The Ultimate Catfish Breeder Cave

By : bassman
 
This is article was created to help anyone looking for an inexpensive and highly effective diy catfish breeding cave.
 

 
Materials required: 2 pots of about 4" diameter or greater, a hammer, and some aquarium silicon. The pots cost about $.50 each and the silicon is under $5.00.
 
Step one, take one of your pots and using the lever end of your hammer, gently break away a hole on the bottom of the pot. The hole can be anywhere from 2" diameter to the entire bottom of the pot depending on the size of your fish. The hole should be just big enough for the fish to get through.
 
Step two, clean the tops of both the pots and make sure there's no dust on the pot from where you made your hole. Then put a small ring of silicon on the top of one of the pots, and gently press the two pots together (top to top). Once the pots are together, clean up any excess silicon and set in a well ventilated area to dry.
 
Once the silicon has cured for 24 hours, then wash the pots again and place in your tank.
 
This breeding cave is ideal for ancistrus and other pleco species.
 
The benfits of this cave is that once the spawning has occured, you can pick the whole cave out of the water (with the male inside) and place it in a nursery tank. Once the fry are free swimming, remove the male and allow the fry to grow. Once they are large enough to swim openly, remove them from the cave, and replace the tank in the breeding tank.
 

Here's the finished project. © bassman