i'm in the process of moving again, and i was thinking about a new subtrate besides the plain old gravel for my tank houshing my male Dovii wolf cichlid. i was thinking of using black slate, but crushed down to like quarter or half dollar sized pieces mixed in with very pale gravel as an accent. i know it would look nice, and know where to get anything, but was wondering if this might be a bad idea for the fish. right now, he's in a display tank where i work, and is being moved home. i'm curious if he might hurt his jaw digging in the gravel... i definitely don't want to hurt him, even though i doubt i could really do much, he's already 13-14".... any thoughts would help!!!
substrate idea
- Thread starter He_Man_81
- Start date
imo: i think the slate might be a little sharp and if he goes to dig, yes it might cut up his jaw, then again it only depends on how dumb the fish is....again thats my opinion
Not only might the slate be too sharp, but the larger the individual pieces of substrate, the more detritus can emain trapped in between. This can make for poor water quality. I once tried large, round river rock interprersed with a small amount of pea-sized gravel, and the gravel needed vacuuming three times a week to maintain decent water parameters.
I would not use the slate because of the edges. As for larger river rock and such there is another thread going about that but I have used it and I lay it over a finne-medium gravel over a strong ugf to supplement the other filter. You will still need to move rocks to siphon off detritus but the finer waste ends up feeding the ugf bacterial colony in the gravel, I also added weather loaches to pick around between the rocks.
HEY! Loaches are a good idea! I probably would have had more success with the river rock if I'd tried them. BRAVO! 