A midas. Hands down.
No tank mates - she killed anything we tried her with, bigger, smaller, spiney armoured plecs... She wouldn't have it . This was one of the reasons that she had so many owners before we rescued her from the shop that agreed to take her.
Biting - she left many previous owners fingers and arms scarred because they handled her wrong. It wasn't that she didn't like to be petted, it was that it was on her own terms. She liked to jump out of the tank at this one previous owner and maul his arm. Guess she didn't like him!
Aggression - she would attack you for doing tank maintenance, because understandably, she works hard dragging around the big bits of bogwood until she's happy with it, then we mess up her work to get the poop cleaner in her cave.
She would also attack you for going too close to the glass, and even more so if you touched it. When she got really wound up, she would stick her finns bolt upright and smash herself from one end of her five foot to the other. It was beautiful to watch as she put on a lovely display with her aggression, but the head buts on the glass when she charged at you made me wince! I always imagined that her head would hurt afterwards. Poor gal!
Food - she would only really eat from your fingers, but obviously her aim isn't perfect and sometimes she would accidentally nip a bit. No biggie to us, but apparently her 6000 previous owners were taking that as an attack.
The constant tank redecorating - she only wanted things her way. She would drag large bits of wood around, over thee times her size until she made a cave that she was happy with. Stones were pilled up until she was happy with them. It was always a mess but she was happy.
We had Jess until I was a teenager. I love that gal. Still miss her. Never had another cichlid like her. <3
