PlanetCatfish.com

I'm starting to aquire more plecos now and Im starting to run out of spaces for them to hide. My 2 BN hide in a peice of driftwood that has 2 tight spaces for them. My big royal just generally lumbers around the tank not caring. My leopard frog though hides right behind a filter intake. I was wondering what people do for hiding spots for the plecs. I have a natural looking tank so PVC pipe might look out of place.

Many people use broken up flower pots but that is not to natural either.

Mark

More wood is the obvious answer. Consider wide concave base stumps over long branchs, unless you can acquire hollow ones.

I also use PVC pipe with tank gravel siliconed inside and out. Down behind plants and stumps, they're almost impossible to see. I've also seen it done with sand. My Bristlenose prefers these pipes to breed.

You could still use a half flower-pot, but silicon gravel or sand over it. Place it so that the large opening faces the rear, and the body slopes down forward into the substrate. It'll look just like a mound.

I'm playing around with building a small open top turret above my artificial hides, so that I can root a plant in the turret, providing even more camouflage.

There is a basic sand hide here:
http://panaquedriftwoodparadise.forumup ... adise.html

Sections of Bamboo is a suitable "natural" source of pipes. Most garden centres will have bamboo stakes in various dimensions. I've bought different sizes in 1.5-3" diameter, and a few feet long. Just cut a section off and soak it for a few weeks to make it water-logged. If you need it to go into the tank immediately, you can find a suitable large rock to place on top of the bamboo after soaking it for a day or two in a bucket of water (the initial soaking will remove most of anything harmfull that may have been treated onto the bamboo for pest/mould control).

The bamboo starts out being fairly light coloured, and gradually turns darker brown.

I also have half a crockery in my tank, as well as several pieces of slate, etc.

Some fish tend to prefer ceramic or wooden hide-aways (for instance, none of my have ever been hiding under rocks, whilst I've nearly never seend my Gold nugget hiding under wood).

--
Mats

Much driftwood.
And I also made slaterockcaves leveled(attached slates of aquariumglue).



Like this;

I agree with Whiptail. I own a couple of aquariums and slate caves work great Unlike most people, I use rocks that I found outside. I scrub them clean and then rinse them under boiling water. I live near a stone wall so I have plenty of flat rocks to use.