Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I harvested some oak leaves from my dad's property (black oak, I believe).

But there's some weird growths on some of the leaves.


They look like the spiny badguys from Super Mario Bros! But at least I can tell the trees haven't been treated with pesticides because of the holes already eaten out of the leaves.

Does anyone know what these are? I thought it might be a parasite or disease of some sort. Should I just toss out the affected leaves or is the whole branch contaminated?

It is some sort of insect egg.

The leaves must be totally dried out before you use them. You are much better off if you start with dried brown leaves that have been on the ground a while.

Doh! There were lots of leaves on the ground and it didn't even occur to me to pick those. I was just planning on letting them dry out, soak them to remove tannins, and then give them to the shrimp. For the time being, they've got lots of other stuff to eat: algae, sponge, etc. so I think they should be OK.

Well, I'm glad it's just insect eggs. I never would have guessed that in a million years because they look so darn bizarre!

The plant reacts to the eggs and makes those odd looking growths around them.

badflash wrote:The plant reacts to the eggs and makes those odd looking growths around them.

Wow, how weird! It's such a pretty shade of pink.