Betta Botanicals FAQ's

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.

When you add botanicals, they fuel the rapid growth of beneficial bacteria and fungi as they break down leaves, bark, and seed pods. These colonies compete with your fish for oxygen, which can temporarily lower dissolved oxygen levels.

What to do:

• Add an air stone or increase surface movement.
• Remove a few botanicals to ease the load.
• Perform a gentle 10% water change using aquarium water only.
• Avoid over-cleaning—biofilms and detritus are part of the ecosystem.
  

Start with 2–3 botanicals per 5 gallons to allow your system to adjust gradually, adding more once per week.

It depends entirely on your water chemistry. Botanicals influence pH most in soft or unbuffered water. If your water is medium to hard, the carbonate buffers will resist these changes.

At Betta Botanicals HQ, our tap water is very hard (350+ ppm TDS). In this case, we only see a noticeable pH shift when using strongly active materials like Alder Cones or Macaranga Leaves.

If you’re using RODI water, botanicals can lower pH significantly—how much depends on the types and quantities of botanicals you add.

Goldfish and axolotls are opportunistic feeders, so the main concern is them accidentally swallowing small, hard botanicals. For this reason, we do not recommend items like casuarina cones, small alder cones, or live oak leaf litter. Instead, choose larger, broad leaves such as Indian almond, loquat, or jackfruit, which soften gradually and are far less likely to be ingested. A simple rule of thumb: if it’s too big to swallow, it’s safe.

Those soft, white growths are biofilms and fungi (aquatic hyphomycetes) colonizing your botanicals—a stage we affectionately call the “goo-phase.” It’s completely natural and a sign that your ecosystem is alive and processing new material. As botanicals break down, populations of bacteria and fungi naturally rise and fall, and these growths can even appear again later at random. The best approach is to leave them be; within a few days they’ll subside on their own, having run their course, while providing valuable food for shrimp, snails, and microfauna along the way.

Absolutely. Our botanicals are safe and beneficial for most aquariums, terrariums, vivariums, and other natural enclosures. We only recommend caution with goldfish or axolotls, as they may attempt to ingest smaller seed pods. Beyond that, whether you keep tetras, corydoras, dwarf cichlids, shrimp, or other species, botanicals help create the kind of natural habitats these animals evolved in.

Our botanicals are foraged from pesticide- and herbicide-free environments around the globe. While we don’t carry an official organic certification, they are as close as it gets—safe for aquariums, vivariums, and terrariums alike. Every batch is tested at our HQ for purity and quality before being packaged in 100% home-compostable materials.

We recommend letting leaves and seed pods fully decompose into beneficial detritus, just as they would in nature. This breakdown fuels biofilms, microfauna, and the microbial web that supports your ecosystem. You can remove them once they’ve stopped releasing tannins, but doing so means missing out on the long-term ecological benefits they provide. Each time you add new materials, follow our preparation steps and watch how your fish respond until you learn the rhythm of your aquarium.

No. Many of our leaves, pods, and seeds come directly from trees that produce nuts, so we cannot guarantee they are free of peanut or tree nut exposure. If you have nut allergies, we do not recommend using botanicals in your aquarium or vivarium.