Oh, Casey! We used to have one! He was small and he grew a LOT and was ALWAYS so beautiful! Very shy. Always very shy, even though his mouth was huge.
I loved that fish!
Then, we aren't sure, but we think perhaps he backed into our lion. He was always swimming backward into caves in the rock. Anyhow, his tail turned brownish, then started sort of rotting off, but he would eat and swim, then he quit eating and quit swimming so much, and the brown rot-look crept up beyond his tailfin and into the end of his body. It took maybe a month? and he finally died. Very sad. We had him a long time -- couple yrs or so.
~ Shirley