“It’s time to take action”

Someone fillet Brooklyn's viral fire hydrant puddle fishpond.

The vandal or vandals were not deterred by signs stating that the Bedford-Stuyvesant landmark was under surveillance and devastated the site on Monday evening – residents and activists are now looking for answers.

The bizarre puddle pond was struck around 9 p.m. when the vandal(s) took colorful gravel and hand-painted stones and threw them around with other decorations – killing about five of the pond's 100 gill-dwelling residents, locals reported.

“[I found out] “Right when it happened… I just walked past and everything was destroyed,” said Devang Shah, a resident of the block. “It was really battered, there were grenades everywhere, the broom was broken. It was just a mess.”

Shah buried the fish, which died overnight, he told the Post.

Set in a two-inch-deep tree pit on a sidewalk and filled with water from a leaky fire hydrant, the aquarium at the corner of Tompkins Avenue and Hancock Street quickly attracted interested visitors – and drew the ire of online activists and at least one veterinarian, who called the project “animal cruelty.”

Shah, who has lived on Hancock Street for over a decade, is an architect and is working to expand the pond and make it a “landmark.” The pond's builders are even raising $5,000 through GoFundMe to purchase a filtration system and ensure the fish in the pond survive the winter.

Others would be more than happy if the shallow “pond” disappeared forever and the fish were relocated.

“Fish are going to die one way or another in these conditions,” said veterinarian and founder of Wet Pet Vet Ben Rosenbloom. “If nothing else, they have virtually no chance of surviving the winter in water of this depth and volume, not to mention the chemical runoff created by salting the roads.”

Rosenbloom called the vandalism a “tragic but relatively unsurprising result” of the strange project.

“Move them to suitable ponds or large fish tanks,” said the vet. “These are completely unsuitable living conditions for the fish – and the vandalism is just a consequence of that.”

Local residents Emily Campbell and Max David “rescued” about 30 fish from the pond earlier this month with the intention of finding them a new home with more species-appropriate living conditions.

Campbell said Tuesday that no one she knew had “ever committed (or condoned)” the vandalism.

“It was just destructive and disrespectful to the fish and the community,” she said.

“Unfortunately, this type of vandalism was predictable and one of the reasons I tried to save the fish in the first place… maybe these guys will realize that while the hydrant pond is fun, it's not a safe place for the fish.”

Hajj Malik Lovick, co-builder of the pond, was undeterred by the vandalism and said he was on site at daybreak to clean up. Lovick's aunt – affectionately known as “Auntie” by neighbors – said she was at the pond at 6 a.m. to rebuild it, even adding soil from her own garden.

“I was decorating here just yesterday,” she lamented. “I sat out here and cried. I cried, but now it's time to take action.”

Although there are two surveillance cameras in front of the pond, Lovick was told they were not working, according to a management employee on site.

“But I'm not going to point fingers at anyone. I'm just focused on making sure the aquarium is doing well,” he said.

The pond's builders are not giving up and have advertised on social media the distribution of school supplies and backpacks as well as a “goldfish adoption” campaign on September 1st.

Shah told the Post that organizers also plan to install plexiglass and solar panels in the coming months to give the pond a more permanent structure.

“It's like the city is a canvas. The children can see that it's not just about bureaucracy and government,” Shah said.

“It's magic, it's a form of magic in the city.”