Amy's 100 baby INDIAN ALMOND LEAVES betta killie shrimp

Amy's Ketapang Inc

Product

Ketapang or Sea Almond or Indian Almond or Terminalia catappa leaves are known to most, if not all Asian breeders softwater / blackwater tropical fishes (including arowana, discus, apostos, bettas, tetras, plecos, killifish etc), to be one of the best water conditioners to promote healing and breeding. They are known to have antibacteria and antifungal properties. Bettas are known to be induced to spawn by just putting a few of the leaves into their tank. Fish suffering finrot or injuries (such as spawning injuries) will definitely benefit from having the leaves in their quarantine tub. But they can be used for the usual aquariums too.

When soaked in water these leaves will leach a strong brown dye that is full of organic acids like humic acids and tannic acids. These may be useful for inhibiting many types of bacteria as well as to detoxify harmful heavy metals found in the aquarium. But that is not all!

Referring to leaves from the Terminalia catappa tree, Dr Robert J. Goldstein (not the podiatrist- wannabe terrorist of Florida; but the aquarist and environmental consultant of North Carolina who wrote numerous book on fish-keepings), writes in his 2002 paper entitled “Water Conditioners and Additives”:

The large, leathery leaves are used in folk medicine to treat infections, indigestion, and other medical conditions. The water extract makes a pharmacologically powerful tea… In southeast Asia, betta breeders add a dried leaf to provide a surface for the bubblenest and to leach substances that protect the fry from diseases. As the leaves decay, they also provide detritus to grow extract-resistant infusoria for the babies. Of 35 aromatic (ring structure) substances identified from these leaves, noteworthy were benzene-acetaldehyde, acetones, and sabinen-hydrate. The first is strongly antimicrobial, and several of the 35 others destroy microbial cell membranes.

And he adds:

“So these leaves are not simply sources of stains and tannins and other acids as we would get from oak or hickory, but rich in many other kinds of complex and highly effective chemicals with a wide range of physiological and antimicrobial effects.”

Most of your leaves will be between 7-10" (and sometimes reaching up to 12"). They are selectively collected from leaves that have naturally fallen and of good quality. See my introduction above, and see photo for indication of quality (colour hue may vary from batch to batch, but all leaves that are greenish or smell green are rejected). And yes, in case you are wondering, the leaves in the photo are crispy dry.

You may wish to note that our leaves are selective picked from those that have naturally fallen from the trees after turning red in a natural chemical/biological process. These are the leaves that tan the blackwater streams in the forest where bettas and arowanas are found. We do not harvest fresh leaves from the trees and dry them. If we do that, the leaves will look very nice and indeed easier to obtain; but we doubt their efficacy for aquatic use. My husband will never use such leaves; and we do not know of any tropical fish breeder who will. All the breeders we know who use Ketapang Leaves will only use naturally fallen and dried ones. Indeed, if you try these naturally fallen leaves once, you will probably never go back to freshly harvested leaves! They have an aromatic smell that freshly harvested leaves do not have (it was this sweet smell that first led breeders and herbalists to suspect that they have beneficial properties), and they have a reddish tinge absent from freshly harvested leaves.

Dosage

For bettas, put a couple of baby leave into each 1 gallons (4 litre) jar. For usual aquarium (with tetras, gouramis, arrowanas, apistos etc), put about 10 leaves per 25 gallons (100 litres) of water for 14-21 days. Simply put the leaves into the aquarium. After 1-2 days the leaves will be water-logged and sink. Apart from their beneficial effects on the water, they will tan the water slightly (to a clear amber) and provide a very natural stream-bottom look to your aquarium. Alternatively, you can boil the leaves to make blackwater extract and dose when you need. Soaking the leaves in a bucket for a week will produce a similar result.

Quality Assurance

All our leaves goes through a four-level quality control:

• Our first level quality occurs at picking. We pick the leaves from 6 or 7 different locations in Singapore where in total there are more than a hundred catappa trees which bear good quality leaves (not every catappa tree bear such leave. Some bear only yellow or thin leaves). We only pick leaves that are are freshly fallen from the tree and are dark red or brown (not green) and not bleached (or weather-beaten), whole, and not torn or have large holes (Indian Almond is one of the most delicious trees, so they very likely to get infested by caterpillars ­ which in itself is a good indication that the tree is not covered with toxic substances).
• Our second level occurs at the washing and drying process. Leaves that are still fresh are shade-dried after washing. Some leaves are thrown away at these stage (e.g. leaves that are too dirty, green, or look/smell bad).
• Our third level occurs at grade sorting. We are currently using a 5 grade system: Grade A Large (7"+), Grade A small (5-7"); Grade A baby (3-5"); Grade B Large (7"+); Grade C (anything else still usable). Grade A leaves are whole, dark and without holes. Grade B are large leaves which may have small holes or tears. Grade C leaves are those that are still usable but have tears from washing or have too many holes. These are sold by weight.
• Our fourth level quality control occurs at packing. As each leave is packed into the ziploc bag, some leaves which passed through the third level are downgraded.

Handling & Shipping

The leaves have been washed and dried and are ready for delivery. They should arrive within 2 weeks for most destinations in US, UK and Europe. They may be used immediately upon arrival.

Utmost care is taken to ensure that your leaves arrive in a good condition. However, occasionally some of the leave will suffer some cracks as they are thoroughly dried. Such cracks, of course would no diminish the efficacy of the leaves.

Shipping Cost

My shipping charges are according to what the Post Office charges me. In fact, I usually have to pay an excess due to larger leaves! Shipping is guaranteed through re-shipments at not extra cost to you. I have had customers who ended up with 2 packages at the price of 1 due to postage delays. I don't earn anything from postage (everything you pay goes to the post-office), but I try to keep the price of my leaves low to make it affordable to you.

Price Guarantee

I keep my price low as a principle (For the LORD our Creator provides the leaves freely, and all I do is select, wash, dry, sort, pack and send - which is actually quite a lot of work altogether!). I also keep my price low by putting up only as many ads as I can be fairly confident there will be a buyer. I doubt that you can find the same quantity of similar quality leaves at a price (including Postage) that is lower than mine.

Why Buy  in Bulk (100+)?

Not only is it cheaper and you do not need to keep buying, but the leaves have practically no shelf life. So I would encourage you to buy smaller quantities only if you are very new to the leaves and would like to try them out for yourself rather than relying on research or hearsay.

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