Preventing Mbuna From Digging Ideas

[MbunaJoe]

While I understand digging pits is ingrained in male mbuna DNA it bothers me from an aesthetic perspective. What are some safe alternatives to substrate? I have taken out all of my aragonite substrate however I have 2 Fluval FX 4's filled with biohome ultimate media on my 55 gallon.

Help me come up with some non substrate solutions. What and where to get it.

Thanks in advance y'all.

[coolhnd9]

I've seen people put the lighting egg crate in their substrate and never really knew why... Reading your post, this happened to come to mind and might help?

[MbunaJoe]

I've seen people put the lighting egg crate in their substrate and never really knew why... Reading your post, this happened to come to mind and might help?

I've read that egg crate helps reduce "pitting" but from personal experience using egg crate it also helps with hardscaping protecting the glass or acrylic bottom of your tank from cracking. It hasn't helped with pitting aka digging in my experience. They have just exposed the egg crate which just makes it more unappealing. Thanks for the response!

[coolhnd9]

Great to know, thanks!

Also, for substrate ideas, have you considered a river rock bottom? I use to keep peacocks in with my Red Ear Slider and so I kept a river rock bottom. Anywhere from fist size down to a smaller grape size rock. Mostly so the turtle didn't eat them. You would not believe how many baby peacocks this produced. The fry would hide out in the rocky bottom and I had more fish on my hands than I knew what to do with. Pretty sure Mbuna would have met their match with a river rock substrate.