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now, theres a big gap in my tank just begging to be filled by something nice, but i dont know what to put there. The rest of the tank is planted, and there is just one section with nothing in for some reason. Im thinking about anohter peice of driftwood, already a major part of my tank. What do you think?

do you have a picture ???

This is a styling and personal taste issue, and it's not easy to tell someone else what to do...

One idea, if you like wood in the tank, is to add some wood of a different kind, or a bamboo pipe, or some such...

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Mats

Im afraid i cant get a picture right now, as its daylight, and i cant get a picture without loads of reflection from the glass.

Bamboo sounds good, i might try that, thanks!

How about leaving it empty?

I prefer wood stacked up to the top to having the whole bottom covered. Gives the tank more height and depth.

Nicer for your fish as well.

mind; we keep CATFISH here and those need open floorspace to hang out........

My Bristlenose never comes to this half of the tank, she loves to chill amongst the plants. This is what i thought of putting a flowerpot in, to see if i could coax her to move around the whole tank, instead of being lazy, fat, and adorable

I use appropriate diameter bamboo caves(leave the joint on one end. Nice thing about bamboo other than esthetics is that if you boil it for awhile it will sink right away.
They are my standard BN breeding caves.
Larry

where do u get bamboo?

I get my bamboo from one of my friends. His yard is overgrown with 25 ft tall plants over half his property. We only use dead stalks from his big pile.(He gets defensive when I call it a junk pile). Anyway we could supply it if you want to send your specifications and quantities by a pm to me. I honestly don't know where to buy it on the open market since I have only have 10 blocks to go for my needs. Possibly Peir 1 or similar Asian import store in your city may have it. Maybe a local arboretum? We even use tall pieces vertical in planted discus tanks and they use them as spawning sites. It makes for a nice "organic" look.
I like to use the skinny sections to simulate jungle stream edge biotopes.I found another use for a thin section. I split one end 4 ways and wedge bamboo slivers so the 4 forks flare slightly. I use is as a hair algae remover. Just stick the flared end into the hair algae and twist and roll up the algae in clumps. The stuff has a million uses.
Larry

Most garden centres and similar will sell Bamboo posts, which is a decent diameter bamboo, around 2-4" diameter and 4-8 foot long.

Soak it with water overnight, rinse, boil it, rinse again, and drop it in the tank...

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Mats

I 'm glad you know where some bamboo can be found but it's pretty large diameter for BN. Mine prefer the snuggest fit possible which is approximately 1-1/2 inch or a little less. Sometimes I don't know how two of them manage to squeeze in there together.

A 2" outside diameter seems to work for mine - at least as an "accidental spawning size", but I agree, a smaller diameter is probably better for Ancistrus spawning sites.

But I don't think the original post asked for spawning pipes for Ancistrus in particular...

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Mats

No it was'nt a BN cave question. Someone suggsted bamboo to fill in undecorated open space and I think the BN hid out in the plants. I had a source of bamboo when someone asked where you can find it and by inference to provide a hiding place for the BN where you may see him more often got worked in and that I mentioned that since I have access to bamboo I use it a lot for both breeding caves and aquascaping.

bamboo is awesome...I have a few stalks and I'm debating if I should add more to my tanks too...at least give it a go if you don't like it, just change it!

Hi angelface,
You can tell I like bamboo for aquascaping, too. I had one small planted tetra and pencil tank set up where I took about 15 or 20 thin stalks tied near the top end so I could spread the stems teepee style and the fish would use if for refuge whenever something spooked them. In this tank I used P. eques pencils that always swim at about a 45 deg. angle and they especially liked hanging in and around the teepee to pick over the stems for invisible bugs and they could blend in perfectly with the slanted stems. I would have to lift it out to catch anything out of the "wood pile".