RE: Oak Leaves

[David.Koran at HQ02_USACE.ARMY.MIL]

I think you are missing the value of the oak leaves.  Obviously the main
value is the release of fulvic acids that acidify and also tie up metal ions
(hence purify or soften water).  They also provide hiding places for females
or other tank mates escaping an aggressive habitant.  If you are using it to
replace peat you are dealing with something that may cake eggs but not offer
the ability to retain moisture during incubation.  Eggs would dry out.  I
have had fish spawn in flakey algae but it is a pain in the butt to try to
remove the eggs from it.  Such would be the case of your oak leaf mush!

Dave Koran

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Jarvis [mailto:pjarvis at uidaho_edu]
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 12:40 PM
To: KillieTalk at AKA_Org
Subject: Oak Leaves


Hi all,

It seems to me there was a discussion last year about the use of dried oak
leaves to acidify tank water.

Since I moved here (the Pacific Northwest) we have an abundance of oak
leaves.

Because of all the talk about the use of peat as a spawning media...has
anyone ever thought of using ground up oak leaves?

Couldn't you crush the oak leaves and boil them in water to remove some of
the acid then use the resulting "mush" for spawning annuals? 

By crushing the leaves you could control how fine or coarse you want the
material to be.

How about used ........ coffee grounds?

Star Bucks gives away used coffee grounds.

So what if the fish are a bit wide eyed and jittery!

Just wondering!

Time to go while my grad students change the water and collect the eggs
automaticly!

:)

Paul Jarvis
Assistant Research Scientist
Aquaculture Research Institute
University of Idaho
208-885-2823
pjarvis at uidaho_edu


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/related
  multipart/alternative
    text/html
  image/gif
---
---------------
See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/html
---
---------------
See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm