By Anwen Francis

CARDIGAN secondary school pupil, 13-year-old Kerys Williams believes she might well have the two oldest surviving fish from Cardigan Fair.

Kerys, the daughter of Lyndon and Donna, of Cardigan, remembers winning one of the fish in 2005 and the other a year later in 2006 – this makes them ten and nine years old respectively.

When Donna and Kerys won the fish, never did they think that the fish would survive this long.

"We’ve won a few fish in Cardigan Fair over the years and they’ve died. We had a Steve once, and he lived for three years, but I’d never thought that the fish called Fish and Chips would still be with us and they could possibly be the oldest fish purchased from the fair?" said Donna.

Donna, remembers winning the fish at the fair and buying all the paraphernalia to go with them.

"We won the large yellow one after taking part on the hook a duck stall and the orange one in the darts competition. They were both very small at the time, around two inches in length and look at them now! They look like the salmon you’d find in Cenarth," she said with a chuckle.

Kerys added: "I don’t really like them and I don’t really take much interest in them now, but I do remember helping my grandmother clean the tank and I do feed them from time to time when I visit."

Fish and Chips are looked after by Kerys’s grandmother Leila Williams in Cenarth as Kerys and five-year-old brother Lefi are in school and don’t have time to look after them.

"I change their water once a week and they have no special treatment. They are fed twice a day on fish flakes and that’s it," explained Leila who added "It must be the clean Cenarth water that has kept them alive for this long!"

The large yellow fish is very fortunate in having Leila as its attentive carer as it was recently found floating at the top of its tank.

"I held it in my hand and splashed water over it for about an hour and it came back to life. How I got him back, I honestly don’t know. I do handle them quite a bit and they come up to the top of the tank to be fed but that’s about it. This is also the third tank I’ve purchased for them as they keep outgrowing them and they do say that a fish will grow bigger the bigger the size of the tank. I also have a large net I use when I remove them to clean the tank as they do weigh quite a bit," explained Leila.

"Even though I do like them, we won’t be trying to win any more and I’ll advertise the tanks in the Tivyside when the two pass away!" concluded Leila.