Last week Natalia and I went to Suzhou’s bird and flower market. Bird and flower markets are a reoccurring theme across China and Taiwan though I’ve never understood the connection. To me it’s like shopping at the cheese and electronics market though in Suzhou you can find everything from puppies, lizards to scorpions and kittens with abseses on their faces.
It’s not all pretty. It’s not nice seeing mass-bred animals caged for the taking, though the highlights are the birds, a traditonal past time of old chinese bastards everywere (”bastards” in the affectionate “kiwi” sense of the word) and the random stalls selling everything from exotic plants to hamsters and snakes.. yeah, snakes.
Natalia and I were at the Bird and Flower Market (BAFM) in search of a gold fish… I dont know what I was thinking, though she is a sucker for pets and I like making her happy. This is why we have a cat, a cat which is going to cost me dearly to relocate to Taiwan.. TMD.
After some looking around, distracted by the cute puppies and gagging on the various stenches (I have a weak constitution) we settled on a place that had some pretty healthy looking fish and I (in retrospect, stupidly) immediately pointed ut the, grinning, funny looking, spotty green things; thus asking the owner “are they eay to keep?” to which se replied.. “very easy”.
Fantastic. We get the little fish home and put them in the lame-ass little tank we brought and within days they bein to wither. Natalia, the smart girl she is decides to google them and finds out the are a brackish fish, part saltwater part fresh, very aggressive and mildly poisonous. They are a species of puffer fish, not easy to keep. In fact nearly every site on te interweb states “not for beginners” .
Which brings us to the present day, having “operation toilet-flush” vetoed on its first reading, we set out to buy a “real tank” and something to salnate the water. Though I’m still a major proponent of “operation toilet-flush” our new friends are growing on me.. especially now they are not just floating on the surface gasping for dear life.
Behold, the Green Spotted Puffer Fish (GSP Fish)
Not all pets are compatable..
Comments 1
Cool looking fish! I also have a hard time going to the BAFM (assuming this is the one on Pi Shi Jie - Skin City St…. kinda creepy).
Fantastic place to get plants though. And SO cheap.
It’s tempting to buy pets there, and we nearly went there when we were puppy hunting, but in the end decided it was worth spending a more cash and not getting a dog that was going to die within the first week. Now 8 months on, way glad we did.
It took me killing a number of goldfish before realizing I need to de-chlorinate the tap water. I’m sure you had that figured out, but if not - keep a couple jugs of tap water open to the air for a couple days before water changes (or buy a tank water balancer).
It’s funny to see your cat interested in them. I have turtles and my dog never sinks so low as to acknowledge they exist. Of course, they’re not exactly a food source to her.
Posted 02 Oct 2008 at 2:34 am ¶Post a Comment