Koi fish apparently can grow to sizes much bigger than most of us thought. A little 5-year-old girl in China owns a pet koi that weighs a whopping 25kg.
A beautiful orange coat of scales covers the fish, aptly named Hurricane (飓风).
Despite the creature’s massive size, the young girl showed no fear as she fed the fish by hand and petted it affectionately.
The koi seemingly returned her affection, even though it appeared stressed when approached by adults.
Source: 时间视频 on Weibo
A man named Mr Yuan bred this absolute unit of a fish in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province. Mr Yuan, a koi breeder, sold several of them to a friend of his, one of which was Hurricane.
The fish lives in a fish pond, where the friend’s five-year-old daughter would feed and play with it, as seen in several Weibo posts.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hurricane stands out from the watery crowd, dwarfing the rest of the koi in the pond. The massive, light-orange koi has evidently become the girl’s favourite of the lot.
Leaning over the pond, the girl eagerly strokes her fat fishy friend like one would a dog. Hurricane on its part, reciprocates, staying close to her and allowing her to pet it with no resistance.
Source: 时间视频 on Weibo
Mr Yuan said that Hurricane is abnormally large. To viewers, the fish may seem even larger than its young owner.
Indeed, the koi breeder estimates the young girl to weigh around 20kg, while the seven-year-old fish weighs a hefty 25kg.
According to the breeder, the girl kneads fish pellets into ‘mini-mooncakes’.
Source: 时间视频 on Weibo
She then calmly hand-feeds the snacks to her giant pet, placing her hand directly to Hurricane’s gaping mouth each time.
Source: 人民视频 on Weibo
Despite its size, the breeder claims that Hurricane gets stressed out near adult humans, according to a Weibo video.
However, it relaxes around the 5-year-old girl, swimming close and waiting to receive head pats.
The girl also appears to only have eyes for the chonker of a fish, which she caresses lovingly as other koi swim past.
Clearly, the two share a very special bond.
Mr Yuan estimates a fish of Hurricane’s size to be worth nearly 500,000 yuan (S$94,211).
Unless you’re willing to break your metaphorical piggy bank and have a large enough pond, perhaps sticking to pets like cats and dogs would be more feasible.
Other strange pets in China include a fluffy alpaca sighted on a livestream in Shanghai last month.
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Featured image adapted from 时间视频 on Weibo.
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