Description
Clay catfish cave – spawning cave with front entrance – standard shape
Our clay cave for L-catfish in the standard shape is our best-selling and proven breeder’s model for many years. These spawning burrows are round in basic shape and flattened at the bottom. Therefore, these catfish burrows usually lie securely even on a smooth surface without rolling away.
All our clay products are handmade and not cast. The diameter is always the same for each cave size, only the shape may differ slightly.
Due to the manual production, there may be slight variations in width/height/length even within the individual sizes, which many catfish fans welcome, as the fish also have different preferences.
Another important point for breeding L-catfish is the texture of the cave surfaces. We use stoneware clay for the production of our clay articles, which can be highly fired and contains a varying proportion of fireclay depending on the product. As a result, the surface of our spawning caves is always slightly rough and never as smooth as cast products.
This advantage should already be known to many catfish breeders: If the surface of the interior is too smooth, the spawn balls have no grip and are all too easily flushed out of the cave.
However, if the surface is at least slightly rough, as is almost always the case with hand-modelled caves made of stoneware paste, the clutch can adhere better to the cave wall and the risk of flushing out is reduced.
In addition, this provides an excellent basis for surface growth, which is very readily grazed by the catfish.
What size cave do I need?
The size of the animals determines the cave size needed. As a rule, narrower caves are preferred. Rough rule of thumb:
Diameter = width of the catfish body + one pectoral fin, length = 1-1.5 times the body length of the male catfish.
