Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Fish Man


As I may have mentioned in previous articles I have a fondness for fish. To keep not eat. I met a chap today who is probably the maddest fish enthusiast that I know of. How cool is that? He owns a large shop full of various types of fish freshwater and marine. I keep piranha. I've always wanted to keep them since I was a kid. I won't go into the reasons at it may make me sound a little sad (if I don't already). There are some prerequisites to keeping them as you can imagine. They get big. Very big. About twelve inches or more not including the tail. They eat most kinds of flesh both living and dead. They are believe it or not very nervous fish. Some keepers believe in feeding them live bait such as goldfish (not recommended as they have a high fat content and many are diseased). I personally do not believe in this practice although it is said that this is the natural feeding habit of the fish. So while mentioning the fact that I strongly disagree with this method of feeding, he agreed. Sort of by way of explaining that quite by accident he managed to kill a hundred and fifty goldfish and rather than it go to waste decided to freeze them for food for the piranha. Incidentally they are Red Bellied Piranha (Pygocentrus Nattereri)...Nattereri? Must have been named by a bloke with a nagging wife. Ouch!

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