By David Midgley - I thought I’d write a very brief article on the creation of pot caves for use in cichlid aquariums. I use terracotta pots and saucers in all my non-display tanks as substitutes for rocks. Pots have several advantages over rockwork for the breeding aquarium:
1. Terracotta is non-toxic and pH neutral. Some rocks, such as limestone (which is CaCO3), can alter the pH of a tank. In tanks with cichlids from the African rift lakes this is not a problem, however, for cave spawning cichlids of south America or west Africa this can be problem.
2. Terracotta is, relatively, easily manipulated. I use both pots and saucers as cases in my aquariums.
3. Terracotta is light! Compared to rocks anyway. This is of particular importance when you need to catch a fish out of the tank.
4. You need less pieces to create usable caves (ie: one pot or saucer per cave). With rocks often you’ll need multiple pieces to create caves and hiding places.
5. Terracotta is cheap. Rocks (at least from aquarium stores) are not.
So how & where do I cut the holes?
I cut the holes in standard terracotta pots in two places; either in the middle of the pot or at the base (shown below).
Pot-cave
with entry
cut into
bottom, and
assorted
fast-swimming
fry.
To cut the holes I use a ceramic disk on a standard angle grinder. Be sure to take appropriate precautions when using this potentially dangerous gadget. You can buy a cheaper angle grinder from your local hardware store for around $30-$50.
I have also used terracotta pot saucers with some success (see below - notice fry about the breeding cave)
Julidochromis
transcriptus
‘Gombe
Island’ male
guarding his
much larger
female
inside their
saucer cave.
Saucer-caves
seem
particularly
popular with
Julidochromis
& Chalinochromis
spp. and
given the
choice, they
appear to
chose the
saucer-style
cave (for
breeding)
more
frequently
(though I’ve
not
conducted a
t-test)
than the
standard pot
caves above.
In some
tanks I have
pot caves
sitting atop
saucer
caves,
giving two
discrete
caves in a
very small
footprint.
