Offers of replacement fish flood in
A Taranaki man who lost all his goldfish overnight has been overwhelmed with offers of replacement fish.
‘‘The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since I got out of bed,’’ Newt Warren said.
Warren, who lives in Waitara, used his hose to top up his goldfish pond on Sunday night, but found all of his fish dead when he went out to feed them the next morning.
He suspects extra chlorine in the water, in the aftermath of New Plymouth’s water shortage crisis, killed his approximately 15 fish.
‘‘It was milky,’’ he said.
He said another Waitara resident had offered him fish but then that resident had found his own fish dead.
By 11.30am yesterday morning, Warren had multiple people ready to give him some new fish including pet store Animates, who asked him to bring in some of his pond water for testing.
‘‘I might even run it in this afternoon.’’
He was amazed at all the offers he had received. ‘‘I can’t believe the help they’re going to give me. People are so kind.’’
However, he’s not in a rush to repopulate his pond.
‘‘I’m going to leave it for a few days. I’m going to clean that pond.’’
Warren was devastated to lose his fish, as they had belonged to his mother who died nearly seven years ago.
‘‘I sat out here in the morning, talked to them and fed them,’’ he said. ‘‘They might only be fish but they were my mates. You go and feed them every day; you get a big kick out of it.’’
Animates regional marketing manager Sarah Sleeman said some of their team read the article about Newt Warren losing his fish and immediately wanted to help.
‘‘Fish are an animal you get to watch grow and take care of; even though you can’t touch them you still create an amazing bond with each individual fish,’’ she said.
‘‘We have offered to test Newt’s water and helping him resolve any water issues he may have.’’
She said they offer free water testing in all their stores.
‘‘It is important to test the water for ammonia and nitrate as these all have a negative impact on fish health. It is also important to test the pH levels of the water.’’
For much of last week Waitara was without water after a wind blown tree smashed a water supply pipe.
A boil water notice remains in place in New Plymouth and several eastern towns as New Plymouth District Council test the water quality for chlorine levels and the presence of E.coli.