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Hi im currently searching for decent caves for my l204 any website links welcome tried rare aquatics but they seem quite expensive and also would prefer the non circle entrance ones thx.

You will be hard pushed to find anywhere that makes 'non circle' caves the size you are after. I think alot of people make them their selves. I've been in contact with my local college sorting out time to put some 'homemade' caves into their kiln's. Which hope to do soon. I am also making oak caves with a 50mm auger bit. Which is turning out to be a bit of a mission. The auger bit is not long enough and can't find anything to act as a extension to get the proposed depth. Rare Aquatics have some circle caves measuring 75mm x 230mm. I think this is a little too big. Any thoughts?
I am making my clay caves at 60mm x 250mm and oak caves at 50mm x 250mm.... Well attempting to anyway. Try giving your local school's,college or even Uni a call and see what they say. Good luck

Ridout

I have some of the caves from Rare Aquatics, and find them to be great, no breeding going on yet though, and they can be pricy if you start buying 2-3 +.

The rest of my caves are made from slate. Try a local garden centre and look at their rocks, you can pick up huge lumps of slate for less than £5, use a hammer and bolster/chisel to split the slate into sheets of appropriate thickness. Just try to pick as clean a piece as possible without much staining or evidence of mineral/metal deposits. If you take it slowly and work along the whole length of the slate a few hits at a time you can get some very nice thin sheets off. Once you have the sheets mark out the sides and an end for the cave. Then use an angle grinder, hacksaw or similar to cut the pieces out. A hacksaw does take a while and you will probably get through a few blades but it is much cheaper than buying an angle grinder!

Once the pieces are cut, wash the dust off, and glue together with aquarium safe silicone. This way you can make whatever size and shape you like. This will probably (assuming you have no materials already) cost £15-£20 but will make up to 10 caves depending on the piece of slate you start with.

I agree that Rare Aquatics are a great company. I have very good dealings with R A and wish to discredit them in any shape or form. Espeacialy when i have my Papa and a Adult 204 coming from them on Tuesday.
What i meant was that the size of (75mm x 230mm) cave is slightly to large width wise. In my opinion.
From past threads i have gone along the general rule of one and a half times the width of the fish to determine the entrance of the cave.

Thanks might buy one or two from rare aquatics seems they have the niche on caves but i agree size seems large even by looking at the other l numbers it describes for the cave in question.

I bought a slate cave from ebay and its tiny width seems good but depth was well off think i will make some. Would love to make an oak cave, have logs here but think there from timber wood for fires and cannot be sure there oak like i was told.

Thx

Also would ask local schools or colleges but im little too reserved for that not cheeky enough to pluck the courage and ask lol.

Had a friend make me one a couple of years back and he had made it from clay that sets in air. He didnt tell me luckily i added it to a bucket of water and not the tank and it ended up melting lol.

I live in the U.S. but I am willing to ship over the pond for you. I have been making a variety of caves for about 5 years now. We can make them big, small, odd shaped, and custom. If we don't make it already we're sure willing to take a crack at it.
You can see my work at www.saltysdigz.com or also at www.facebook.com/saltydapleco
If you see something on saltys you like simply pm me here or contact me through there. I don't have the shipping features set up right on there yet.

Saltydapleco wrote:I live in the U.S. but I am willing to ship over the pond for you. I have been making a variety of caves for about 5 years now. We can make them big, small, odd shaped, and custom. If we don't make it already we're sure willing to take a crack at it.
You can see my work at http://www.saltysdigz.com or also at http://www.facebook.com/saltydapleco
If you see something on saltys you like simply pm me here or contact me through there. I don't have the shipping features set up right on there yet.

Salty has some Awesome caves and am glade I took the chance on her, its nice to offer up caves that ain't exactly uniform in shape, lets the fish choose a favorite.