Piranha Zwei

When I took German in high school. There was a section in our text book that represented a typical conversation between two young Germans. It went something like this...(translated, of course)

"Hello friend. What did you do last night?"
"I went to see a movie."
"A movie. What did you see?"
"I saw Piranha Zwei (two)."
"Piranha Zwei! I love that movie!"

My friends and I thought this was hilarious that 1) the text book writers were obviously trying to appeal to Americans by picking an American film (a really bad and really outdated American film), and 2) that they translated the title into German which only involved changing two to zwei. It became something of a joke for those of us in the class.

On Saturday, I babysat my nephew. It only took being with him a few minutes before I discovered that he has recently become obsessed with fish, especially piranha. He told me all about how you have to have a special permit to own a piranha or you could be fined $1000 and sent to prison for a minimum of 16 days (yes, he very seriously explained to me that that was the minimum sentence).

So naturally I decided we needed to visit the aquarium. I discovered many years ago that while babysitting young boys it is best to take them somewhere where they can be thoroughly entertained. Otherwise, they exhaust you.

Sandy is home to the Living Planet Aquarium. I had never been there before, but was very pleased with it. It's a little small for the price ($9 adult, $7 child), but as mentioned above, what price can you put on preventing a child from running you ragged?

We saw many different types of fresh and sea water fish. Some of which my nephew could tell me about before I even read the sign. And yes, we did get to see piranhas. This guy is just under a foot tall and in a tank with 20 or so of his friends. According to the information plate, piranha can only take down large mammals in schools like this. I really wanted to see their razor sharp teeth, but alas no such luck.