50 Fishy Superstitions

Here is a nice collection of folklore and superstitions about fish:

• A certain bone in the head of a fish will bring good luck, if kept on your person.
• An empty fish tank means bad luck financially.
• When a pet fish dies, something bad was deflected from the owner or household.
• To ensure good luck and safety, a fish should always be eaten from the head toward the tail.
• It’s a bad sign to get married when the fish aren’t biting.
• Throw back the first fish you catch then you’ll be lucky the whole day fishing.
• If you count the number of fish you caught, you will catch no more that day.
• Sometimes fish fall during a rain.
• It’s bad luck to say the word “pig” while fishing at sea.
• To dream of fish means someone is going to have a baby.
• In Japan, all fish are considered lucky, as the word for fish, “yu” is pronounced the same as the word for bounty or surplus.
• A crawfish pinching one of your toes will not let loose until it thunders.
• There is a precious stone in the head of a crawfish.
• Carry on your person the precious stone from the head of a crawfish and you will have good luck.
• Carrying a carp fish charm brings good luck, especially to lovers.
• Carrying the dried eye of a cod will bring good luck.
• Koi fish bring fame and riches.
• If you have goldfish in the house, you will be ailing all the time until you get them out.
• If you blow your breath into a goldfish jar, the fish will die.
• Having a painting of a gold fish is just as lucky as having an actual fish.
• It causes bad luck to keep goldfish in the house.
• Never let anyone give you a goldfish or you will have bad luck.
• Eat snappers and groupers, you will live a long time.
• If you say the entire word “plecostomus” outloud, your Pleco will die.
• It’s bad luck to step on a catfish.
• A giant wriggling catfish makes earthquakes.
• Do not count the crabs until all are collected or it is bad luck on the uncollected pots.
• Keep a piece of oyster shell in your pocketbook for luck and money.
• Minnows come by spontaneous generation.
• If the Arowana jumps out of the tank and dies, it means it saved you or your family from a bad omen.
• The bone in the head of a white perch is especially lucky, if carried by a fisherman.
• When Sharks are following a ship, especially three sharks, it’s a death omen.
• Wearing an eelskin garter cures cramps.
• Rubbing a wart with eels’ blood makes it go away.
• A live eel in a drink cures a person from drunkenness.
• Witches and sorcerers wearing eelskin jackets protects them from bullets.
• A cooked eel will become raw if left uneaten.
• A whole eel can be used to cure deafness.
• Eel fat will render fairies visible to humans
• Eating an eel heart gives you the power of prophecy
• Eating a whole eel will strike you dumb.
• It’s bad luck to burn a haddock.
• Shedding blood near where herring frequent causes the herring to desert the area.
• Laying a salted herring at your feet will relieve a sore throat.
• Suspending a herring from the ceiling on Good Friday will keep your house free from flies during the summer.
• Eating tench makes you strong and wise and can cure illness.
• Other freshwater fish rub themselves against tench when they are sick.
• Putting a trout’s head into a patient’s mouth cures whooping cough.
• Drinking beer in which a trout has been drowned cures whooping cough.
• Drinking milk in which a live trout has been made to swim cures whooping cough.

Note: This post was put together by Shirley Twofeathers, and a lot of work went into it, you may repost and share it only if you give me credit and a link back to this website. Blessed be.