Get the biggest stories sent straight to your inbox Sign up for regular updates and breaking news from WalesOnline Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A goldfish was given an emergency 'haircut' by vets after his head became so heavy it caused him to swim upside down.

Two-year-old Bubble from Cardiff was taken to the vets by his concerned owners after his brain-like growth, a thick excess of skin known as a 'wen' or 'hood', started getting out of control.

The benign mass, a characteristic of the Oranda species of goldfish , is meant to help attract a mate and is the result of selective breeding back in its homeland of China.

Continuing to grow until the fish is about two years old, the hood can sometimes require trimming should its size starts encroaching on the fish's eyes, which can even cause it to go blind in some cases.

(Image: Origin Vets)

"It's effectively a form of genetic mutation, and sometimes it just gets too big," says Sophie Jenkins, 35, of exotic pet specialists Origin Vets.

"In Bubble's case it got to such an extent that it was causing him to swim sideways and also capsize altogether.

"He was still managing to eat and be very active, but if you don't deal with these things in time they only get worse.

"There have been instances where the hood will grow completely over the fish's eyes until it can't see the food in order to eat."

So by adding an anaesthetic powder into a bucket of water, Bubble was put under and his hood seen to with a pair of sharp scissors - all the while his tiny heart was being monitored by specialist equipment.

(Image: Origin Vets)

"We were careful to keep him wet and applied a pain-killing agent to his gills - although he wouldn't have felt anything as the hood itself is like a callus, it doesn't have any nerve endings.

"Knocking him out just helped eliminate the chances of him getting stressed."

The procedure lasted about eight minutes and, once newly shorn, Bubble had lost about five percent of his body weight, dropping from 145g to 127g.

"By that evening he was back home swimming around as normal," adds Sophie, who, at the other end of the scale, also tends to a lot of zoo animals such as rhinos and giraffe.

"He's a much better little mover now."

For more details, go to www.originvets.org