Look at him, I guess it could be a her, peak his head outside of the log looking so innocent exiting his main domain. I figure it must be a him because a her I figure wouldn't be such a hideous killer. My first inclination after his first kill was he has to go. At that point I had been attempting to replace some fish and a giant frog who had passed away after several years and mistakenly had taken him as the same fish I had bought a few weeks prior. It was a small white fish I had bought that was a bottom feeder. He was also an albino looking type of fish. Once I realized there was a difference it was to late for the first little guy I had bought as this one progressed in size he ate the little guys tail off whereas he abruptly died as a result. The two giants left in the tank, two blue Gourami's he didn't appear to pay to much attention to so I wasn't in a big hurry to cart him off to the fish shop to see if they'd take him off my hands. Which ended up being a mistake on my part as he than proceeded to eat the tail off one of them. The other one he has left completely alone. I guess he doesn't want to be a lone survivor.
It wasn't just that he decided to off on the other fish but he'd done something I've never before seen in all the years I've kept an aquarium. He took it upon himself to redesign the whole interior. He's a brazen fellow fearing not who he insults or assaults for that matter. I guess my design pattern just wasn't good enough for him. He took it upon himself, and don't even ask me how he managed it, but he carved out underneath the log just about every stone that was under there. He pushed all the stones up into big piles around the entrance and exit of the log. When he was done with that he proceeded to do the same with a reptile stone hedged house I had in the tank. I may have been insulted but in all due honesty I was quite impressed by his endeavors. You can see what was a full opening is now a half opening from him having pushed all the stones around to where he wanted them and underneath the bottom of the log is hollow.
The next picture is angled to show how he made a circular symmetry around the entrances/exit of the log. He has a penchants for fine detail. Look how smoothly rounded that is.
Next thing I know he guts out the reptile house in the same manner.
He's not much afraid of anyone either like most fish, they tend to run and hide when you switch the light off/on or come near the tank to feed them but he's quite proud of his little domain he's created for himself and isn't a bit shy about coming out to show himself off. After a bit of digging I am sure he's from the Cichlid family of fish, most likely an African Cichlid. In the long run though he'll have to go, hopefully I'll be able to find a fish shop that will take him but having a limited set of species in the tank doesn't keep the ego system balanced therefore meaning more work for me helping it along. He's no doubt been interesting to observe but his final destination in his fish life will have to come about somewhere else.
