[Jim Smith]

My bad, I should have read your original posting a bit more carefully. I guess he's just a cranky old fish, and with his attitude, he'll end his days as a lonely cranky old fish. I worked in the import/export tropical fish industry for a number of years way back when and I never remember any of the Cichlids living that long. I bred a number of species including South American Leaf fish Monocirrhus polyacanthus before they were normally bred in captivity. I really enjoy keeping aquariums, but I'm afraid that I've maxed out my wife's tolerance with pets when I talked her into me keeping five Honduran Milk Snakes. While I do miss watching an aquarium full of interesting fish (I preferred species from South America), I guess it's a fair tradeoff as the snakes are also loads of fun.