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/31/2023 at 9:52 AM, GreenSorceress said:

I was considering trying with coco plum leaves, coconut husks, mango leaves, and FL avocado leaves.

coconut husks are used.  I've also seen mango leaves used.  Not sure about the other two.  Tannin aquatics has a blog and it's very likely one of the best sources of information for botanicals.  I would use that and search "leaf litter" and I am certain you'll have a lot of information to take in there.

Ultimately, there is a lot of "we don't know until we try it" science with botanicals.  In nature anything and everything that can fall will end up into the water.  I've seen people walk buy and dump half a dinner plant in the tank just to "try it" and see what happens.  I don't necessarily do that with food, but you'd be surprised what some people do.  If you had a tub, qt tank, or something then perhaps you can try some of them out.  Let the water get some tannins and then try a fish or shrimp.  If you notice any stress, then you can go ahead and move them out of that situation.

[Odd Duck]

On 9/1/2023 at 12:48 PM, JettsPapa said:

There are a lot of species of oak, but I believe that is post oak.

Huh.  This is the neighbor’s tree but it never loses all its leaves in the winter, never goes all brown, and I was told it was a live oak.  Here’s me rethinking all I know about live oaks!  🤷🏻‍♀️ This is what happens when northerners move south halfway through their life.  😆