Diy Coconut Shell Caves! ... With Pictures ^^

[Vegan Peaches]

A thread in TFF gave me this idea, and I took some pictures while doing it, so without further:

Required: Coconut, nail and something for bashing. I used a lock but a hammer would work, too. That bucket is for draining the milk. Not pictured: Shears and butter knife.

Poke a hole in the coconut and drain the milk.

If you purchased scored cocnuts, they should twist apart easily. If not... well, then you have more DIY spirit than I do

Peel out all of the "meat" using a knife or some out flat device. It comes out rather easily if you use the knife first to seperate, then to pry, and it doesn't taste too bad when you're done, either ^^

Once you have got just the shells, boil them for 30+ minutes. This is so they don't turn your water brown and it also makes them easier to cut.

These are the mighty shears which I used to dominate the Coconut shells.

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts... here they are all standing in a row...

This is one of the caves I have placed in my new 29 gallon tank. Not too shabby, eh?

Comments are always appreciated ^^

 

[love_fish]

Wow, that looks pretty cool. Does it looks natural at all in your tank? I'm thinking of doing it now, but I dont want it to look stupid.

Good job on your part though

 

[Vegan Peaches]

It looks natural in my new tank (that's the one in the picture) but the other ones went into my 10 gallon tanks which are blue and yellow and other crazy colors and it just looks odd... still cool in it's own way, but not natural at all.

 

[love_fish]

Meh, I'll do it anyway

 

[Vegan Peaches]

That's the spirit! Post pictures, if you can.

 

[love_fish]

Yea, I'll get to it sometime this weekend and post some pics. Is it ok to post in your thread, or do you want me to make a new one.

 

[rimmer 05]

your own fish cave at a fraction of the price and also you could put a clump of java moss on there aswell to attract more fish

 

[Lynz781]

I scraped the hairy bits off mine because I think that makes them look better. Also, the hole I made to drain the milk, I stuffed some baby Microsorum pteropus in to avoid fish getting stuck and because this plant likes to grow on bogwood.

The shell with the plant sticking out (obscured by danio), I'm hoping my shrimps will take up residence in there.
And another view:

Sorry about the reflection.

 

[BigC]

Cover them with Java Moss or Ricca for a really natural look.
Regards
BigC

 

[Vegan Peaches]

I would love to, but I don't know where to get java moss x.x

Since I don't have java moss, or anything real plants for that matter, I jsut surrounded my coconut with fake plants

My tank doesn't exactly look "natural" anyways, though.

Anyways, yeah, I don't know where to get live plants, really, and even if I knew, I doubt that I'd be able to take good care of them.

 

[love_fish]

This is a good site if your in the US
http/aquariumplant.com/cgi-bin/cart/index.html

If you look in the plant section, in the stickies, they gave links to where to get live plants online. I think there's a UK site too.

 

[Rooster]

Cover them with Java Moss or Ricca for a really natural look.
Regards
BigC

Does java stick naturally ? Ive seen these already done, and they look really good...

 

[Paul_MTS]

no you would need to secure the java or riccia to the shell intil it takes root. Although I haven't done it I would think the plant would root faster with the hairy bits still on the coconut.

you can use things like cotton to tie the plants down.

 

[Grim Reaper]

no you would need to secure the java or riccia to the shell intil it takes root. Although I haven't done it I would think the plant would root faster with the hairy bits still on the coconut.

you can use things like cotton to tie the plants down.

the hairy bit will rot if u dont remove it

 

[BigC]

A ladys hair net works very well for securing Java Moss and Riccia.