Super Zoo

"Look, I'll let the puffer fish perform a few shows for you."

When the fisherman saw someone asking, he immediately showed his courtesy, broke off a 40-50 cm long wire, and poked a puffer fish twice on its back.

The poked puffer fish suddenly stopped swimming and made a "gugugugu" sound, which sounded like a person sulking.

Then, its stomach swelled up like a balloon.

It was only then that it was clear that the puffer fish actually had fins, but they were very small. On both sides of its balloon-like body, two disproportionate fins flapped one after another, which looked extremely ridiculous.

In the blink of an eye, the puffer fish's body swelled several times and became round like a ball. Two small eyes protruded from the "ball" and stared at these humans. Its body surface was also covered with a layer of short and sharp thorns, a bit like the inflatable rubber toys that can often be seen in tourist attraction shops.

Pufferfish is also called "angry fish" because it will "hold its belly full of anger" when touched by people. This is actually a way for pufferfish to protect itself. When in danger, pufferfish will quickly inhale and expand its body into a ball, making it difficult for animals that want to eat it to bite it.

After the pufferfish swelled, it probably found that it was not out of danger yet, so it started to play dead again, with a big belly, like a drowned, swollen floating corpse, floating on the water tank.

This guy played cute to the extreme, causing laughter around him. A child stretched out his finger and wanted to poke the pufferfish's belly.

"Be careful!" Su Ming quickly grabbed the child and said seriously: "Be careful not to get your finger bitten off!"

"Uncle is lying!" The child didn't believe it at all. How could such a cute little fish bite people?

Not only the child did not believe it, but also the tourists around him and the child's family. However, everyone knew that pufferfish was poisonous, and the child's parents did not want him to take the risk of touching pufferfish, so they nodded and smiled at Su Ming, and then frightened the child, saying: "Puffers are very powerful, more ferocious than tigers!"

"Humph, you are just lying!" The child's nose was turned up.

Everyone around laughed, but the fish boss did not laugh. He pointed at Su Ming and said: "This boss is an expert. Pufferfish really bites people!"

As he said this, he inserted half of the wire into the water and shook it twice around the mouth of the pufferfish that was pretending to be dead.

What a fat pufferfish that can attack and defend!

When the situation is not good, it will not hesitate to pretend to be dead and cute, and as long as there is a little chance, it will decisively launch a brutal counterattack! The pufferfish, which was still pretending to be dead just now, suddenly opened its mouth, revealing a neat, small and delicate big plate teeth, and bit the No. 6 wire directly with a click!

"Isn't it fun? This guy has really strong teeth!" The fishmonger proudly shook the half of the wire in front of everyone, and the broken end was smooth.

A breath of cold air.

"My God, isn't this a piranha..."

"What would happen if it bites me?"

"Fortunately I didn't buy it..."

The faces of the parents just now turned pale with fear, secretly saying that it was a close call! If it weren't for the young man who stopped it, who knows what would have happened. The child who was almost bitten was stunned for a moment, and then burst into tears.

In fact, the temperament of pufferfish is relatively docile. If you don't mess with me, I won't mess with you. If you mess with me, I will try my best to endure it. I don't need to endure it anymore. Just like its nickname, angry fish, most of the time, when it is bullied, pufferfish is just sulking by itself, and it is not as aggressive as piranhas.

"Don't be afraid." Su Ming winked at the child, "Uncle will let the puffer fish show you another fun show."

As he spoke, he pulled a handful of water grass from under the water tank and threw it into the water tank.

The child's face, the weather in June, changed quickly. Seeing that there was something fun again, the child stopped crying immediately, with traces of tears on his face. He bravely approached the water tank and stretched his head to look. The two parents held the child's hand and were also a little curious.

What show, do fish eat grass?

As soon as the water grass fell into the water and had not completely sunk, there were more than a dozen puffer fish in the water tank, and they swam over from all directions, opened their mouths and bit the water grass one by one, but did not bite it off or eat it, but continued to look for other water grass. Not long after, a handful of water grass was collected by the puffer fish, and each puffer fish had at least one or two, and at most seven or eight water grass in its mouth.

"Uncle, what are they doing?" the child asked curiously.

Nangong Huang was also like a child, staring at the side. Among the group of people, only Su Meng looked at the pufferfish with no curiosity in his eyes, full of appetite.

"They are giving flowers to girls!" Su Ming smiled and pointed at the water.

Fatty can be very romantic. Just now, after the water grass fell into the water, only a small part of the pufferfish in the aquarium went to collect the water grass, and the rest of the majority were indifferent. The pufferfish holding the water grass shook its head and found the indifferent pufferfish, shaking its head and handing over the water grass in its mouth, looking attentive.

