We’ve spent a lot of time aquascaping lately, using everything from rocks to plates to branches, white rock, purple rock, dead rock, ceramic rock, and everything in between. The aim with every aquascape we’ve created was to make minimum contact with the tank base while still creating a stable footprint, and creating gravity-defying overhangs and arches that were perfect for fish and corals.
It’s when we take time to observe fish in the wild that we really appreciate the need to create caves and arches in our own home aquaria. So many fish appreciate shady overhangs from Angelfish to Anthias, and we now wouldn’t create a rockscape without that dark, parallel habitat underneath.
They say in freshwater aquascaping to start by picking good-looking pieces of hardscape, and that’s where pieces like Tropic Eden’s Morocca Rock comes in. The caves and arches bring the scape up off the floor, facilitating the caves that reef fish crave. We’re a stickler for horizontal plates too to replicate those tabling Acropora and plating Montipora, and give us an empty room, a mixed box of Morocca Rock, and an hour, and we know we could create something special. It’s a rock fetish, it’s a bit weird, but we just love it.
A new one on us is the Coco Worm Fish Home tubes – replicas of coco worm tubes only solid. We can see everything from firefish to blennies, jawfish to gobies, and pistol shrimp using these novel tubes and they will only aid environmental enrichment for the fish in our captive reefs.
