How To Make A Coconut Cave

In this guide i will tell you how to create a Coconut Cave with nothing but:
1 Coconut
1 Saw
1 Spoon
1 Piece of Sandpaper(preferably a low grade of sand paper)
1 NewsPaper if needed
Access to a Cooker with a Pot


First : Split the coconut in half with your Saw, be ready for it to leak a milky liquid from the inside so its recommended you do it outside or over a newspaper.(if you are not old enough to handle such a tool get an adult to help)
: Then use your spoon to carve out the insides ; do this until all of the white insides are out.
: Once doing this for both of the halves, Get your piece of sand paper and roughly rub it around the out/inside of the shells until all of the hairy strands have been sanded off.
: then cut a semi circle out of the shell on one side, like the diagram shown at the bottom,
: Use your Sandpaper to smooth over the edges of the shell so it is safe for your fish to enter.
Lastly: Boil the shells over a cooker, until the water turns a golden brown colour, empty out the water and repeat this until there is little or no colouration in the water.
After you have followed these steps you will have a Coconut cave that your fish will enjoy to hide in and will make a great addition to any tank.

You can also make additions to your Coconut Cave by Encouraging Mosses to grow on you cave for a more natural look.

sweet, im definitely making that a little project for the weekend. Thanks for the tut

No problems, glad it helped at least one person

Im so doing that il post piks on here when ive got my tank

typical i posted a question on how to do this the other day and have don what you just said to do, infact i think you posted on there except to make my cave hole i chipped away shell and then smoothed it down looks mor natural and still smooth but dodgy as it can smash the coconut in pieces but i got it first time

Heres a picture of my completed Coconut Cave with Java Moss

Wow, your moss looks excellent, question is how you attached it to the shell... rocks is easy you wrap the whole thing in fishing line.

you do the same just bury the parts that go across the bottom half of the shell under the substrate?

Why waste the coconut make yourself a pinacolada as a reward

get the coconut

saw it in half and remove the milk and pulp

cut a semi circle in each side making a tunnel through the coconut

then tie the java moss down with a piece of fishing line across the thinnest piece of the coconut,

then wait until the java moss has grown over the cave and remove the fishing line and there you go.

onother way to easilly make these is with a drill and a 2.5 - 3 inch hole saw. drill a hole on the bottom and a hole or two on the side, cutting the hole on the bottom will make a flat surface simaller to cutting it with a saw. p.s i really like the look of the moss covering the coconut

Heres mine which ive just done, only have to boil them now. Im well chuffed with them, but I didnt realize how hard they were, Ive had to use various different tools, ie tenon saw, dremel etc. But really pleased with them. Just waiting for some moss now to go on them.

Dont boil them it will break the fibres in the coconut, you can pour boiling water over them and leave them for 5 min this will kill any hitchers

I actually do boil mine, but after i cut them in half and dig out the pulp i smash them on the floor to chip out an entrance arc as the grain of the wood seems to allow this to break in the right way. no dremel required

Looks good I well have to try making a couple, my kribensis and corys well love them. Also give me more spots to grow some java moss and open up some room for dwarf babies tears maybe. Thanks for the idea I was wondering what I was going to use.