But anyway, the nursing home I had my placement at (and where I now work, thank you, thank you.) has fish. They have this huge aquarium with a bunch of carps. They call them ‘cuddle carps’ because they’re tame (you know, in contrary to those vicious wild carps. ;) ). No they really are ‘cuddly’ as far as a fish goes, if you sit at the edge, they’ll come to you, if you put your finger in the water they’ll… suck your finger or something (I’ve never done this but I have seen it happen). Actually the entire nursing home kind of has a ‘cuddle carp’ theme. Either way, that’s not the point, once again. These fish, I have to say, I worry about them, I really do. The thing is… they seem kind of stupid, well, not ‘they’ more like a handful of them. I have no idea what the average mental ability of the standard sized carp is, but this select group of fish seem to be on the low end of things.
If my observations are correct (I’m not exactly a pro at knowing one fish from the other) there are two big fish and two little tiny baby fish that have an interesting hobby.
They like to stare into lights. I know, maybe it’s a petty thing to talk about, but come on, they stare into lights. They swim to the lamp and put their nose right up to it and just sit there. I have better things to do when I’m there than to watch fish all day but I’m sure it’s something that lasts quite a while.
Why are they staring at the lights?
My friends and I have all come to different conclusions.
1. They’re cold.
2. They’re stupid and are simply stuck in front of the lamp.
3. They think it’s the sun.
4. They think it’s God.
5. They are ninja fish on a secret mission.
I think options #2, #4 and to a lesser extent #5 are most plausible in this situation. Maybe because I don’t have the most encouraging opinion on the brain capacity of fish but so be it, I think they might just be dumb. And I like #4 because it’s funny. Can you imagine the fish thinking it’s ‘seeing the light’? Hilarious. My theory is that if they really do think that, it doesn’t help for us humans to see it and out loud go ‘What the heck is it doing?’ They’re probably hearing it and it only proves their initial ‘God is hiding in this lamp’ thought. If #5 is right we will never know because true ninjas will never reveal their real identities.
Well, make your own conclusions, I sure did. I promised a less dramatic blog post a gazillion years ago so here it is. The reason it took so long is because I couldn’t find the cord of my camera to provide you all with proof.
So here's your proof.
Cuddly Carps!
Ps. In other news, the nursing home now also has chicks in a plastic box. The poultry kind, not the Dixie Chicks, not females, just baby chickens. I sadly do not have pictures of those. They seem marginally more intelligent than the fish.
