yeah I don't know if his water was soft or hard. This guy was 9-10" and died a week after JLSEF9 acquired it (banged its head against the wall hard).That fish looks very similar to my Max in both color and shape, but it doesn't appear to have lost it's color in clear water. I find that very interesting. I wonder if the water needed to simply be soft instead of black. I didn't try that.