Thinking Of Getting One ?

[mark34]

hi i am thinking about getting of theses but dont know ?

http/www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150159519161067&set=o.194182763950734&type=1&theater

cant make up my mind what would be best ocean rock or a set of caves or flat cobbles ? my ph is all ready at 8.4PH so dont need to higher it

just can make up my mind up


http/www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_194182763950734&ap=1

 

[AmazonFTW]

I'd go for the ocean rock or cobbles, the caves look weird to me... lol.

AmazonFTW

 

[elisew]

Ocean rock would be better however do be mindful that as the fish get bigger they tend to get stuck in the holes they`ve grown used to being able to swim through. Cobbles generally don`t tend to allow you to build the cave areas that they need either, slate would be the best option

 

[mark34]

thats what is playing on my mind at the min ! just thinking at would be easy to install and set up

finding it very hard to find flat cobbles that are not sand stone

as sandstone would just fall apart and not last very long ?

 

[Lufbramatt]

i would just go to the rockery section in a garden center and buy a few big lumps of slate (my local garden place does 2 roughly 10-15kg lumps for £6 so nice and cheap) and attack them with a lump hammer and chisel. stack the resulting assorted smaller rocks into caves and you'd end up with something much more natural looking. Slate naturally breaks into flat pieces so you can easily bridge gaps and make caves. Those pre-made slate caves remind me of a 1960's concrete tower block but for fish!

 

[mark34]

went to nottcuts theother day and its 2 pices for £14 thats about 7kg in total

so would work out very costly as my tank is 5.3ft x 2ft x 2.3ft and want to go end to end with the rocks

 

[Lufbramatt]

yeah, notcutts are pretty expensive, there's one near me in maidstone. surely there must be other garden centres nearby?

 

[mark34]

the other two are out the way

we have a VAN HAGE and if you think notcutts are expensive then you should see these guy lol
http/www.vanhage.co.uk/discover-our-stores/peterborough

the other is barn
http/www.thebarngardencentre.co.uk/

mint have to get wife to take me over to barn have a look did not see any last time i was there but you never know

 

[myrtle]

I can vouch for what Lisa says, the cobbles are difficult to create large caves with. I had a bag of beach cobbles left over from another tank so thought I'd use them for my tang tank. Small to medium gaps are the best you can get with these.

 

[rifty]

i got 200kg of ocean rock for 60 quid via aquarist classified so look for preowned!
id pay £1 a kilo max
i will echo the risk using ocean rock i have a benga minus an eye from getting stuck last night! i have lost a few fish getting stuck but think this can occur with most rocks and malawis not know how big they are!

 

[mark34]

hay great news found these guys

http/stores.ebay.co.uk/Primethorpe-Stone-and-Slab-Supplies?_trksid=p4340.l2563

thay do ever sort of rocks stones cobbles , slate you can think of

going shopping very soon i think

 

[creg]

those slate caves in the first pic would be great for mbuna but obviously dont look as good or as natural as what you have now, ive thought over this myself should i make it more natural or have loads of un natural looking caves that would benefit the fish more.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

slate caves just dont look natural to me

 

[elisew]

slate caves just dont look natural to me

+1

Using slate to create your own cave areas would be more natural looking than to use those slate caves

 

[Squidward]

Those slate caves aren't a good idea.
Mbuna use the rock to escape when being chased by more aggressive fish. They want to be able to slip through the gaps to get away. Not find themselves in a cave where they are cornered and can't get away.

A pile of rocks that have lots of gaps in them is the effect you are after.