At the moment I have a couple slices of rock melon husks in there so they aren't short of food. I also have some fresh cucumber waiting and a multitude of different algae discs

as promised heres a pic of the dad with some fry still hangin in the cave

good pic

awesome looking bristlenose and fry

Well it seems they were at it again last night. He's in his cave with eggs

Had a good look, there's 2 batches of eggs in with him. One on the roof and one on the floor of the cave. Poor little guy is fanning his heart out now lol

Congrats on the second spawn,

That cave looks very nice, is it a hollowed piece of wood?

I need some good bits like that for my tank.

yep. i purchased the wood from lfs, cut it in half and then drilled 2.5cm hole about 10-12cm deep. all my bn males that iv had in with this cave in the tank always choose it over everything else. i think even the new fry benefit from it as they can chew on the wood after absorbing the egg sack. Could be why they males take so long to release the fry from the cave

Hhmmm very nice idea,

When I'm buying some more wood for my tanks I'll see if I can find any that will enable me to drill into them without them breaking up haha.

The theory about the wood cave assisting the fry growth sounds solid to me, the lignans are highly important for the digestive track so it would give them a nice boost in health if not growth as well. Most fry wouldn't have a chance to get chewing on wood until 10 days+ after spawning while they are trapped in the cave.


Never the less back to the topic, congrats with the spawn I hope they do well.

Absolutely beautiful they are,congrats Kfenk

I also have been using wooden caves for a very very long time,I drill into the wood like you do and they always choose the wood caves over everything else.It also gives the eggs a real good hold and the fry seem to benefit from it too.I have many other caves,i have slate caves and clay caves but none of them have ever been used.Also I have never ever had any problems with any eggs or fry at all even with young first timers.I do think the wood caves have a lot to do with this.Maybe you should put this info as a sticky or something because i bet not many people would think of making wood caves.I started it years ago and have never looked back and think it would benefit the hobby.

P.S I make mine just slightly wider and slightly deeper than yours and i don't cut it in half i just drill a cave into a good piece of wood

Another good thing to use is dried out uncured bamboo. Only problem is they eat the ends out so a good idea is to glue a piece of slate or stone to the end. I have some bamboo at home waiting for me to do just this lol

wow they look ace!

well done and congrats

All fry have been released now. so dads out n about munchin on the cucumber Now lets see how long it takes the girls to able to resist those lovely long flowing fins before hes put back to work lol. He has had a bit of a rest, noticed the past couple days hes been hanging around the edge of the cave eating wafers that happen to fall close. While ever watching his fry get closer and closer to venturing out of the cave. I tell yous wood caves are the shizniz, bn fry never leave prematurely