so today i thought for shure i had the deal of a lifetime with my 90 gallon bow front set up.. i set a time with the guy to go pick it up as soon as i got off work.. i dont think i have ever made it across downtown chicago traffic as fast as i did today.. the guy was waiting for me outside.. he tells me "hey come on in the tanks in the garage" never in my life had i been soooo dissapointed.. the tank was HORRIBLE and looked nothing like it did in the pictures he e-mailed me. :( this guy must have thought i was retarded or something.. here he is sending me pictures of a 90 gallon glass aquarium that looked fairly new ..and here we are staring at this "THING" that looked like a 80 gallon acrylic tank wich to me seemed like he had took a sheet of sand paper and scrubbed the shit out of it...but wait it gets better.. he also told me that it had a piano gloss finish..and by that he meant he spray painted it while he was smoking heroin.. it even still had what looked like duct tape residue all along the seams..SMH . it held water.. and had a very nice stand all the filter media was still in the box ,the marineland stealth pro heater was not working nor was the filter.. it made a horrible noise like it had loose parts rolling inside it.."you just gotta jiggle it a few times for it to circulate water in it" he told me as he shook it vigorously... i asked him WTF is wrong with you man! as i started walking away shaking my head.. and for the free pleco.. this idiot probably froze it to death..keeping it in the garage with -0 weather.. so i wasted my afternoon with an idiot.. BUT i found some pretty cool looking fish.. my buddy at my LFS convinced me into going with the whole central american (south american) theme.. and i fell in love with these fish called BOLIVIAN RAMS never seen them before untill today and i was impressed.. man i think that made my day not as sucky.. and i also checked out all the fish on the list yasherkoach.. they had every single one at the fs.. (i wrote em all down) (8 good job ..they were all freakin awesome!

i cant decide between the starry night plecos or the peppermint ones like alasse. but now im on a mission to find another tank.. hopefully i dont end up meeting up with more idiots .. people like that shouldnt be allowed 50 feet near a fish tank..just sayin

Thats the problem with craigslist. You might get a really good deal one day, and a really weird idiot the next.

Bolivian Rams are awesome, but they are South American cichlids. The ones yasher told you about were all African, so they might need different water parameters.

on the 300 gallon tank...of course a pleco or a few plecos will be fine for there is plenty space to find shelter...but in a 90 gallon it is different...it may work, but it is risky

I have dwarf chain loaches which are sem-aggressive in with peaceful fish, but I provide plenty rock shelters plus the loaches are in a group of 4

so it may work as long as there are plenty territorial shelters throughout the tank...but again, it is risky (only experienced fishkeepers like Alasse or others should attempt placing aggressive fish in with peaceful fish)

as for the 90 gallon debacle, that is ashame...hope you find a good tank soon

and I agree Bolivian Rams are very nice fish

<-------------------------- is keeping aggressive fish with peaceful fish..(3 neon tetras and a white&blue spotted betta) :)) 4 gallon tank

possibly because the tetras outnumber the betta...but it is still risky

this is what I can't figure out about some fishkeepers...if the habitat is too small and the fish is (usually) not compatible and we all want from our fish absolute content with their environment, then why take the risk?

but hey, call me crazy or unreal...but if the fish is inclined to certain inate behaviors and we don't respect them, guess we can just blame it all on human ingenuity

again....to each their own...........guess I respect a fish more than I do some humans on this forum, but it's cool