Carlon Elbow Conduit PVC Burrow for Odontodactylus scyllarus

[orkspace]

In reviewing Dr. Caldwell's old posts on stomatopod husbandry, I found one from July 1, 2008 in which he described an ideal artificial burrow for Odontodactylus scyllarus:

One product that almost perfectly emulates an O. scyllarus burrow is Schedule 40 Rigid NonMetalilic PVC conduit elbows. It comes in 22.5, 45 and 90 degree elbows in diameters from .5 to 6 inches
(ID). The manufacturer of the elbows I have tried is "Carlon".

For a 5 inch O. scyllarus, the 90 degree, 2 inch diameter elbow is great. I cut the ends so that they will be flush with surface (approximately a 45 degree cut). It takes a 6 inch gravel or sand bed to bury the conduit and the entrances are about 18 inches apart. This is very similar to a burrow in the wild.

After unsuccessfully looking for this conduit at my local big-box home improvement store, I turned to the Internet.

It looks like the Carlon part number he was describing is "UA9AJ". I've attached a photograph of the specific elbow conduit in question below:

I found a lot of sellers online for this part, and was able to order one for less than $10.00 including shipping from Life and Home.

I hope that this info is helpful to folks! Dr. Caldwell's (Gonodactylus) archives on Reefcentral.com are a treasure-trove of information, but they take time to search.

 

[nmotz]

Yeah that's awesome. All of us on this forum have benefitted from Dr. Caldwell in one way, shape, or form over the years. Thanks for sharing, I'll have to order that pipe the next time I upgrade Neptune's burrow.

 

[Martini5788]

That's what I used when I had Xena. She loved it. It is really difficult to get any kind of sand to stick to though. But it has absolutely no sheen to it at all, so no light is reflected. I got mine at grayco

 

[orkspace]

I plan on rolling mine in silicone and then sand ... hopefully it'll blend in.

6" is deeper than I had planned on for a substrate bed. I honestly don't know what is "correct" now for depth; when I left the hobby in 2002 really deep sand beds were in vogue.

 

[Martini5788]

I plan on rolling mine in silicone and then sand ... hopefully it'll blend in.

6" is deeper than I had planned on for a substrate bed. I honestly don't know what is "correct" now for depth; when I left the hobby in 2002 really deep sand beds were in vogue.

I would avoid silicone if possible. I tried it 3 separate times and it came off everytime. The tube I posted a picture of used to be completely coated. That's what is left. Some people have better luck with epoxy, so I would try that first. Which is what I am going to do next time. As far as the sand bed goes, I never kept mine deep in my peacocks tank because I vacuumed it frequently in case she decided to hide leftover food. But it's personal preference really.

 

[orkspace]

I would avoid silicone if possible. I tried it 3 separate times and it came off everytime. The tube I posted a picture of used to be completely coated. That's what is left. Some people have better luck with epoxy, so I would try that first. Which is what I am going to do next time. As far as the sand bed goes, I never kept mine deep in my peacocks tank because I vacuumed it frequently in case she decided to hide leftover food. But it's personal preference really.

Amazing advice again!

 

[Martini5788]

Amazing advice again!

I think it was nmotz who told me about the epoxy. So hopefully that works. But I know silicone doesn't work on that stuff, believe me I've tried. And I roughed it up a lot before and all that. Must have something to do with the material it's made with. But thank you

 

[makeshift101]

as martinisaid, I too had my pvc elbow covered in silicone and did the sand thing, it work great at first, but a year in, there is barely any left.

My sand bed in my 40b is about 2"-3"
Bane usually move sand around as he pleases anyway. he has created multiple burros so...just a thought

 

[EI Gringo]

This is what I used. Drain pipe at 65mm ID one straight piece at 45cm in length to an elbow at either side and extra lengths from each elbow, one longer than the other. I cut the ends at a 30-45 degree angle sloping backwards for effect. Then I covered it in black HA6 silicone and then crushed coral. I'm using one for a peacock when I get one and one for my ternatensis (this one is shorter in length slightly)