Bed-Stuy Aquarium wrecked by FDNY, organizers already rebuilding
The bizarre but beloved Bedford-Stuyvesant street aquarium born in the summer was wrecked during an FDNY hydrant inspection on Tuesday — but locals are already picking up the pieces.
Nickel-sized goldfish flopped on the Brooklyn pavement after firefighters turned off the hydrant — which has been the source of the water for the makeshift pond since it popped up in August.
In a video shot by Hajj-Malik Lovick, who helped construct the fish puddle, a bystander can be heard asking the smoke eaters, “will they survive,” referring to the fish that remained in the murky water.
Another firefighter went on to explain that the inspection of the fire hydrant was a routine semi-annual check-up to see if the water still worked.
They also told the outraged locals that a leak in the colder months could spell doom – resulting in frozen pipes that would render the hydrant useless when it would be needed in an emergency.
“[The fish] not going to survive, look what he did,” Lovick narrated as he zoomed in on the water, “All that dirty water. They knew what they did. No respect.”
The fish, in fact, did die.
Aquarium enthusiasts woke up Wednesday morning to see “over 100” dead goldfish who did not survive the abrupt deterioration of their ad hoc biome.
But the sun would not set on the urban aquarium.
Organizers are already revamping the construction of the prized puddle to avoid any future cataclysms.
Local contractor David Jones lives around the block from the landmark with his brother. The two were at work Wednesday night – using caulk to seal a professional grade pond liner to the bottom of the makeshift tank.
“We’re trying to waterproof it so we don’t have to worry about it constantly running,” Jones told the Post. “The fire department was complaining about the water running. So now we’re gonna waterproof it.”
Architect Devang Arvind Shah, 44, also lives nearby and came out to help.
“By tomorrow it should be up and running,” he told the post.
Another local, Sophia Buffa, said her father is coming to visit from Atlanta and was excited about taking in the very-Brooklyn sight.
“He was so excited to see it,” Buffa told the Post, “He calls me all the time, [saying] ‘what’s going on with the aquarium?’ Oh my God. He’s gonna be devastated. He was literally answering questions about it on Instagram. He wrote a Google review.
“He doesn’t even live here. But the magic of the aquarium reached him.”
Floyd Washington, one of the co-founders of the project, told the Post, “We’re not trying to mess with nobody and no government officials – we’re just making sure we’re going to give back to the community that we came from.”
Washington added, “This is not about the fish. This is about a community in a chaotic city.”
The actions taken Tuesday were in accordance with standard operating procedures, according to the FDNY.
A department spokesperson told The Post in a statement the FDNY “did not take any action against the fish” nor did they “drain the pond.”
Instead, the firefighters performed routine maintenance on the hydrant which is scheduled to happen twice a year, the spokesperson said.
FDNY officials found the hydrant to be in working order and turned off the water.
As for the colder months, organizers are currently trying to cook up a plan that will keep the fish safe, sound, and swimming.
“We’re gonna put heaters in it. Solar panel generated heaters,” Lovick told the Post, adding that they will also be adding a cover to prevent the snow and freezing rain from corrupting the pond’s temperature.
