A content creator has left people baffled after he managed to hatch a fish from a jar of caviar that he bought – and it was no easy feat.
Max Fosh is a YouTuber known for his pranks and stunts, such as tricking airline passengers into thinking that they were landing at the wrong airport, or pulling out an uno reverse card on the referee in a charity football game.
But in a change of tone, the social media influencer decided to hatch a fish from an egg on his own. Why? Well, it’s a ‘gill for a gill’ apparently after he had previously ‘taken the life’ of a fish by taking one from the River Thames to make fish and chips.
The YouTuber took matters into his own hands when trying to hatch a fish. (YouTube/Max Fosh)
He noted that other creators had began a trend of ‘hatching things from supermarkets’, as videos of quail eggs hatching played in the background.
Anyway, Fosh nipped into his local Waitrose to buy some caviar for the experiment, even trying his luck by asking the fishmonger if they had any fish sperm (spoiler: they didn’t).
He needed the sperm to fertilise the caviar, AKA fish eggs, so that he could potentially get a hatch by doing a ‘mixy mixy’, which sounds scientific enough.
The Brit began the hunt for fish sperm, also known as milt, elsewhere, discovering that it was actually a delicacy in some places as he claimed he had become an ‘expert in all things j**z’. Lovely.
Calls to three fishmongers proved unsuccessful, but Fosh found a fish farmer called Simon, who helped the YouTuber extract sperm from a male fish by getting him to squeeze it out, getting down and dirty for the cause.
After a lot of hard work, including milking a male fish, he got his fry. (YouTube/Max Fosh)
However, it turns out that the sperm and caviar were from two different species, and Fosh splashed more cash on pricier caviar, which matched the male fish, who was a carp.
Then for the fertilisation.
For attempt one, he mixed some caviar with the sperm in water, leaving it in a container by the window as Simon had told him to.
Unfortunately, it proved unsuccessful and he tried again, this time leaving it out of direct sunlight, and just 32 hours later, after a night out, he saw exactly what he wanted – fertilised fish eggs with black dots on, which were their eyes.
He finally had some fry, and began to feed them small bits of plankton so that they could grow.
One grew bigger and quicker than the others and was fittingly named ‘Max Fish’, because what else would it be called?
It lived in containers for months until it grew too big for the big plastic boxes, with Fosh transferring his aquatic friend into a home fish tank.
His hard work paid off in the end. (YouTube/Max Fosh)
But of course, he hadn’t forgotten his mission, and sadly the day came for the YouTuber to release Max Fish back into the wild.
After hatching him from an egg, feeding and rearing him so that he could grow into a larger fish, the influencer seemed emotional.
Not quite the wild, but Fosh put him in ‘a friend’s pond’, giving the fish a cuddle and kiss before (over)dramatically tossing him into the water.
The results of the experiment were surprising though, as users were shocked at how successful and heartfelt the video ended up being.
One user commented: “This was way more emotional than I expected”
Another shared: “Max fish truly grew so fast, it felt like a minute that he went from a tiny little egg to living in a pond”
A third said: “The emotional attachment I had to that fish in the two minutes I knew him wasn’t healthy, I can’t even begin to think how it felt for Foshy who raised him from birth. I hope they’re doing well in their new found freedom.”
