Underwater Air Cave

pwrmacG4

pwrmacG4

Superstar Fish
#1
Jan 16, 2008
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#1
I am thinking about making a underwater air cave (dome)..

I am going to take a small flat piece of clear plastic and glue a small plastic dome on top with a small doorway notched out. in the bottom i am going to drill a small hole where i can put a air line up into it. that should force the water out and make a dry land environment for crabs. what do you guys/gals think.
 

d3sc3n7

d3sc3n7

Superstar Fish
#4
Nov 21, 2007
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#4
epond83 said:
depending on size i'm thinking thats a lot of air to keep down, i'm thinking you would need something heavy to keep it down
Click to expand...
Thats a very good point also. Obviously anything you fill with air, and put under water, is going to want to float to the top. So the base would have to be attached to something rather heavy, as epond83 said.
 

alter40

alter40

Superstar Fish
#5
Nov 26, 2007
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#5
Or you could put something flat under the substrate and bolt your cave to that so then the weight of the substrate is holding the cave down. I'm just unsure of how an amphibian would like having a submerged cave though.
 

d3sc3n7

d3sc3n7

Superstar Fish
#6
Nov 21, 2007
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#6
I think this sounds like a pretty cool idea...but if you really look into it, it will be alot of work.

1: How to keep the air out, w/o shoving so much air in there the crabs or whatnot are not getting blown around
2: Keep it on the bottom of the tank
3: Feeding something encased in the bottom of the tank
4: Cleaning their home
 

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epond83

Large Fish
#7
Mar 11, 2007
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#7
Well i think maybe to keep it down you could do some rock work over which would had to the cave effect.

keeping the water out shouldn't be hard, with an air tube going into the dome the water line in the dome would be at the top of the door way.
So if you have a platform of some sort (small pile of rocks) that was above the door way they would have a dry area.
i don't know much about crabs but i would think that they would produce most waste whill in the water, also you could just turn off the air pump once in awhile to flood the dome for a bit then turn on the pump and air it out again.
 

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Potawato

Medium Fish
#8
Jan 31, 2007
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#8
epond83 said:
Well i think maybe to keep it down you could do some rock work over which would had to the cave effect.

keeping the water out shouldn't be hard, with an air tube going into the dome the water line in the dome would be at the top of the door way.
So if you have a platform of some sort (small pile of rocks) that was above the door way they would have a dry area.
i don't know much about crabs but i would think that they would produce most waste whill in the water, also you could just turn off the air pump once in awhile to flood the dome for a bit then turn on the pump and air it out again.
Click to expand...
Doesn't work that way. Once you cut the air supply the water still wont fill up the dome unless you tip the dome to one side and allow the air to escape. The problem with this idea isn't finding a pump strong enough to "Force the water out", that's easy any air pump will work, the problem is keeping the dowm down under water. I've had this idea in my head for a long time.

Basically my idea was to take a large sheet of plexi and heat it up until it becomes flexible, then taking a large round mixing bowl and laying the plexi over it. The plexi would conform to the bowl and harden giving you the dome shape. Now trim away excess plexi around the base of the dome leaving about a half inch. At this time you would cut out a door/entry way for critters to enter and then secure it to the bottom of an empty tank with epoxy.

Another idea is to use "Pillars" epoxied to the dome and the tank bottom to create a raised "dome" that's up off the bottom of the tank.
 

alter40

alter40

Superstar Fish
#9
Nov 26, 2007
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#9
In order to flood the dome if you want to do that you could drill a couple little holes in the top of the dome and then you will always have air bubbling out and once the pump is shut off then it should slowly fill with water.
 

pwrmacG4

pwrmacG4

Superstar Fish
#10
Jan 16, 2008
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#10
if you make a base for the dome and put gravel on it.. now im talking about 2" deep and about 2" all the way around the dome.. i would have to put more gravel inside the dome as well to keep the level the same. i don't think it is going to float up to the top. i am not talking about making a huge dome either. maybe the size of a baseball or a little bigger. only a place for them to get some air. i think it would work great.
 

