I have two bumblebee cats in with angels and assorted tetras. Here is what I can tell you:
1. For unknown reasons, one of the cats is four and a half inches long and the other topped out at three. They were identical at purchase.
2. Despite being beautifully and garishly colored, they are very good at staying out of sight.
3. At three inches, they are capable of ingesting an adult neon or glowlight. For some reason, they never caught any of the black neons.
4. After a couple weeks, they stopped eating neons and glowlights. It has now been several months and they have not resumed. My hypothesis is it took them that long to figure out pellets were food.
5. Angels will eat neons. So will discus. If they grow up with neons in the tank, they are less likely to eat them. If they ever eat one "by accident" or out of hunger, they will eat them all in a day or two (they don't know they're food otherwise).
6. There are lots of places in my tank where they like to hide, but they always seem to hide together.
7. They like to swim against a strong current. If they can, they will swim right into a filter outlet or powerhead.
I would recommend bumblebee cats to you if:
… you are willing to lose some small fish during their acclimation.
… you are willing to keep fish you'll only see in brief, rare glimpses.
… you carefully research the multiple species available, because there are several related species which look similar when young but grow into footlong "bottomless pit" feeders.
Good luck!
