good apisto homes

[aspen]

i have tried all kinds of things, to provide a decent home for my apistos. these include, clay pots of various sizes on their side, a small plastic (sinking) reptile house, a rock sculpture, and various pots and glass things, etc. (everything from my cupboard almost) and a few diferent store bought plastic ones, but by FAR the best thing i've found, is a piece of bogwood (or mopani, not sure which is which) wth multiple routes through it. it is about 6" across (round kinda) and about 4 1/2" tall and is kinda like a 'lump'. there is enough room under it (concave), and a few different 'tunnels' into this crevice, top and sides and the fish always use this first. i can put any pair of apistos i've had in a tank, and the first home claimed is this one.

it is very attractive, (dark brown/light brown wood) and i paid about 10 bucks can, (6 us) and works the best- fish tested! i looked all of the pieces of this wood over at the lfs, the other day, and didn't find another which would suit quite as well, so i guess i just got lucky. if you are needing a good apisto home, i would suggest you look at the mopani wood, and see if they have such a piece, this will make an attractive display for my 90 gal.

hth, rick

 

[tjudy]

I like to use coconut shells that are cut in half and sunk down into the gravel. Recently I have been tying javer fern, java moss and anubias onto the shells. Works great... looks cool... fish sem to like them.

 

[Discus Man]

I use mopani driftwood as well and it does seem to provide the crevases that most apistos really crave.
exception- borelli's don't go near it...
agazizzi , Bitaeniata and cacatoides seem to prefer it to coconut or pots
but borelli seem to like the flower pots or rock structures.

I find that the apistos will never lay on it though. They live in the wood but when egg time comes around, then they head over to the pots or coconut shell. I think its something about the smooth surfaces for eggs.
HTH

 

[mordor]

My A. sp. "Masken" always lay eggs in small crevice in driftwood. Funny thing is that all 3 females chose the same spot I guess they might have queue for laying eggs

 

[tjudy]

I am a shameless salesman ( :roll: we all know that :roll: ), but I just placed a piece of driftwood on aquabid that has a bottom that looks like a moon scape of rounded out crevises. You can find it in Decorations...

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?decorations&1038202140