Plant · Botanical
Indian almond leaves
Terminalia catappa · Tropical Asia, Australia and the Pacific · also Catappa leaves, Ketapang leaves, Sea almond
Photo: Irvin calicut, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This is a dried leaf from a tree, not a growing plant. Rinse it and drop it in; it floats at first, then sinks and slowly releases tannins that tint the water brown and can lower the pH a little. Take it out once it falls apart and do not overdo it in soft water.
At a glance
Light
Low light
CO₂
No CO₂
Growth
Slow growth
Where it goes
Floats
Difficulty
Easy
What it does for your tank
Tea-coloured water that bettas, plecos and other blackwater fish like, plus a surface that shrimp and fry graze.
Fish that eat or uproot it
Shrimp, snails and plecos slowly eat the softened leaf.
Growing more
It does not grow in a tank; buy dried leaves and add a new one when the old one breaks down.