Farlowella (twig cat) & bigger-fish compatibility

[Andyroo]

I've got two mature-ish twig catfish in a 55 with timber, doing well but that tank is intended to house some client stock next week. Likely/mostly small & innocuous stuff, no worries there, but there will be changes & the species apparently doesn't like changes. I'd agree with that, as I started with 5...

Option in discussion is to move them to the 6' 100gal: full of hardwood & bamboo, clown loaches & clown pleco. etc. & I'm sure the twigs will appreciate the space & stability. But, that tank also has:
Three mature-ish (8~12") black ghost knives, one of which is already missing a tail, and
two native fat sleeper gobies Dormitator maculatus @4~6"
... neither of which do I trust with those long luxuriant twig-tails.

I can move the Dormitor to the tillapia/cichid pond outside, but catching'll make a mess of the tank & I'll never see them again (until they're 14' long) - they're getting to be quite lovely "wet-pets". Not a great excuse as the point of the whole thing is their welfare, Ok, fair.
What about the knives? - risky dice-roll or a paranoid nothingburger?

Similar question with the bumblee cats also in the 55 - is it a danger to move them to the 100 with the knives ( & Dormitor) ? I'd move the guppies "buffet" too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormitator_maculatus​

 

[duanes]

Those Dormtors really cant' be trusted with something as small as young twig cats, though I find them together in streams here, those sleepers are the apex predators for young Sturasomaticthys they come up against, maybe not adults, but young ones are faiir game, and don´t stand much of a chance..

I doubt the knives a will be problematic, even my 6 ¨ones shrug gobies off.

But the sleepers get big fast with regular feedings, and as such become formitable.
The one below started eating cichlids half its size as it grew..



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[Andyroo]

Oops, sorry, the gobies aren't the "water-cow" big mouth sleeper that looks like an Indo-Pacific crocodile fish, but the tubby squat (cute) fat sleeper D maculatus like a pudgy brindle knight goby. I've seen them slaughter a mystery snail & shred a lovely water lily & seem to be part of the guppy clean-up crew, but they're not either of the toothy-terrors we call Mudfish.

The twigs are just shy of adult at ~5" of the 6" reported as mature/max. Not juvenile, just very skinny, "stick-y"

We did see a Water-Cow in a little river in CostaRica over Xmas; same species as you've got there? Has capacity to do a white patch over the top? Ours can do this also, the smaller species more-so than the bigger but they're both skinnier than the Pacific ones.

I didn't realize that Panama had knives! The fauna differences between CR & Panama I'm finding quite fantastic, Panama seeming to be far closer to SouthAmerica - please continue!