Orion

Orion

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#14
Feb 10, 2003
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Kentucky
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#14
I think someone already brought this up, but I'm not convinced that crabs are smart enough to look for air under the water. Instinct tells them that air is up, so they are going to go up for air naturally. They might be smart enough to be 'trained' to a point that they know that they have an air source under the water. Who knows. Sounds like an interesting long term experiment if it's not already been tried or investigated. I just don't know how smart they are.

And if we are talking about the typical 'fiddler crabs' sold in stores, they do best when given access to land to get all the way out of water. I want to say that there are normally two species that are sold, both are semi aquatic, but one being much more suited to fully submerged life than the other. But, if they are able to 'learn' that there is land/air available without having to go UP the tank, then problem solved either way.

As for construction: I really like the idea of plexiglass. To take it one step further, you could take a piece and use something round shaped that will hold up to the heat and put them in the oven to form the plexi. By using plexi, you'll be able to view the crabs if they use the oasis. Find a nice large piece of slate, and silicone the plexi down. Depending on how much air is in the oasis, the silicone may be enough by itself to hold the plexi to the slate.
 

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Potawato

Medium Fish
#15
Jan 31, 2007
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#15
Orion said:
I think someone already brought this up, but I'm not convinced that crabs are smart enough to look for air under the water. Instinct tells them that air is up, so they are going to go up for air naturally. They might be smart enough to be 'trained' to a point that they know that they have an air source under the water. Who knows. Sounds like an interesting long term experiment if it's not already been tried or investigated. I just don't know how smart they are.

And if we are talking about the typical 'fiddler crabs' sold in stores, they do best when given access to land to get all the way out of water. I want to say that there are normally two species that are sold, both are semi aquatic, but one being much more suited to fully submerged life than the other. But, if they are able to 'learn' that there is land/air available without having to go UP the tank, then problem solved either way.

As for construction: I really like the idea of plexiglass. To take it one step further, you could take a piece and use something round shaped that will hold up to the heat and put them in the oven to form the plexi. By using plexi, you'll be able to view the crabs if they use the oasis. Find a nice large piece of slate, and silicone the plexi down. Depending on how much air is in the oasis, the silicone may be enough by itself to hold the plexi to the slate.
Click to expand...

Thats like, exactly what I said a few posts ago *laughingc
 

forrestcook

forrestcook

Large Fish
#16
Sep 11, 2007
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#16
aside from this particular idea (which I think is fantastic) - are there products out there that would make a "shelf" of sorts? Such that a tank could be mostly filled, but still provide a dry area for the crabs?

I love the idea of having a crab with a shelf of sorts so that the tank could still be mostly full and accommodate a small community of guppies.

I dont want to hijack your thread, as I am excited to see it put into practice, just curious if there are links I havent seen yet.
 

Orion

Orion

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#17
Feb 10, 2003
5,803
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38
Kentucky
www.thefishcave.net
#17
Potawato- wasn't trying to steal any of your thunder, just trying to be a bit more descriptive. When you heat plexi in an oven, you get a much more uniform form rather than using something like a heat gun because it all heats at the same time.

Forrestcook- sure they do, it's called rocks! ;)
 

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epond83

Large Fish
#18
Mar 11, 2007
483
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#18
forrestcook said:
aside from this particular idea (which I think is fantastic) - are there products out there that would make a "shelf" of sorts? Such that a tank could be mostly filled, but still provide a dry area for the crabs?

I love the idea of having a crab with a shelf of sorts so that the tank could still be mostly full and accommodate a small community of guppies.

I dont want to hijack your thread, as I am excited to see it put into practice, just curious if there are links I havent seen yet.
Click to expand...
Turtle Dock Floating Reptile Shelter for Terrariums i used the medium one until my turtle got too big and just sinks it so it just sits under the cabnit. I've seen it used for crabs seems to be good, maybe have a fake plant or something led up to it
 

Dr.Gonzo

Dr.Gonzo

Large Fish
#20
May 21, 2006
287
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Omaha Ne
#20
I know exactly what you are talking about, I had one but gave it away. it looked really cool in the pet store but once I got it home I found that it was really difficult keep submerged and nothing used it. I tried to get my baby turtle to use it crabs and a newt. none of them seemed to understand that it could provide them air. you can get one but I found it to be a waste of 10 bucks.
 

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