Restaurant's 6ft fish tank – free to a good home

IT HAS been an eye-catching feature of a prestigious East Yorkshire restaurant and bar for ten years.

The grand ornamental fish tank at The Millhouse in Skidby is almost as popular as the tasty fish dishes on the restaurant's menu.

Now the restaurant is reluctantly parting with the aquarium, which is holding up a £250,000 refurbishment of the bar.

But nobody appears to want the tank and its shoal of beautiful fish, some of them named after staff at the well-known eatery.

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There is now a race against time to find somebody to take the aquarium, after the chef threatened to put the fish in his celebrated fish pie.

Now, restaurant owner Marco Ciuffetelli is offering it free to a good home after spending thousands of pounds on it over the years.

Nyree Crosher, his personal assistant, said: "The fish have been a fantastic feature of the bar for 10 years, and many of our customers can't understand why we are getting rid of them.

"But we are knocking two rooms into one to create our £250,000 Champagne Cocktail and Piano Bar and the tank is in the way of the improvements.

"It is very sad that the fish have to go because they have had a luxury home with no expense spared on them, but the building can't start work until the tank has been removed.

"We are looking forward to our new bar and a change of decor.

"Times change and you have to move on so, very reluctantly, the aquarium has to go."

The beautiful 6ft tank is home to more than 40 brightly coloured cichlid tropical fish, which range in length to more than 6in.

The Millhouse has offered them to places such as The Deep and aquatic centres, but so far there have been no takers.

Nyree said: "Marco wanted to sell it because the tank and fish cost £3,000, and a lot more money has been spent on maintenance and healthcare over the years.

"But despite our best efforts, nobody seems to want such a big tank, and we are now offering it free to a good, loving home.

"The chef has already jokingly said that if we don't get rid of the tank soon the fish could end up on the menu, and we don't want that to happen.

"It may sound too good to be true, but there is definitely nothing fishy about this unusual giveaway."

Anyone interested in acquiring the tank and the fish should call Nyree at the Millhouse on 01482 845610.