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Nature & Environment

Man discovers a spider eating his pet goldfish

By T.K. Randall
January 8, 2020 · Comment icon 11 comments

Goldfish and nursery web spiders don't mix... Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Pogrebnoj-Alexandroff
A tour guide in South Africa recently posted up a photograph showing the fate of his prized goldfish Cleo.
What's the worst thing that can happen to the fish in your garden pond ?

While hungry birds or the possibility of disease may seem like the biggest problems fish face - one man in South Africa recently came across something even worse - a predator of an 8-legged variety.

Jeremy Schalkwijk had been hoping to show his pet goldfish to his date when, to his surprise, he discovered that his prized fish was not in the pond but suspended several centimeters above it.

The culprit, it turned out, was a huge spider that had literally plucked the hapless fish from the water.
Known as the nursery web spider, this semi-aquatic arachnid is capable of not only walking on water but also diving beneath it and grabbing fish several times its own size.

In this case, poor Cleo was positively enormous compared to the spider that had caught her.

Sadly though, she is not thought to have survived the ordeal.



Source: Live Science | Comments (11)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #2 Posted by Nnicolette 4 years ago
Wow i thought spiders were scary to people because of all the eyes and legs but now they are flying with electricity and diving for fish while living on an intricately woven trap home that they literally pulled from their ass... You have to admit spiders are pretty impressive! I like to collect rocks so the ones that collect quartz and rig them to thier feet to sense ground vibrations from inside thier hole are pretty interesting! Most people couldnt even figure out the properties and uses of quartz like that, no wonder big spiders are scary!
Comment icon #3 Posted by Not Your Huckleberry 4 years ago
That made me literally LOL at work, thank you  Spiders and snakes are my thing, have been since I was a kid. I always loved the stuff everyone else hated 
Comment icon #4 Posted by Buzz_Light_Year 4 years ago
Comment icon #5 Posted by Vox 4 years ago
Now he gets to keep a pet spider. What�s the problem here?
Comment icon #6 Posted by Robin_Shadowes 4 years ago
So Cleo was a dear pet to him? So why didn't he just killed the b****** instead of snapping a pic?
Comment icon #7 Posted by Bavarian Raven 4 years ago
You beat me to it
Comment icon #8 Posted by Nnicolette 4 years ago
I used to have 3 tarantulas but right now its a beardie and 2 anoles. 
Comment icon #9 Posted by Not Your Huckleberry 4 years ago
I had about 300, probably more. Totally separate room so as to not disturb any girl I may have had over 
Comment icon #10 Posted by butterflygirl1 4 years ago
Spiders are amazing predators, they can often eat things many times their own size. Certain tarantula species have been known to catch and eat juvenile snakes.
Comment icon #11 Posted by ChrLzs 4 years ago
Looks up innocently from his takeaway meal.. "What..?"


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