BASIC INFORMATION:
Indian Almond Leaves (Terminalia Catappa) are one of the best water conditioners to promote healing and breeding amongst fish. Indian Almond Leaves (Terminalia Catappa) are also known as Ketapang, Tropical Almond, Sea Almond, Seemandelbaumblatter or Catappa. Indian Almond Leaves are also very popular amongst fish keepers/breeders as a natural medication and water conditioner for their Aquariums. They are believed to aid the fish in a number of ways, they increase fertility, health and vigor. Reduce the Ph in the water, aid in the recovery of diseased / damaged fish (bacterial infections / fungal infections) and the tannin that is released from the Indian Almond Leaves also quickly colors the water.
Both the amateur and professional Aquarist also use Indian Almond Leaves to mimic the natural conditions of their fish in their aquarium. By simply adding Indian Almond Leaves (IAL) to your aquarium, will release compounds by the Indian Almond Leaves which alter the chemistry of the water, making the aquarium more similar to the habitat from which their fish hails.
ABOUT US:
Once again, I wish you a very warm welcome to Bettawan. My name is Wan and I am from Thailand, my daughter's name is Min and my husband who is from the UK is called Jeff. We live in a little rice/sugarcane village in the middle of Thailand. We are surrounded by rice and sugarcane fields, mountains and jungle. We recently bought some land and built a small home / work area and a Dry shed where I store all the gathered leaves in raised bays to dry out along as storing other dry goods.
My father has always used Indian Almond Leaves (Terminalia Catappa), Teak Leaves (Tectona Grandis) and Banana leaf (Musa Balbisiana) for conditioning and well-being of his bettas, ever since he was introduced to them by a couple of his Thai betta breeder friends, from the village where we live.
Around our village, grow several Indian Almond Trees, that have been established there for many years and were we gather the leaves from. No insecticides whatsoever are used on the trees that we gather the freshly falling Indian Almond Leaves from. We never pick leaves from the tree, only the reddish/brown premium leaves that have falling. Also, on the land we bought, we planted several Indian Almond tree saplings and all are doing really well. So, in the near future we will have our own supply of Indian almond Leaves (Terminalia Catappa) and will not have to venture out so far to gather.
Gathering:
The Indian Almond Leaves usually fall twice a year, the first fall which is smaller than the main fall usually happens Sept/Oct. We usually ignore this fall as it's coming to the end of the rainy season and the majority of the leaves are damaged by the last rains of the rainy season. The main fall is in Jan/Feb and these are the Indian Almond Leaves that we gather.
As the time approaches and the Indian Almond trees leaves start to go red, we go out and clean all the previous years over growth from around the trees we gather from, to make the gathering of the freshly falling Indian Almond Leaves easier. We go through each leaf individually and all good premium Indian Almond Leaves are bagged and any not so good are piled onto the piles of the previous years overgrowth that we have made. The bagged good leaves are taking back to the dry shed and emptied into raised bays to dry out 100 % naturally.
PREPARATION:
Usually on an evening 4/5pm, a bag of big leaves will be sorted in the dry shed. Any small leaves are put into seperate bags and stored for future small leaf orders. The bag is then emptied into our specially built wash area and the Indian Almond Leaves are gently showered and left for an hour. This gets rid of any curls and folds in the leaves that may of occured while they were drying out in the bays in the dry shed and makes the leaves fresh and workable.
The Indian Almond Leaves are then dried with a damp clothes to remove any excess water that may be on them and piled into packs of 10 of similar sizes and then put into specially made presses. The presses are usually left outside durning the day for the leaves to sundry/press. But sometimes, especially in the rainy season they need to be put inside due to the weather. This process usually takes 2/4 days for the leaves to dry but could take longer durning the rainy season due to everywhere been damp.Once dry, the leaves are boxed and stored.
Durning the day,most of the time is spent brushing the boxed leaves. The leaves are brushed to get rid of of any dust, dirt, seeds or small insects/eggs that may of got on them durning the pressing stage and while stored. Any damaged leaves are put to one side and stored as low grade leaves. Any leaves with 1 or 2 fungus spots, the fungus is cut out. Any leaves with lots of fungus are destroyed on fire.
