This is my first post, so I hope I've researched enough - I've spent the last 5 hours searching and looking at previous posts and looking at articles so here's the Q;
Here in sunny Queensland, the occurrence of trees such as oak, chestnut and ash are pretty much limited to botanical gardens in major cities, lol. So I'm trying to be prepared and find a source for leaves to use in my shrimp tanks before I get too carried away.
I've considered local common species such as Eucalypt, and Maleluca, but am concerned about the high sap/aromatic content of the leaves. I'm happy to experiment in the future, but am not willing to risk the lives of my critters at this stage. I also considered Lilly Pilly leaves (Syzigium sp.), which may be a more likely candidate, but the leaves are generally quite small.
So what I was wondering about was if anybody would be kind enough to provide me with any feedback you have on the use of Hibiscus leaves. I know (after reading through older threads) that at lest a few of you have tried them, so I was wondering what species of shrimp you have tried them with, and whether you have noted differences to other types of leaves, what spp of Hibiscus you have used (common garden variety or otherwise), and anything else you think might be helpful, lol. If you have any other suggestions to what I might try locally, that would also be helpful. As an aside I can get cattappa leaves (I think that's the almond that betta breeder's use?) but I note that a lot of folks mentioned it acts too acidicly on the water.
*edit: forgot to mention; the reason I asked about Hibiscus leaves specifically, was that my father has about 20 bushes growing on his property, so they're pretty easily accessible
Cheers.*Consider me a sponge
Gratefully,
Rufus
