Staff at the Maxwell Centre were left baffled after a new resident appeared in their garden pond.
A large goldfish was found swimming in the water when a member of staff carried out a risk assessment on Monday morning.
That’s despite there being no record of any fish of that type in the pond before the weekend.
A yellow bucket was also left lying next to the pond, which centre manager Alison Goodfellow believes could have been used to transport it.
She said: “It’s one massive gold fish – it’s huge.
“We don’t know how it got there. It’s very fishy.
“But we can’t keep it in our pond because it doesn’t have moving water. It must have been left over the weekend. This is definitely a first.”
Alison reckons whoever left the fish would have had to climb into the garden over its locked 8ft fence. She added: “To climb over the fence with the bucket must have been some feat.”
Staff at the centre are now keen to work out where it possibly came from.
One of the workers took a look at the fish and found it to be in a healthy condition, with Alison adding it had clearly been “well looked after”.
And it wasn’t just staff left perplexed by the find, with pupils from Our Lady’s Primary School having a look at the 30cm creature when they visited the centre yesterday.
It has proved to be a happy ending for the fish, though, with a member of the public getting in touch via Facebook offering to rehome it.
Police Scotland have also appealed for information and in a jovial Facebook post, said: “If you think you know where he has come from, don’t be koi, just let Hilltown Police Office or the Maxwell Centre know.”
The community centre in Coldside aims to improve the quality of life for the local community.
