Critically Endangered
Around the World in 80 Days - Day 33
These would not be in the open water Phileas Fogg was on for they live in fresh or brackish water. They are from Thailand (though have been sadly extirpated from there), Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos which we would be sailing past. These are a fairly large fish, about 12-18 inches. They are carnivorous though not considered aggressive and described as shy. Their favourite food seems to be any fish they can fit in their mouth. The absolute biggest threat to them is being overfished for aquarium trade. Their numbers having dropped about 90% in just 2 decades. Unfortunately, unlike some of the other animals I've painted that are desired pets, having one of these will not help the species survive. They are by some of what I read, unable to be bred by a home aquarium owner. That means that not only does having one doom it to die in captivity, but also ends any hope that the specimen might have helped revive the species in any way.
I am excited. Now that I'm done with the painting, I'm going to head out and see my best friend from Hawaii. She is half Korean, I am pasty white, we aren't related even distantly, but we call each other our twins. I miss her desperately and haven't seen her in years. She is back in Oregon only for much too short of a time. I'm just going to help her organize things in a storage facility, cold rainy work, but it will be thoroughly enjoyable just to be able to talk with her in person again. I never have very many close friends, I have 3 right now. They are all very much my family though. Hawaii is my twin, Ladybug is a sister, and then I have another bff. When we were young, teen years, she was Sugar and I was spice. It was mostly because she had blonde hair and I had reddish, but she's also much more of an organized thoughtful person while I've always been a scatterbrain. I remember the two of us using our pagers (yes, I'm that old) and coming up with what we thought were great codes for different things. She and I worked in the same restaurant for a while, went to school together for a while, and she was one of my brides' maids too. I really have been blessed in the friends I have.
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