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March 19th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| hidding spots for cichlids
Well like we know Cichlids like to hide so this idea just pop out of no where driving home today.
Materials
Aquarium Silicone
Plastic lid
River Rock
and a lot of work and patience. here are the pics. Btw I took a pic of a blue lid but used a white one. Let me know what you think.  | 
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March 19th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Great Idea!!!...Cute little cave. Are you going to keep the lid on the bottom or did you just use it for a form?? | |
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March 19th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Yes the rocks are glue to it. I plan to fill the bottom with sand so they can scoop it out and make it their own little place. haha. | |
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March 19th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by navyscuba  Yes the rocks are glue to it. I plan to fill the bottom with sand so they can scoop it out and make it their own little place. haha. | awesome idea!!! I never thought to make it easier and put them on some type of lid!!! I made some also with my river rocks I got at wal mart LOL
course this is my first time trying it so I was a bit overkill on the silicone and still have to scrape off the extra so dont mind that hahahaha DSC02122.jpg DSC02121.jpg | |
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March 19th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| I just decided to use the lid because I wanna put sand inside of the little houses so they can make their own digging. hehehe | |
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March 19th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| neat! i like it!!!  | |
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March 27th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| Another way to build a small enclosure is to use a broken slate tile. I went to my local building supply store and bought a single slate floor tile that I broke into pieces. I used silicone much the same as NavyScuba to glue the pieces together and had this end result for my kribensis to use as a shelter. Because it has no bottom to it, I just sit it on the gravel surface. 
I think the most creative one that I have seen is a piece of PVC tube cut to length and covered with aquarium silicone. The silicone is just rolled in the gravel that you are using in the tank and the result is a tube that blends right in. These are used by plec breeders. | |
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March 27th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Cool but never seen the PVC one that you are talking about here. Wish to see one if any one has any pics. | |
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March 27th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| That looks awesome. i love the second one with different kinds of rocks and gravel.  | |
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April 11th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| In my old 10g cichlid tank I used various size terracotta flower pots that I'd broken into pieces, creating arches and many hiding places. Sharp edges are easily filed if you're worried about your fish getting scraped/cut. The fish seemed to love it. I liked the effect as well. It looked like a sunken garden.
Sarkazmo | |
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April 11th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Yeah I had some on the tank but I replace them with big rock caves. | |
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May 22nd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Like Sarkasmo said, don't forget to smooth the edges of things like the broken slate. The fish can get some nasty wounds when they go in too fast and catch the slate with their body. I've seen fish "running" from others often hit the sides, and if they were rough, sharp, or something - you got a sick, wounded fish on your hands. Very cool ideas folks.... | |
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May 23rd, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Cool idea! | |
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May 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Thanks. | |
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May 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Great ideas everyone! | |
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May 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| I'm sure you guys already know this, but make SURE that your silicone is the "100% silicone" and not the kind that is like kitchen and bath - that usually has some kind of anti bacterial chemical in it (kills the fish as well as the bacteria)... | |
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May 24th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Silicone
Quote:
Originally Posted by kittymom I'm sure you guys already know this, but make SURE that your silicone is the "100% silicone" and not the kind that is like kitchen and bath - that usually has some kind of anti bacterial chemical in it (kills the fish as well as the bacteria)... | If you check the pics it shows aquarium silicone. | |
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May 24th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| I love that idea! (gives me one for my caves I am going to build with pvc pipes for my dwarfs and plecos).
Really cool! | |
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May 24th, 2009
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| | Fish Addict
| Great idea! I want to try doing that but I don't have silicone.  Gotta save money!  | |
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May 24th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| This is a really cool idea! I need to go get some river rocks and aquarium silicone now.  | |
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May 24th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Plastic lid
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scout This is a really cool idea! I need to go get some river rocks and aquarium silicone now. | Don't forget a plastic lid. It helps arranging the rocks down and keeping them in place. | |
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June 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| Here are the caves that I made out of clay pots. They were a pain in the butt to cut but I am very satisfied with the results.
I have a thread going in this forum about cutting the pots. | |
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June 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Cool. | |
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June 4th, 2009
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| | Fish Addict
| Love the Idea but you do know that most cichlids like to dig the bottom out of there caves at least mine do. I heard that it is part of mating the male digs a hole or ditch under his cave then lures in the female to lay her eggs and then fertilize them. My Kenyi digs about a 4" by 3" deep hole under his rocks. I'm going to use ur idea but just use the lid to hold the forum then peel it off after cureing. | |
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