Re: sand/excavating apistos

[Scheele Juergen <juesche@earthlink.net>]

 <I cut a flower pot in half, and I cut a small hole at the top.>

Congratiulations !
I always get several pieces :-)

For a more natural approach,
try one of the Coconut Shell's.
Maybe even more fun then the flower pot ! :-)
The coconut shells will also release over time
a certain amount of beneficial humic acids.

Sand is a lot of fun too.
But I am affraid it will not work in your set up.
The Sand will always sink to the bottom and push
up the gravel.

Juergen

Adam G wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm very interested in trying to provide as many elements of a natural
> habitat as possible for my apistos.  After reading a few old threads on
> excavating behavior, I realized that my females are often trying to do just
> that.  I currently have a gravel substrate - small gravel of varying sizes.
> I was curious what my females were up to when they were inside of their
> flower pots, so I set up what my wife likes to call Living Room National
> Geographic.  I cut a flower pot in half, and I cut a small hole at the top.
> I put the large opening of the pot against the glass of the aquarium, so
> that a female could swim in through the little hole and no one else could
> get in through the larger opening.  Once inside she couldn't see or be seen
> by the other fish, and if I stood at an angle, she couldn't see me.  She
> would go inside the pot, and float at the typical and beautiful 45 degree
> angle with dorsal and ventral fins displayed.  She would then proceed to
> attack (at least that's what it looked like to me) the gravel.  It's now
> clear to me that she was trying to dig!
>
> I'm interested in laying down some sand to help make things more comfortable
> for the apistos.  Clearly, laying the entire tank with sand would be a messy
> job.  I'd like to try to introduce some sand under spawning caves, wood, and
> rocks.  Any tips on how to do this with a tank that's already settled?  How
> much sand should I lay down (an inch, half inch, less?)  Finally, will it be
> all for not - will the sand simply, over time, fall between the gravel and
> sink to the bottom of the tank?  Any ideas or experiences would be great to
> hear about!
>
> -Adam
>
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