Piranhas were famous in China because of the poor quality of European and American horror movies. Their mere mention was enough to frighten people. There were dozens of these aggressive fish that lived in groups. Although they were not protected animals, once these fish were released by idiots and mixed into local waters, they would often have a devastating impact on the ecosystem.
However, these fish lived in the rainforests of the Amazon basin. The icy northern Germany did not meet their living conditions. Even if they accidentally escaped from the hands of the breeders, they would quickly freeze to death.
The appearance of the piranhas was not aesthetically pleasing. Most people who raised these fish did so out of curiosity, or because they had a bad taste, like Karl. This old man was already retired, but he still liked to play these kinds of scary pranks. No wonder Reina said that he had a weird temper.
"When I came for my first interview, I was shocked too. I almost called the police," Paul, the water quality expert, said from the side.
"You? Call the police? "Karl sneered." You screamed like a ten-year-old girl! "
"Absolutely not!" Paul hurriedly clarified.
While the two of them were talking, Zhang Zian carefully observed the aquarium in which the piranhas were kept. If one did not consider Karl's bad taste, the setting of the aquarium was extremely successful. Water plants, dead wood, skeletons, and a few green-backed, red-bellied fish, along with the surrounding environment, created a strange atmosphere. For those who were curious, they would definitely want to have an aquarium like this at home.
Aquarium landscaping was a popular form of entertainment in recent years. It was also a form of art. There were even landscapers who specialized in aquarium landscaping.
There were two main sources of profit for an aquarium. One was the sale of live specimens, and the other was the sale of peripherals. Aquarium landscaping was one of the peripheral sales. The profits were very high, and it would not be affected by online shopping.
Zhang Zian considered making a similar landscaping of this aquarium and putting it in his shop after he returned to China. However, he was afraid that it would scare the children who entered the shop. If he was accused of "promoting violence against children," then it would not be worth it.
Karl took out an aluminum bowl with a dead fish in it. The fish's eyes were protruding, and the fish's lips were slightly open.
"It's lunchtime, Jeff. Do you want to feed these cute little fish?" he asked.
"No, I'll watch you feed it." Zhang Zian was not interested. He was even more afraid that his hand would be bitten off when he was feeding the fish. The piranhas in the aquarium were not small. They were about ten centimeters long, and they might suddenly jump out of the water.
Karl shrugged and opened the aquarium's lid. He picked up the dead fish's tail and dipped its upper body into the water.
The moment the fish head entered the water, the piranhas seemed to be frightened and quickly swam away, hiding among the water plants and behind the dead branches. However, after a while, when they realized that there was no danger, they immediately came out of their hiding places and charged straight at the dead fish. They opened their strong jaws, revealing their razor-sharp teeth, and bit down on the fattest part of the dead fish's chest and abdomen. They tore off a piece of meat, swam away slightly, swallowed the meat, and then bit down again …
A few piranhas surrounded the dead fish and ate it one by one. In just a few minutes, the upper body of the dead fish had been gnawed into bones, and the water became slightly turbid.
"This is a Peruvian wild piranha. If it was a second-generation or third-generation piranha, they wouldn't eat it even if you threw a fish into the water for half a day. They've degenerated a lot," Karl said. He took the remaining half of the dead fish out of the water and threw it into a garbage bag.
In addition to the freshwater piranhas, most of the fish that Karl raised were marine creatures, many of which were rare or dangerous.
In a large aquarium, colorful corals were placed on the white sand, like beautiful sunflowers blooming on the seabed. The water was clear, and the surface was calm. A few extremely small fish were swimming around, and they were of a very common species. Zhang Zian thought that it was a landscaping aquarium, but when he was about to pass it, he suddenly felt that something was wrong. Something on the coral seemed to move.
He looked carefully. There seemed to be some kind of mollusk that was very similar to the color of the coral. It even had a calcareous appearance like the coral.
A small fish wagged its tail and gradually approached, unaware that it was about to face the fate of death.
The coral-like mollusk suddenly moved. A few tentacles, like parachutes, wrapped around the small fish at lightning speed.
The small fish only struggled briefly and then stopped moving. There were no obvious bite wounds on its body.
Zhang Zian took a deep breath. What a strong toxicity!
This was an extremely dangerous blue-ringed octopus. It was the kind of highly toxic creature that experts often warned ordinary people not to raise privately. Its toxicity was incurable, and it could make people stop breathing before the ambulance arrived.
It snatched the small fish for lunch, but at the same time, it exposed its hiding place. Although there were no natural enemies in the aquarium, it was still as vigilant as it was in the wild. Its body flashed with faint blue stripes, and it quietly swam to the vicinity of another coral. It hid its body between the gaps of the coral and changed the color and shape of its body almost instantly. Now, it was no different from the surrounding corals, waiting for the next prey to pass by.
"This animal is very dangerous, right? Are there many people buying it?" Zhang Zian asked curiously.
Karl nodded. "It's okay. You know, the more niche a pet is, the easier it is to form a corresponding circle. There are not many people who keep marine pets, at least not as many as people who keep cats and dogs. Although the number is small, they are more willing to communicate with each other, because marine pet breeding knowledge is not as easy to find as cat and dog breeding knowledge on the Internet. In the circle of marine pets, the blue-ringed octopus is a very special one. Being able to raise a blue-ringed octopus often means that you are no longer a beginner in the circle of marine pets, but an advanced player. Besides, this little guy is very beautiful, isn't it? "
"That's right," Zhang Zian admitted.
From the glimpse just now, he didn't know if it was a psychological effect, but he felt that the soft golden body and bright blue stripes of the blue-ringed octopus had some kind of fatal attraction. No wonder many marine pet players flocked to it. It was not just for novelty like raising piranhas.
The blue-ringed octopus was not a protected animal, but he did not intend to introduce it into his pet shop to sell. After all, it was too dangerous.
"Jeff, how many days are you going to stay here?" Karl asked.
Zhang Zian estimated, "Seven days at most."
"Then you still have a lot of time. How about settling down first?" Karl suggested to him.
"That's what I was thinking," Zhang Zian agreed.
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