Would Like To Make A Rock Cave For My New Gold Rams

[Will91]

Hi all:

I would like to find a cave for my delightful new pair of gold rams. I've been hunting around at my lfs and the internet for natural rock caves without much success. I've found plenty of plastic caves but would like something natural. If I can't find some sort of rock structure with a cave-like feature, I am open to trying to construct something on my own.

I am also aware of the small clay pot route but, again, think I would prefer some sort of natural rock.

Can anyone offer some ideas for rock selections and places where I might find some natural and attractive structures? It occurred to me that my local lapidary shop might have something nice I could use so I might look there tomorrow.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

I would get some slate, and use that. You can attach them together by using silicone specifically made for fish tanks. It is commonly sold at most LFS. Or, you can find some at the hard ware store. Just make sure it is 100 percent silicone with no additives.

 

[Straydum]

i'd second what DiscusLova said. or you could carry on searching. if you looked hard enough, there are bound to be some natural big rocks with holes and all that made up a cave. thats how i had mine.

 

[doubledee]

Just join some rocks/pebbles etc. with some aquarium safe silicon. I got some Arbosil 1081 from ebay for mine. However my apistos don't use it and my female seems to prefer squeezing into a tiny hole in the side of my bogwood!

 

[Waterbox]

If you live near a river or creek you can go get some nice smooth stones. When you pile them up they make many caves and they look nice too. You can find all sorts of colors of stones.

 

[adracco]

I love caves for fish, and I love making them. What I did was go to the hardware store and bought some black PVC pipe. There are all types of shapes and angles that you can connect together to what ever you desire. You can cut holes in the pipe for extra openings or buy the pipes with three holes. Whatever you desire. Then I used river rocks, and with 100% silicone aquarium glue (very important you get the fish safe kind) I glued the rocks to the pvc pipe. It helps to get all sizes of rocks so you can completely cover the Pipe so it looks natural. What i did was get a pvc pipe, glued river rocks to it, and put one end (opening)against the the front glass and the other opening to the back glass, so you could see straight through the pipe. I cut three holes in the side of the pipe so the fish can enter and leave. So even when your fish are hiding in the tunnels you can look through the pipe and still see them chilling out. There are a lot of creative things you can do with the pipes,I wish I could go more into detail but I am having trouble explaining what I did.

P.S if you do put the pipes against the front and back of the glass, make sure the pipes are either flush with the glass or have small bit of space away from the glass because if not, your fishies will find a way to cram themselves and get stuck in your rock creation.

 

[madgap]

Slate is brilliant. And there are other fantastic rocks out there. The ones I like, when looking on here, are the ones where they have the lines of the rocks running parallel. Otherwise they just look thrown in.