Ref. 30089-07A WOMAN saved a giant goldfish from certain death - by giving it the kiss of life.

When Maria Venghaus's children presented her with the dying fish, she lifted it to her face and blew into its mouth.

The 10-inch goldfish puffed up and its gills stood to attention. She believes her fishy kiss saved the creature's life.

Maria's two boys, 12-year-old Dean and four-year-old Dylan, discovered the fish lying on its side in a muddy stream near their Haydon Wick home while playing with friends.

More accustomed to garden ponds than dirty rivers, it was clearly a fish out of its usual water and had almost certainly been dumped there by its former owners. It also had white spot disease.

The boys used a net to lift the fish from the mud and took it to their mum, a keen fish keeper who already owns guppies, minnows and a goldfish.

"It was upside down in the mud and breathing really badly," said 30-year-old Maria, who works at travel agency Lunn Poly.

"I gave it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by blowing into it.

"Its gills stuck out, which frightened me to death, but as soon as I got the first breath in, it was fine."

After wiping mud from the fish she put it on its side in a tank of water and soon enough it was swimming around.

Maria, who learnt the fish-kissing trick from her granddad when she was a little girl, said she had used it on at least 10 other occasions with her goldfish as they got older and weaker and sometimes needed reviving.

After putting her new arrival which she has named Boris in one of her smaller tanks, Maria upgraded her new aquatic friend to a £180 four-foot tank as soon as she could get one delivered.

White spot disease is a common aquatic illness which shows as small lesions on fish skin and can cause, weakness, loss of activity and loss of appetite, but Maria is confident Boris can be nurtured back to health.

She is convinced that someone dumped the fish in the stream, a few hundred metres from her house in Cloudberry Road.

"It wasn't supposed to be there," said Maria.

"Either someone's dumped them or they've moved house and tipped the whole lot in there. I can't believe they did that to such a gorgeous fish."

Dave Jones, deputy manager of Pets At Home in St Margaret's Retail Park, said it was not uncommon for people to abandon fish.

"It does happen sometimes but it's cruel and the best thing people can do is speak to us or other aquatic centres.

"If they're desperate we'll take their tanks and fish off them and re-house them.

"We don't want them to suffer and putting them into ponds and rivers usually kills them."

Matt Carter, fisheries and biodiversity team leader at the Environment Agency, said: "It is illegal to release non-native fish species into rivers and canals. Many will either eat and/or compete with local fish, as well as introduce new diseases."

Andy Tate