I'd like to catch a tadpole madtom for my longear/shiner tank, but I haven't seen any in my usual searching spots. Granted, I could just be missing them due to the fact that they're small catfish. What would be a good way to figure out if they're just hiding from me?
My usual spots to check are along a small section of the San Gabriel river, in Texas. I'm near Austin. Has anybody found any tadpole toms near here?
Yes, I know they'll possibly eat smaller fish. My reasoning for keeping one is:
Madtoms are bottom-dwelling catfish
Madtoms are small
Blacktail shiners are fast top-dwellers
Blacktails are reasonably large (at least 3/5 the length of a big madtom)
If blacktails are anything like danios, they sleep at the top
Madtoms hunt at night and eat the things down on their level
Blacktails will not be down on their level
Worst comes to worst, I can replace the occasional shiner
Madtoms are cool little fish