A second function of rockwork is to provide a break in the "line of sight" of your fish. If a territorial fish can see his neighbor he is likely to become agitated and want to fight or chase the neighbor off. This unfortunate occurrence often results in fish injury or even death. It is all too common to see fish with shredded fins and missing scales. Often this aggression can be minimized with good aqua scaping. It is the old age: out of sight, out of mind.

The final function is to make your tank appear more natural for you and feel more natural for your fish. This is often the least recognized aspect of aqua scaping with rocks. Cichlids are a fish that really benefit from tank decorating that mimics their natural environment. While we can never achieve the beauty of Mother Nature we can however make some small changes to the typical fish tank that will allow us to imitate their natural environments. Putting a strategically placed tumble of rocks or a large colorful rock can radically change the way the fish feels and behaves in the tank. Many cichlids are "diggers" they love to dig in the gravel or sand. For this reason many people think you cannot decorate a cichlid tank at all, that they destroy all your hard work. Well I am hear to tell you that is just not true, use rockwork, place those "boulders" and rock piles in your tank and discreetly attach a plastic plant with a zip tie to a couple of your rocks and suddenly you have a under water wonderland. Your fish that always appeared bored or fought all the time with tank mates will suddenly start displaying normal cichlid behavior such as digging for food in and around rocks, rearranging small rocks to their liking and taking up residence in small caves that you provide them. Algae will often grow on these rocks and provide your fish with an additional food source, important when keeping many of the African cichlids (especially mbuna).

Your rocks will help your fish to establish easily defined territories, which is important and can cut down on aggression, often aggression can even be minimized more by occasionally rearranging the rock structures in your tank. As stated earlier quality rockwork is often overlooked or unappreciated by the new hobbyist. Ironically it is also one of the most important. If you don’t like the appearance of your tank you will find yourself not enjoying it as much, in turn that means you will not want to look at it as much and that will result in not being around it to ensure proper maintenance is done. Proper maintenance is the most important task you need to do for your tank, it ensures your fish are healthy, your water and substrate (sand or gravel) is clean.