First of all, I boiled the heck out of a carrot, stabbed it with a fork several times, and sank it in my tank. This was the result:
Then I wanted to share with you some of my loaches' favorite caves. It seems so important to have a good cave system so everyone gets along. I tend to have dozens of tiny caves hanging around or incorporate large ones into my decor.
Everyone loves this one. Plastic log thing I got at Petsmart, and only about 4ish inches high. They dive in there and sleep vertically all day long. I've even seen the hillstreams in there from time to time.
I had some river gravel left over from years ago, so I bought some PVC pipes and aquarium silicone and made these. The kuhli loaches especially love them, but I've caught the smaller botias in a couple of times as well.
Edit: Found a Kuhli! Meet Medium Karl, of Karl Incorporated...I've noticed since I've put these caves in that I see much more of the kuhli loaches now.
Cichlid stones as corner builders...they love this little bridge/ cave thing I made them. The two stones at the bottom are medium cichlid stones, which I am using as a kind of wall to build up the gravel in the corner. I then took a flat piece of slate and suspended it between the two. The hillstreams are usually either on the gravel like you see here or sucked up to the underside of the slate, but sometimes they will go in the caves.
Driftwood. I just got the cholla piece. So far they like to swim through it, but they don't really hang out. I might tie some moss to it later. The larger piece is probably their favorite of the whole tank. The botias hang out underneath and in the holes, while the hillstreams suck up to the underside.
