Ciclid Mermaid

Another new painting, up on Ebay at [link]

I love fish. When I was young, in Okinawa, my siblings and I would catch fish (in the sea, while snorkeling) and try to keep them alive in aquariums. Mixed success with that, mostly because we changed the water ourselves instead of having proper filters and water cycling equipment.

Now that I'm older and land-locked, I get my fish at pet stores. I can't afford a salt water tank, so I've had fresh water aquariums. In my opinion, ciclids are the only class of freshwater fish that can come close to the beauty of salt water fish, so... in my aquarium now, I have several Jack Dempsy and Convict ciclids.

A ciclid is a wicked fish. They eat each other, and anything else small enough to fit in their mouths. One of our fish even bit my son's finger, when he was naughty and put it in the tank!

I planned to make a mermaid who was as vain and as dangerous as a ciclid, as well as having their coloring. I doubt that I pulled off the expression properly, but I rather like the picture anyway.