Some animals courtship by their own charm, such as peacocks; some, by force, such as tigers and lions; and pufferfish courtship, playing the game of romance, giving flowers... oh, it should be said to be giving water grass. Those who just snatched the water grass were all male pufferfish.

Perhaps because there were too few water plants, most female pufferfish were like proud little princesses, and they turned a blind eye to the male pufferfish that came to pay their respects.

Only one male pufferfish that collected seven or eight pieces of water plants successfully won the beauty's heart. A smaller female pufferfish, with its head facing it, took the water plants from his mouth little by little.

"Look, mom, they are kissing!" The child pointed at the pufferfish and shouted excitedly, "How shameless!"

...

Although pufferfish are delicious and fun, they are poisonous after all. The tourists present are ordinary people, mostly curious. After watching for a while, they gradually dispersed. Only Su Ming and his friends were left in front of the originally bustling store.

After Su Ming saw these pufferfish, he had already made up his mind to take them down and bring them back to the reservoir to raise them.

As we all know, pufferfish are delicious, have high economic value, and look very pleasing. In addition, there are many wonderful things that ordinary people don't know.

The most valuable thing is its toxin. It may be an exaggeration to describe it as a priceless treasure, but at least it is a "treasure of sky-high price". The toxin has many uses. It can be made into a strong analgesic, which often has a miraculous effect on relieving pain for cancer patients. It is more than 100,000 times more effective than cocaine in relieving pain. If it is made into a medicine, it can effectively treat many skin diseases... and there is also a very important function: treating impotence!

For a man with this problem, if he can cure this disease, he will not hesitate to spend any money.

Therefore, the international price of pufferfish toxin is as high as more than 50,000 US dollars per gram, and the high purity can even be as high as 200,000 US dollars per gram, and it is in short supply!

In addition, pufferfish skin can be extracted to make hemostatic powder, fish roe can treat poisonous sores, fish liver can treat burns, and blood can also detoxify... In short, pufferfish is a treasure from head to toe!

There are two difficulties in artificially breeding pufferfish. The first is technology. Due to some special factors, there are very few people in China who master the technology of breeding pufferfish. Su Ming happened to have Liang Shi's group of experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences under his command, so there is no technical problem;

The second is the character of pufferfish. These little guys are very angry. After being caught by humans, if they are not careful, they will be angry to death in a very short time. What is the reason for this? Even the experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences cannot explain it clearly, so the scale of pufferfish breeding is limited... This can be solved through mental communication.

"Boss, are you interested?" The fisherman observed Su Ming's expression and asked.

"How do you sell this wholesale?" Su Ming pointed to the water tank.

Fishermen have their simple and honest side, but also their mercenary side. Especially those fishermen who run tourist areas have very rich experience in dealing with tourists. Seeing that Su Ming really wanted to buy, the fisherman immediately pointed to the water tank proudly: "To be honest, I am the only one in the whole county who specializes in selling puffer fish..."

"Just tell me how much it costs." Su Ming interrupted him with a smile. You don't need to guess what he is going to say next, either how difficult it is to catch puffer fish, or how good the quality of the puffer fish he caught is.

"How much do you want?" asked the fisherman.

Su Ming pointed to the boxes in front of him: "How much do you have? I'll take them all."

The fisherman rubbed his hands happily: "I have several boxes behind me. Together, there are more than 1,100 kilograms. I'll count it as 1,000 kilograms for you! One kilogram... well..."

The fisherman thought for a while, then pretended to be generous and smiled, saying: "How about this, pufferfish is a rare thing, you can't buy it in the market. I'll give you a discount because you bought a lot, and you'll be charged 120 yuan per kilogram!"

According to this calculation, a deal can make 100,000 yuan, which sounds like a lot, but these fishermen are busy all year round, and such a big deal may not be done in one go, and various costs must be deducted.

In fact, the average annual income of fishermen in Huayin County is less than 20,000 yuan, which is not high, and it is difficult to even support their families.

Despite this, Su Ming shook his head and smiled, stood up and left without saying a word.

"Hey, boss, don't leave, didn't you say you would buy fish?" The fisherman got anxious and stood up and called from behind.

Su Ming turned around and laughed, "Uncle, you are not giving me a discount because I buy a lot, but because I am young and want to rip me off."

The fisherman was stunned, rubbed his hands, and said with a smile: "How can you say that? The price can be negotiated. I'll give a price. If you think it's expensive, you can bargain. Why are you in such a hurry to leave?"

After that, he came up and pulled Su Ming, saying politely: "Come on, come and sit at home. Let's talk about the price while drinking tea."

Su Ming smiled, turned around and took Su Meng and Nangong Huang to follow the fisherman into the house. Fishermen's life is not easy, but making money also requires integrity. Su Ming doesn't want to be a sucker, buy fish at a high price, and be laughed at as a fool behind his back.