I've owned all different kinds of fish throughout my life and have NEVER had anything with quite as much personality as a RTC. Not only does it act like a cat/puppy, its damn near the size of one too!! Haha!! When you get to the hand-feeding stage, thats when the attachment begins, and just like my little dog, when I get home from work, out he comes from his hiding area up to the glass to see me and what I might feed him. They swim kinda back and forth in one spot, and I swear they wag their tails just like a puppy. Me and my current girlfriend of 10 months owe our relationship to my old RTC who died (R.I.P. Waldo!!). She wanted to come over and see him because I had made a MySpace page for him (dorky, maybe... but you havent seen how hot my g/f is!!.. Haha!). Unfortunately, when he died, I was all tore up about it, and when she found out, she came over. That turned into a date, then a month, then three months, and now almost a year!
Anyway... point being, I'll be willing to wager that you will be handcrafting your own pond setup before you get rid of your new little friend!!!
J