The Puffer Forum

What about plants?
Are they known for destroying them, would silk be better with Bog wood?

Also, Surely the depth of Gravel with a 1 fish only tank can be quite minimal at only 1-2 inches?

If you are talking about deep enough for a fahaka to bury himself, you're going to need quite a bit more than 1 inch deep. Fahakas get quite huge. For me, the issue with sand isn't keeping it stirred, either, its keeping it clean. Especially black sand.

As far as plants, some use real with their fahakas, some don't. I use silk plants and artificial wood in my fahaka tank. The artificial wood is mostly because that's what came with the tank and it looked terrible mixing real wood with artificial, so I took the real wood out. My problem with real plants is I don't want to have to stick my hand in to do gardening. He's only about 6" so far but has come close to biting me already when I stuck my hand in, so the less I have to do that, especially when he gets 2x+ larger, the better IMO.

I picked up a bag of 3m Colorquartz for a tank of Peacock Cichlids we have. I love it!! It's larger than sand and smaller than gravel. I got black- but they have a variety of colors and 2 sizes , "s" which is a bit larger than sand, and "t"- which is much larger than sand (pictured below).

My plan, when I get the 240 for our Fahaka, is to use 10:1 ratio of tan:black. So- close to sand in color, with a bit of darkness to give it more texture (and hide junk!)- I still need too work out the ratio.

This 3M colorquartz is about $20 for a bag (50lbs)- that's not too bad. They sell it at pool tile shops. I'm hoping that will eliminate the gas pockets.