A goldfish that went ''missing'' from a fish tank at a South Dunedin business last year mysteriously reappeared in the tank on Friday.
''We lost him about seven months ago. He just disappeared from the tank,'' Dunedin Catering Supplies sales representative Rahul Tiwari said yesterday.
''When he disappeared, we were really sad. We didn't know where he was. We thought a cat might have got him. We even looked for him outside in the bushes, in case someone had accidentally emptied him out with the tank.''
However, the missing fish was found yesterday morning when staff were transferring the remaining six goldfish to a larger tank.
''We found him stuck underneath a rock in the tank. We were really shocked and really happy. We have no idea how he got under there, but he'd lost a lot of weight,'' Mr Tiwari said.
''We're calling him 'Lucky' now.''
There was nothing suspicious about the tale, University of Otago marine science senior lecturer Associate Prof Stephen Wing said last week.
''I've never heard of anything like it, but nature is astonishing. Goldfish can make do on very little and they're cold-blooded, so their metabolism can go very low, especially if the tank water is cold,'' he said.
''It's obviously been stressed as it's lost weight, which is an indicator that it's stressed. Fish, and goldfish in particular, are omnivorous, and can survive by eating the diatom algae. Goldfish are related to carp, which feeds on anything from rotting organic material to other fish.''
A goldfish can live for more than 10 years in captivity and were prized in the past for their irridescent scales.
