South African Man Horrified To Discover A Giant Nursery Web Spider Devouring His Pet Goldfish

South African resident Jérémy Schalkwijk and his new girlfriend, Athina Yalias, received quite the shock when they walked near his pond and discovered a giant nursery web spider sinking its teeth into Jérémy’s pet goldfish, Cleo, reports The Daily Mail.

Jérémy, who happens to be a tour guide, managed to whip out his camera just in time to watch the bizarre incident take place. It was too late to save Cleo, but he took several pictures of the spider in the midst of its attack. Not only did it yank Cleo out of the pond, but it also dragged the helpless fish upwards along a concrete wall. The fish was almost two times the size of the spider. Both Jérémy and Athina were shocked by what they witnessed.

The incident occurred in Barberton, South Africa. Athina and the 33-year-old tour guide were on their second date.

“When we came back out both animals were nowhere to be found. We have a pond with goldfish and I just wanted to show her the fish, then I saw this. I could see the spider catching the fish and it had taken it out of the water.”

What surprised Jérémy the most was the spider’s flexibility since it carted the sizable fish up a wall with no branches or anything else to balance its weight. According to him, his girlfriend wasn’t scared so much as she was impressed. He told reporters that she “isn’t a real bush woman” and therefore not used to seeing strange animal encounters like the one mentioned above.

People on social media were fascinated by the odd news story. Some folks thought the goldfish’s owner acted rather cruelly since he abandoned his pet to the predator so he could grab a camera. However, others pointed out that there was likely little he could have done to prevent the inevitable once the spider got its fangs into poor Cleo. It likely injected the fish immediately and from that point, it would have died regardless of what Jérémy did.

Other users joked that the spider was simply saving a goldfish from drowning.

“And this is why every spider needs to die! God I hate them things,” wrote one person.

“[T]he way it was written i thought the dude was eating the pet goldfish for dinner and the spider took it off the plate,” said a second confused user.

“Apparently, spiders like sushi too,” teased a third person.