When I was about four years old, I remember my dad having tanks of fish in the house. He loved fishies, all kinds of freshwater fish. We had Black Mollies, an assortment of tetra, a Placostomas, neons and my favorite…the Piranhas! we had a huge tank with a bunch of them all swimming about. I loved watching them eat when daddy would feed them. He would dangle a bit of beef or ham above the tank and the piranha would jump and try to catch the tender morsel. Most of the time they ate live goldfish though, which was also FUN to watch.
One day my dad was feeding them and one of the piranhas bit onto his thumb and he was bleeding everywhere. My mom flipped out and brought a towel. It was nasty, I still remember the bright red blood all over his fingers and hand.
They would bite through the net dad would catch them with sometimes. Man they were nefarious to the end, those things have no mercy and its innate…that’s the most fascinating thing about them. Naturally vicious.
I remember sometimes coming up to the tank and getting real close, I would watch them look at me. They would swim in circles and beware of me. When it was time for them to have their babies, my dad would point out the eggs that the females buried under the rocks. The daddies would eat the eggs (or the babies if they hatched). I was always disappointed about that, I wanted to see tiny baby piranhas. I always thought the piranhas were so cute, albiet mean.
They are round :)
My dad taught me all about the fishes in our house. We had one giant tank in the livingroom for the five piranhas, then another tall one for assorted tetra fish (very colorful small freshwater fish), in the basement next to my play area was a medium sized tank full of more assorted freshwater fish and a tank for an Oscar fish (large black freshwater fish with orange spots).
So yes, the background to my knowledge and love of fishes comes into the light in this entry. I want to bring back the fish in my life, even if they are meanie ones! Here I have included a photo of a black piranha as a baby, they start out silver and turn a darker platinum color as they age.
