Advice needed on adding more cover

[Mississippi fish guy]

This is my red wolf fish tank. I recently bought a striped ralphael  catfish to be bob’s tank mate. Both will hide on the bottom so I was wondering how can I provide more hiding spots on the bottom? I do not want to add any pipe to this tank. I can move the Pogostemmon being that is is fairly new but my crypts and sword have been in this tank for over a year and I would prefer to leave them were they are but if I should move them how should I do that? I will remove the large piece of wood in the center if necessary. Also my striped ralphael catfish is about two inches and Bob is between 8 and 9 inches so at what size should I introduce my catfish being that Bob has a history of attacking larger tank mates between 3 and 5 inches if he gets to hungry. Thanks.

[Tlindsey]

On 8/2/2024 at 1:51 PM, Mississippi fish guy said:

This is my red wolf fish tank. I recently bought a striped ralphael  catfish to be bob’s tank mate. Both will hide on the bottom so I was wondering how can I provide more hiding spots on the bottom? I do not want to add any pipe to this tank. I can move the Pogostemmon being that is is fairly new but my crypts and sword have been in this tank for over a year and I would prefer to leave them were they are but if I should move them how should I do that? I will remove the large piece of wood in the center if necessary. Also my striped ralphael catfish is about two inches and Bob is between 8 and 9 inches so at what size should I introduce my catfish? I suggest wait until Raphael Catfish is around 5 inches. The Raphael Catfish needs a hide or cave. @Mississippi fish guy

 

[nabokovfan87]

Get a couple of lava rocks that are in the 5" range. You want to make sure to break off sharp edges with some sandpaper or by rubbing the stones against eachother.  You take that and stack them on top of one another, then you're building your own cave system. 

You can use any type of rock, but some red lava rock would be awesome in that tank.

[Mississippi fish guy]

On 8/3/2024 at 10:48 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Get a couple of lava rocks that are in the 5" range. You want to make sure to break off sharp edges with some sandpaper or by rubbing the stones against eachother.  You take that and stack them on top of one another, then you're building your own cave system. 

You can use any type of rock, but some red lava rock would be awesome in that tank.

Thanks for the help. I’ll be working on that soon. 

 

On 8/3/2024 at 10:11 AM, Tlindsey said:

I suggest wait until Raphael Catfish is around 5 inches

I know Raphael catfish are slow growers and it won’t be that size when I get ready to set up the 10 gallon it’s in for pigmy sunfish,. so I was wondering if it would do fine with smaller fish or will it try to eat them since it would have much more space in my other 55 gallon?

[Tlindsey]

On 8/3/2024 at 9:32 PM, Mississippi fish guy said:

smaller fish

 You should be fine if Raphael is 2 inches. I wouldn't say that about most catfish lol. @Mississippi fish guy

Edited August 4 by Tlindsey

[govsfabshop]

I moved my Raphael out of my 40gal when i moved and put him in a bare 20long until i get my 125 moved where he will end up, i put a decent sized pleco cave in the tank, took him about a week to figure it out but now i hardly see him out of it, the majority of the time the light is off but picks up some residual light from the other tanks in the room so i faced the opening of the cave away from the others

 

As for with the other fish they should be fine, mine was living with tetras, young rasboras and coreys and never paid any mind to them, every now and then when he'd take off around the tank they might have gotten hit with the tail but no deaths because of him. 

Edited August 6 by govsfabshop