A group of men from Brooklyn created a makeshift pond with goldfish in a puddle under a leaky fire hydrant, delighting some residents and worrying others who fear the fish will not survive.
Hajj-Malik Lovick, 47, a longtime resident of Bedford-Stuyvesant, said he and some friends were tired of looking at a frequently leaking fire hydrant. on Hancock St. near Tompkins Ave. – and decided to reinvent the inch-and-a-half-deep puddle beneath her into a community aquarium.
“It was like a doomed Johnny Bomb. Why not make it better than leaving things that look broken? Why not fix this? Lovick said as he sat in a lawn chair guarding the lake.
The community lake has expanded, Lovick said, with people coming from different neighborhoods and even Connecticut to contribute.
“People give us things… They throw shells. They leave fish, food, things like that,” he said. “We just do it better and better every day for the kids. They stop by, they love it, and we feel good about what we’ve done for the community, to make it better.”
“[I want to] make it a better place as much as I can,” Lovick said of his neighborhood.
However, aquarium news and videos circulating on social media have caught the attention of local animal rights advocates and city officials, who are concerned that the fish may not survive under the hydrant.
City Department of Environmental Protection workers have turned off the hydrant several times since Thursday, only to find that someone continues to turn it on after they leave, authorities said.
“There are real safety concerns with damaged or leaking hydrants; it can impact water availability for fire emergencies and can impact water pressure and cause supply issues for the neighborhood,” said Beth DeFalco, DEP Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs and Communications. “We love goldfish too, but we know there’s a better home for them than on the sidewalk.”
DEP workers asked the men to rehome the fish, to no avail.
A 29-year-old neighbor who keeps fish as a hobby believes the small patch of trees is overpopulated with fish, putting them at risk of contracting potentially fatal diseases.
“This is not a sustainable project and eventually this pool of fish, ‘fish pond,’ will be cordoned off by the city, dry up, or these fish will start to die en masse,” said the local woman who only gave her name as Emily.
Lovick said the fish are well cared for.
“They have been alive for two weeks… They are fed every day, three times a day. We take care of them, clean the lake and make sure there are no cigarette butts and trash,” he said. “The fish live longer than any goldfish has lived to date. So there is nothing wrong with that.”
Experts say the environment poses many risks to fish.
“There is a possibility that they will survive, although it is certainly not an ideal habitat,” veterinarian Julius Tepper, who runs the Long Island Fish Hospital, told NBC4 New York. “You have problems with pollution that could be a problem. You have problems with predatory birds.”
Emily said she expressed her concerns to one of the fish’s owners on Monday when she first ventured to the fire hydrant. The man dismissed her and refused her offer of tanks to rehouse the fish.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Emily returned with a friend, equipped with plastic bags and a fishing net. The pair caught around 35 fish from the tree bed, in what animal advocates dubbed a “Late night rescue robbery.”
Emily said several other smaller rescues were coordinated with other concerned residents on social media, leaving her with 70 goldfish.
Approximately 30 fish have been transferred to local residents, while Emily continues to care for the remaining 40.
“Why would you want to steal $8 fish? I told her, ‘I’m going to buy her some fish,’” Lovick said of Emily. “This is just something for us. And give back to the kids and the neighborhood.”
Now, the men watch the lake 24 hours a day and have even installed security cameras to “make sure no one puts their hands in there,” Lovick said.
On Saturday, passersby chimed in, largely in support of the makeshift community lake.
“This hydrant has been leaking for a long time,” said Shay, a 37-year-old resident of the block. “Now we have an aquarium in Bed-Stuy. I think it’s a positive attraction because [the hydrant] It was never fixed. So if they’re going to use it that way now, why not? We have bigger fish to fry in Bed-Stuy.
A woman brought her 1-year-old son to see the colorful fish on Saturday.
“This is his first time and he loves it. He loves fish,” said local mom Taylor Evans. “It’s better to bring out the nature of the community.”
Lovick said they plan to distribute the fish to neighborhood children when temperatures drop in September.
Meanwhile, Emily said she hopes the community can find a sustainable solution to house the much-loved fish, suggesting a pond in a nearby community garden.
“I just want to see these guys have something good,” she said, “without having to walk through a pool of 100 fish gasping in their own waste and dying.”
