The Catfish Tale. 10 Interesting Facts Piranhas

• The Catfish Tale
• Britain's
  Biggest Ever Freshwater Catfish
• Interesting Catfish
  Snippets
• Piranhas
• 10 Interesting Piranha
  Facts

The Catfish Tale

A man who lives at Lake Conroe [50 miles north of Houston, Texas, USA ] saw a ball bouncing around strangely in the lake and went to investigate.

It turned out to be a flathead catfish who had obviously
tried to swallow a basketball which had then became stuck in its mouth. The fish was totally exhausted from trying to dive, but unable to because the ball would always bring him back up to the surface. The
fellow tried numerous times to get the ball out, but was unsuccessful. He finally had his wife cut the ball in order to deflate it and release the hungry catfish.

You probably wouldn't have believed this if
you hadn't seen the following pictures:

The problem - ball stuck in mouth of catfish

Close-up of ball in the catfish's mouth

Catfish swimming with ball

Ball removed from the catfish and punctured

Be kinder than necessary, because everyone you meet is fighting some kind
of battle.

Britain's Biggest Ever
Freshwater Catfish

A fisherman usually laughed at for his terrible luck was left reeling,
when he landed Britain's biggest ever freshwater fish.

James Jones, 31, was stunned when he hooked the monster wels catfish,
which weighed a whopping 144lb (65.3kg).

The father of three, of Essex, spent two hours fighting to bring the
giant into the bank with the help of two other fishermen.

Interesting Catfish Snippets

Catfish are swimming tongues: they have more taste buds than any other
creature.  Their entire bodies are covered with them. A six-inch
catfish may have more than a quarter of a million taste buds, not just in
its mouth and gills, but on its whiskers, fins, back, belly, sides and tail.
The channel catfish has the best sense of taste of any vertebrate and is
able to detect less than a hundredth of a teaspoonful of a substance in an
Olympic swimming pool full of water.  Amazing think Will and Guy.

Piranhas

Piranha Sanctuary: Come Feed The Fish - With Your Whole Family

10 Interesting Piranha Facts

1. Piranhas' natural habitat is the
   freshwater rivers of the Amazon in South America.
2. Piranha have a fast
   metabolism, which means they digest their food very quickly.
3. Piranha
   are mostly carnivores, which means that they need to eat protein, meat or
   fish.
4. The word for scissors in the *Tupi Indian language is piranha.
   *Tupi are a tribe from the Amazon region of Brazil.
5. Piranhas are
   known for their sharp, pointed teeth and shark like feeding frenzies, but
   the threat to humans is largely exaggerated.
6. The piranha is usually
   small [the red piranha grows no longer than 13 inches].
7. Their teeth
   are set in powerful jaws, and top and bottom teeth interlock, giving the
   freshwater fish its ability to tear and rip flesh.
8. Their teeth are so
   tough they can bite through a steel fishing hook.
9. There are between 30
   and 40 species of piranha, and not all are strictly carnivorous. In fact,
   some consume large quantities of seeds.
10. Piranha live in shoals of
    approximately 20 fish.

Funny Short Piranha Jokes from Leigh Park, Hampshire, England

Mr Bawler, an English teacher at Park Community School, Leigh Park,
Havant, England was asked, one lesson, how to spell the word, "piranha"

'I really don't know,' he replied, 'why not look it up in the
dictionary?'

The lad went away and looked it up and wrote it down correctly into his
book which greatly pleased Mr Bawler.

Then he overheard another class member say, 'Why bother to look it up? Bawlie
doesn't know how to spell it anyway.'