Botanicals in the aquarium contribute to the bio-load of your ecosystem. Their introduction allows beneficial bacteria and fungal colonies to grow prolifically as they consume compounds in the leaf litter, bark, and seed pods. These new colonies consume oxygen, just like your fish, which is why your fish are all of a sudden struggling to breath. What should you? Add in an air stone, make sure you have adequate water movement in the aquarium, remove a few leaves, and perform a 10% water exchange of ONLY the aquarium water. Don't mess or 'clean' anything else. This is why we recommend using 2-3 botanicals per 5 gallons of aquarium water.

It entirely depends on your water's chemistry. Soft water will allow the botanicals to bend your pH more than if you have medium or hard water. At Betta Botanicals HQ our tap water is Very Hard, ( 350+ppm) and we do not notice a change in water pH unless using Alder Cones or Macaranga Leaves. If you are using RODI water along with botanicals you will notice that the use of botanicals can lower your pH - depending on which botanicals you are using.

We DO NOT recommend using botanicals that these fish can ingest. Botanicals like casuarina cones, small alder cones, and live oak are not suited for these animals. Large aquarium leaves like Indian almond, loquat, and jackfruit leaf litter are preferred. 

White growths are the colonization of biofilms and fungi (aquatic hyphomycetes). We call this the 'goo-phase' and it's totally natural! Botanicals are fuel for the ecosystem and the populations of bacteria and fungi will naturally rise and fall as new materials are added. These can also present themselves at a later date at random. We recommend leafing them be as they will naturally disappear, running their course, after a few days. 

100% yes. Our botanicals are for most aquariums, terrariums, vivariums, and all natural enclosures. We only voice caution around some of our smaller pods with goldfish or axolotls which may try to consume the pods.

Our botanicals are foraged around the globe from pesticide & herbicide free environments. We do not have our products certified organic, but we'd classify them as darn near organic which means they are safe for use in your ecosystems. We batch test each curated import to our HQ for its safety before packaging them in our 100% home compostable packaging.

We recommend letting aquarium leaves and seed pods entirely break down into beneficial detritus. You can absolutely remove them after they don’t release tannins anymore, you just won't get all potential benefits of leaving them in the ecosystem. Make sure to follow our preparation each time you wish to add new materials, paying close attention to the behaviors of your fish until you understand the rhythm of your ecosystem.

Please follow the tracking link via your order shipping confirmation and sign up for delivery status updates directly to your email and/or phone. Please then file a missing package claim with the shipping provider to initiate a package search with the carrier in possession of your ecosystem materials.