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puppy_fair"Heya, guys!" Zack was grinning as he stood near an inflated kiddie pool full of water and little, yellow, black, and white fish. "I'm sorry I missed last week, I was kind of, um, a puppy? I mean, it wouldn't have been a terribly educational lecture. But Sidon did a great job-" he assumed, he had been a puppy at the time "-so thank you, Sidon, for filling in. I'm sure the chickens had a great adventure."
Cuccos, Zack.
"This week, we aren't going to be playing with anything terribly cuddly, I'm afraid. We have a pool of goldfish, though. They're the most commonly kept aquarium fish, members of the carp family, and were first bred in China after people started noticing that the silver carp they were raising for food would sometimes have gold-colored offspring. Then all bets were kind of off as they started raising the gold fish for their decorative ponds. At some point, people outside of the imperial family were forbidden to keep the gold variety for themselves, which is probably why there are so many orange goldfish today instead."
He tapped a finger to his chin.
"Right! They're opportunistic feeders who'll eat basically anything, so, crustaceans, insects, plant matter. Or," he held up a little can and grinned crookedly. "Fish flakes. But don't overfeed them. They'll just keep eating until there isn't any food left, which can give them tummy trouble."
... Intestinal blockage, Zack.
"Today we're going to play a carnival game that's popular in Japan," he added, holding up little rings with paper stretched across the inside, and a bowl. "Goldfish scooping! You take a bowl, put some water in it, and then use the little paper scoops to try to catch a few goldfish before the wet paper breaks. You have to be gentle, since the paper tears really easily once it's wet. And because we don't actually want to stress out the goldfish," he assumed, anyway. "If you like, you can keep any of the fish you catch. We can set you up with a tank and filter and stuff at Furnado - my treat. But if you'd rather not, they can just come back to the shelter with us after class, too."
Cuccos, Zack.
"This week, we aren't going to be playing with anything terribly cuddly, I'm afraid. We have a pool of goldfish, though. They're the most commonly kept aquarium fish, members of the carp family, and were first bred in China after people started noticing that the silver carp they were raising for food would sometimes have gold-colored offspring. Then all bets were kind of off as they started raising the gold fish for their decorative ponds. At some point, people outside of the imperial family were forbidden to keep the gold variety for themselves, which is probably why there are so many orange goldfish today instead."
He tapped a finger to his chin.
"Right! They're opportunistic feeders who'll eat basically anything, so, crustaceans, insects, plant matter. Or," he held up a little can and grinned crookedly. "Fish flakes. But don't overfeed them. They'll just keep eating until there isn't any food left, which can give them tummy trouble."
... Intestinal blockage, Zack.
"Today we're going to play a carnival game that's popular in Japan," he added, holding up little rings with paper stretched across the inside, and a bowl. "Goldfish scooping! You take a bowl, put some water in it, and then use the little paper scoops to try to catch a few goldfish before the wet paper breaks. You have to be gentle, since the paper tears really easily once it's wet. And because we don't actually want to stress out the goldfish," he assumed, anyway. "If you like, you can keep any of the fish you catch. We can set you up with a tank and filter and stuff at Furnado - my treat. But if you'd rather not, they can just come back to the shelter with us after class, too."