Penn-Plax Deco-Replicas Granite Aquarium Ornament & Hideaway – Realistic Stone Appearance – Safe for Freshwater and Saltwater Tanks – Large Size

For reference, I bought two pair of the L & XL combo (so 4 total “caves”). I stacked and angled them to make a cave system.The tank shown is 75 gallons.These are made out of a sort of crushed granite pressed into a form and the surface reminds me of very rough, low grit sandpaper. This is NOT like your other hollow resin aquarium decor. I took 15-20 minutes to scrape and sand off their rougher spots… and to do a great job I could have spent a lot longer. Instead I put some sand in them so that when my fish lay in there and play dead (it’s a loach thing), they aren’t directly on the roughness.My young Clown Loaches and Zebra Loaches love their new hovels. As of May 2023, they L/XL combo are normally $40 per set, I paid $14 per set from the warehouse. Obviously I’m VERY thrilled, but I would be very annoyed with the roughness and extra TLC needed to make these safer if I had paid full price. In fact, that’s probably what got them returned by someone else before I bought them from the warehouse.

I recommend this stone for betta fish BUT.... as it is, it is not completely safe. The stone is very rough and will tear their fins. However, some people have hand sanded these stones to smooth them out. Quite time consuming! I agree, this stone needs sanding if you're planning on using it in a tank that houses a betta. If you want to save time and complete the sanding easily, USE A DREMEL! It works fast and does a great job. One person said it took them 1 hour to get the stone smooth enough using sandpaper by hand. Another said right at 30 min. of constant sanding. I used my Dremel and completed the job in 5 minutes!! It is now as smooth as a babies bottom both inside and out and at the entry and exit points. My beta LOVES this stone. She uses it to nap in and play in and out of. It's heavy, sturdy, and attractive. It did not fade, crack, or lose any color by sanding it. It's heavy enough too. Not cheap. I am 100% satisfied.

I purchased several of these sets for my 90 gallon cichild tank. It was the most cost effective way to add all the hiding spots necessary for my fish. I've tried slate pieces, and things but they collapse. These work much better. Although, the insides of these are sharp, too sharp In my opinion. I had to try to scrape the inside to smooth them out a bit, and it wasn't easy. I was concerned about crumbling the caves as I tried to smooth the inside edges. But they look nice in the tank, and the fish love them. I have several plecos, a few albino rainbow sharks, 2 bottom feeders and 2 pictus catfish that reside in these as well. I really do like them, I just wish they could soften them up a bit on the inside when making them.

I bought two packs of these in 2016 and only 2 of the individual caves have broken. I'd say I've had them in the water 90% of that time, but they have been taken out and dried a couple of times when i rearranged a few times and moved another time. Definitely worth every penny. I've had them in with African cichlids in super high pH, and with South American in low pH. Oscar's have knocked them off flower pots and the African cichlids knocked them over chasing each other around. A lot of the decorations from petco broke during our moving and the ones that did break from these were broken by me when I dropped them (lol)

These rocks were shipped carefully; all arrived in one piece. These are a great value. Varying rock sizes are great. I put them all into a 29 gallon young African cichlid tank. As other reviews mention, they are a little rough around the holes. Might be a problem for fish bigger than mine, but so far so good, and my fish appreciate having their little territories from each rock. Very natural looking. Definitely recommend and would buy again if we got another cichlid tank, although they are certainly cool enough to put into a community style tank was well. The big rocks are nice caves and even the little ones make smaller fish feel safe.

Perfect size for my little tank and fish, but it is so rough on the inside, I would never put it in the tank for them to rub against. Returned

As other commenters have noted these rocks are rough, sharp, and will absolutely hurt your fish. In order to use them, you must take sandpaper to the inside and scrub thoroughly until it's smooth to the touch. Then, use more sandpaper around the edges of the holes in case your fish bump into them. I also soaked mine for about a week before I put them in my tank.I think they look great! Cichlid aggression has gone way down, and most of them use the caves. I've had no issues with injury since I sanded these down.In short, this product is not a good value for how much work is required in order to make them serviceable, but they do look nice.

Though I had to return these because they are actually too big for my small fish, this was a nice surprise departure from the items sold for aquariums that are deceptively pictured as being large but which are actually tiny. Very nicely made, very natural texture - I'd have kept them if only they'd been the right size. I thought there would be more relatively small and medium sizes and they were pretty much all too big. These would be great for people who need to provide hiding spots or caves for schooling fish or for larger fish. A small aquarium plant and gravel would even fit in the largest ones. Good quality and good price - if you're looking for decent sized caves, buy with confidence! I was tempted to keep these even though they just were not what I needed to fit in my mostly already-decked out aquarium, that's how nice these are!

La piedrita es muy linda, pero tal y como comentan, sí está un poco rasposa, pero fácilmente se arregla con una lija.

Es bueno , lastima que a mi unico pez ciclido africano amarillo electrico LIMON no le agrado

Please read dimensions, this bad boy is pretty BIG! It barely fits into my 3gal tank, I didn’t properly read the size— so if you’re looking for a bigger piece for your tank, this is the bang for you buck! Feels good quality and is heavy, maybe be careful to not scratch tank as texture is quite gritty. Overall very nice (big) piece.

Rough surface, but not what I would characterize as critically dangerous to fish. Rough sand paper like surface, rough, but no very sharp piercing edges.They look good. I got the 8 piece set, no two pieces are identical which is nice. The finish comes naturally from the material used. It is not a simple surface treatment, like paint, used to make the item look like granite, rather this is made of many black and white pieces of resin sand fused together, so the color is inherent to the material. If a piece chipped off, underneath it would keep the same look.Just finished setting up my Aquarium. They look good in the mix of props..... I hope my Java moss does not continue to burn :( cannot tell if it is light intensity or seachem excel overdose :( :(....Anyways, I plan on having small schooling fish who do not generally rest on bottom of the tank, mainly ember tetra, celestial danios, and cherry barbs, so the rough texture of stones wont be an issue. If you have kuhli loaches, or pleco, or other fish that spend a lot of time resting on the substrate, I wouldnt say this item is an absolute "no no", but keep an eye out to see if they are being hurt by sandpaper like surface of rocks, doubtful, but possible.Overall a very good item, good compromise of realistic finish and function. Only detraction is the roughness of the surface. I have seen other bathroom items do fake granite in the same method, and they sand the surface to make it much smoother. I imagine the same process could have been applied to this product. That said, the rough texture does add a certain rock like dynamic to the appearance that may be lost if it was perfectly smooth, so who knows.

It what it is