We don't just gather, bag and ship, we spend a lot of time making sure we supply a quality product for our customers. We only select the best reddish/brown leaves, we never offer hand picked Indian Almond Leaves, only leaves that have natually fallen and are high in Tannin. We only supply Premium leaves, all our leaves are 100% totally organic, dry and clean, no chemicals whatsoever are used on the trees we gather the leaves from.
FISH THAT BENEFIT FROM INDIAN ALMOND LEAVES:
Betta, Discus, Gouramies, Killiefish, Tetras, Dwarf Cichlids, Corys, Plecos, some Raboras and some Catfish. They are also ideal for crustaceans and shrimps who love to feed on them. Indian Almond Leaves are also used as litter in vivariums.
INDIAN ALMOND LEAVES common uses:
1. Moving of fish in plastic transport bag.
2. New fish is introduced to the Aquarium.
3. Setting up and maintaining a fry or baby fish Aquarium.
4. Setting up a new Aquarium.
5. To induce breedng in Betta fish.
6. When fish are sick. Especially bacterial infections / fungal infections.
ADVANTAGES OF INDIAN ALMOND LEAVES IN THE AQUARIUM:
1. Addition of Trace Minerals (100% Natural)
2. Anti-Inflammatory. Prevents and Cures diseases in fish (100% Natural)
3. Decorative (100% Natural)
4. Food Source (100% Natural)
5. Healing Agent (100% Natural)
6. Hiding Spots, for crustaceans, shrimp and small fish (100% Natural)
7. Induces breeding in Betta fish (100% Natural)
8. Water Conditioner (100% Natural)
DOSAGE:
The Indian Almond Leaves will normally float for 2-3 days before sinking. The dryer the leaves the quicker they will sink and release their tannin. The leaves will normally disintegrate after a month or so. The leaves also serve as home and food for infusoria. Due to its size and nutritional content, infusoria is an excellent food source for newly hatched fry of many species of fish.
We recommend adding 1-2 leaves per 50 litres of water and we recommend changing the leaves every 1-2 weeks depending on how quickly they break down. But be prepared to adjust the dosage to suit your particular fish. Some Betta keepers routinely use up to 2 leaves per 15 L (4 gallons) of water in their everyday tanks. Betta breeders normally use 1 leaf per 20 L (5 gallons) of water in breeding tanks. In fry rearing tanks, using 1 leaf per 40 L (10 gallons) of water is recommended.
SHIPPING AND HANDLING:
- Leaves are bagged in clear plastic bags and boxed in sturdy boxes supplied by the Thai post office.
- We will ship the item to your address shown in your eBay account. Please make sure your shipping address and zip code is correct and up to date.
- We offer FREE International shipping with all our products.
The package will be shipped directly from Thailand. We use the International small packet and International parcel airmail services supplied by the Thai post office. Both services offer tracking numbers. Parcels usually take 12 - 14 working days to arrive once shipped.
Orders will normally ship within 2 working days after payment has been cleared if the leaves are prepared and in stock, failing this a new batch of 1,000 leaves will need to be prepared so, please allow an extra 15 working days if not sooner.
Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility.
Please check with your countries customs to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying.
RETURN POLICY:
100% satisfaction guarantee
If you are not satisfied with the product you have purchased for any reason, please contact us for return instruction's within 30 days for a refund. Return shipping cost will be paid by buyer.
For all returned products, buyer must contact us for the returning address.
In all cases, buyers pay shipping fees at their own cost to return products for exchange or refund. We will be responsible for the postage of replacements. Refund will be made upon receipt of the returned undamaged item.
CONTACT US:
Your positive feedbacks are extremely valuable to us. If you have any concerns about your purchased item, please contact us through eBay message to resolve any issues before leaving a negative feedback or opening a dispute. We will reply within 2 business days (public holidays not included) and will try our best to resolve it.
Bettawan, offer many dried leaf products, which cater for both the beginner, amateur and professional aquarist alike, at very reasonable prices.
We aim to supply a fast friendly service with quality products in a professional manner.
I thank you once again for visiting me on Ebay.
Regards
Wan