And now for the story of my 180 gallon tank and my beloved fish ernie!(who i recently had to give away
)Ernie is a tiger shovelnose catfish who was about 5 inches long when i purchased him and he was about 36 inches long when i gave him away.
He lived in a large slightly overcrowded community tank where all the fish got along suprisingly well. This was where ernie would become my most entertaining fish and the biggest pain in my backside. Ernie grew quite fast and as he grew his tankmates sufferd. Over the course of his life Ernie has polished off nearly the entire community. He has eaten 2 jack dempseys, 2 peacock bass, a red devil, a managuense, 2 firemouths, and a green terror. The only surviving members of the original tank are a pleco and an oscar, i have no clue why he hasnt tried to eat them. Recently I have been trying to get ernie some more tankmates. The first attempt was a nearly 2 foot long arowana which i aquired from a friend who the arowana got to big for him to keep. Ernie ate the large arowana. My final attempt was to get some aggressive fish to fend for themselves against him. So i orderd 2 large managuenses both about 9 inches long. i watched the fish all day long and everything seemed to be fine. Unfortunetly the next mourning the oscars face was chewed off and one of the managuenses had "disapeared". The other jag was panicly swimming around the top of the tank petrified to go anywhere near the bottom. Well it wasnt long till the other jag vanished into thin air and i decided it was time to get ernie a new home. He is now living at an LFS in a 700 gallon display tank along with a red tail cat, a pacu, and a large oscar. I will miss him.
