Ebjd.....I just acquired one of these a few months ago, and I've had the same experience. Mine was about 2 inches when I rescued him from Petsmart, and now he's almost 5 inches long! His coloration went from a dull brown/yellow to a dark black/bright yellow, and he looks wonderful. He's an entertaining guy...very active...very suitable for my community tank. They seem to be somewhat undemanding, and he spends much of his day picking at the plants in the tank, and doing"headstands" searching the floor of the tank for morsels of food. I bought him on a whim....he was interesting, I'd never seen one before...and he turned out to be a great addition to my tank! One word of caution, I've read in several places that they should not be kept with other slow moving fish like Bettas or Angels, as they have a tendency to nip the fins of fish who tend to "hang around" rather than actively swim alot.