Bruce Poniewaz, age 9, of Milwaukee, Wis

Will you tell me about the piranha?

You must excuse your Andy for not interviewing this fellow in person. Not long ago, Andy told of the eel that can stun a man with an electric shock. Both the electric eel and the piranha live in the Orinoco river and slow moving streams of South America. Of the two, the piranha is the most dangerous. He is the fiercest fish alive, He is said to have devoured more people than all the sharks and baracudas. Yet he is only 10 inches long.

The piranha is a sort of bulldog fish  ,only far more serious about biting than a bulldog. He has powerful bulldog jaws and two rows of razor sharp teeth. A bulldog grabs and holds on. A piranha grabs and bites clean through. He can chomp off a bite of anything except ironwood and the hardest metal. An ordinary fish hook bothers him not at all. He simply bites it in two and swallows his half of the hook along with the bait.

The bite he takes is about the size of an olive. It is removed and swallowed whole in a quick gulp. A swimmer can lose a finger joint in a second. The piranha does not hesitate to attack anything alive. No creature is too big. He goes for crocodiles, water birds, bathers and any animal that happens to be in the water.

The little thug is a tough looking fellow of silver blue with a touch of red on one fin. The lower jaw sticks out and clamps the two rows of teeth tightly together, giving him the nasty expression he deserves, He hunts in packs. A gang of the little horrors can strip a 400 pound pig to the bone in under ten minutes.

Big game, such as a pig in the water, really brings out the worst in the gang. The scent and taste of blood in the water sends them hog wild, They dart about snapping at anything, even at each other. After the fray, the water  is strewn with the bodies of the little gangsters who have fallen victim to their greedy and excited brothers.

In true gangster fashion, the survivors soon mop up the remains. For this reason, the South Americans call the little monsters caribes,

Caribe in Spanish means cannibal,

The cannibal fish does not limit his diet to fish, He will eat berries when they drop in the water. He will even eat bread. Smart fishermen have caught him on hooks baited with wads of dough, Of course, the hooks were made of extra tough steel,

Altogether, there are four piranha cousins, One may reach a length of 20 inches. All are alike in habits. Accurate details about the family life are not available. The eggs may be laid stuck together in masses. Some say that both eggs and youngsters are furiously guarded among the water weeds by their gangster parents. Can you blame anyone for not going there to check for certain on these details?