Natural pleco caves

[Stealth Aquatics]

Have you guys ever made natural caves from rocks ect for your plecos? I plan on getting a few plecos, but find the man made caves off putting when it’s not a breeding tank.

[KBOzzie59]

Was just pondering this.  I'm about to add a couple cave to my wifes 33 long and plan to "hide" them in rock piles.  I've also glued substrate to PVC for a hiding place for my Striped Rafael catfish,  I kind of rushed it and could have covered a bit of the inside.

[gardenman]

"Natural pleco caves" would generally be mud holes in the side of a riverbank. Most of us don't have mud in our tanks, some silly nonsense about it being incredibly messy and most hobbyists actual want to occasionally see a fish and not just muddy water. There are roughly a gazillion pleco cave options out there. Mine prefer a piece of 1" (too small) PVC pipe with an end cap. They have a slate cave I made for them. They have the clay watering spikes, and larger PVC pipe with end caps, but the males fight for and breed in the little 1" PVC pipe. It really is too small for them, but it's what they like and what they use, so there's that. If you're not breeding them, they'll find a place to hide out. It may be under the edge of a sponge filter, behind the heater, behind a filter tube, etc. so they don't "need" a cave unless you're trying to breed them. If you're trying to breed them, then hit them with a variety of options and see which they choose. Mine love the undersized PVC. Go figure. They can barely squeeze in it these days, but it's what they like.

[Stealth Aquatics]

13 minutes ago, gardenman said:

"Natural pleco caves" would generally be mud holes in the side of a riverbank. Most of us don't have mud in our tanks, some silly nonsense about it being incredibly messy and most hobbyists actual want to occasionally see a fish and not just muddy water. There are roughly a gazillion pleco cave options out there. Mine prefer a piece of 1" (too small) PVC pipe with an end cap. They have a slate cave I made for them. They have the clay watering spikes, and larger PVC pipe with end caps, but the males fight for and breed in the little 1" PVC pipe. It really is too small for them, but it's what they like and what they use, so there's that. If you're not breeding them, they'll find a place to hide out. It may be under the edge of a sponge filter, behind the heater, behind a filter tube, etc. so they don't "need" a cave unless you're trying to breed them. If you're trying to breed them, then hit them with a variety of options and see which they choose. Mine love the undersized PVC. Go figure. They can barely squeeze in it these days, but it's what they like.

Awesome, that is exactly what I am looking for. That’s a lot of really good information! 

[Tanked]

I've used 3.5 inch clay drain ties for the big guys, and made PVC logs for the little ones.  If you have the equipment, you can cut/break the clay to size,  Splitting the tile lengthwise,  allows you to adjust height and allows waste to be absorbed into the substrate. If you can find an old one, the tile also looks a little more natural on day one.  I could not find a picture of the tile I used, the tile pictured was a trial run 

The PVC log is easy to create.  The log pictured was originally painted, but unsealed, so I guess the snails eventually scraped the paint off.  With the hole in the side, it quickly became the preferred hiding place.

[Stealth Aquatics]

3 hours ago, Tanked said:

I've used 3.5 inch clay drain ties for the big guys, and made PVC logs for the little ones.  If you have the equipment, you can cut/break the clay to size,  Splitting the tile lengthwise,  allows you to adjust height and allows waste to be absorbed into the substrate. If you can find an old one, the tile also looks a little more natural on day one.  I could not find a picture of the tile I used, the tile pictured was a trial run 

The PVC log is easy to create.  The log pictured was originally painted, but unsealed, so I guess the snails eventually scraped the paint off.  With the hole in the side, it quickly became the preferred hiding place.

Yeah that looks really good! I’m just setting up another show tank and I’m trying to gather ideas. Thank you! 

[Sal]

I've bought mine the man made caves, and made some pipe caves for him, and he always just digs out the substrate under a piece of driftwood and hides in his own hole.  😑.

So ungrateful. 😆

 

 

[Leo2o915]

On 4/19/2021 at 7:56 AM, Tanked said:

I've used 3.5 inch clay drain ties for the big guys, and made PVC logs for the little ones.  If you have the equipment, you can cut/break the clay to size,  Splitting the tile lengthwise,  allows you to adjust height and allows waste to be absorbed into the substrate. If you can find an old one, the tile also looks a little more natural on day one.  I could not find a picture of the tile I used, the tile pictured was a trial run 

The PVC log is easy to create.  The log pictured was originally painted, but unsealed, so I guess the snails eventually scraped the paint off.  With the hole in the side, it quickly became the preferred hiding place.

What kind of tile is that and which one is safe for the Aquarium from either Lowe’s or Home Depot 

[Tanked]

10 hours ago, Leo2o915 said:

What kind of tile is that and which one is safe for the Aquarium from either Lowe’s or Home Depot 

The tile is a 12x4 glazed clay drain tile commonly used for weep holes in retaining walls etc.  A  building supply store should have them.  I can't speak to aquarium safety, except to say that I used them for over a decade without issues.  Any unglazed terracotta tube, pot, etc... is believed to be aquarium safe