def. not a channel! albino asian redtail for sure! bottom finnage of a gold channel is different! i have had mine since march, it has grown about 4 inches since ive had him. these fish should be kept alone or with more aggressive fish. but you also dont want to keep them with something too aggressive, due to the fact that they have skin and not scales so they are not protected as much as other fish. i have mine with a crenicichla sveni a striped raph. cat. an 11" midas and a crenicichla sp. belly crawler. he does his fair of chasing but he also gets chased! just keep them in check! cool fish. i got mine for 5 bucks. i also bought it from the store i worked at so i gave myself a "SPECIAL" price. it was suppose to be $19.99. nice pick up and enjoy.