Hello everyone!

Some of you may have already been following along my journey into fish rescue and rehabilitation on other platforms. About a year ago I took home my little Squash - a baby fantail goldfish who was surrendered to me for free by Petsmart due to his buoyancy issues. I was able to successfully treat him and get him swimming like a pro again. He was the catalyst for what was to follow for the next year(ish); I began scoping out pet stores (like PetSmart and PetCo) for fish that were sick and/or disabled. I would ask the managers at those stores to surrender these fish to me for free and, although I was not always given a "yes," many of them agreed and I would bring the fish home, treat them for whatever problem(s) they had, and adopt them out if they recovered (or keep them if they were a particularly adorable little goldfish).

I'm looking to scale these efforts up in order to more effectively care for a niche of creatures that is often overlooked and exempt from people's empathy and compassion. This is where the crowdfunding comes in - I want to rent a space to operate out of that is dedicated to caring for my rescue fish. As you can imagine, the cost of things like rent and utilities plus the equipment needed to help maintain several tanks gets pricey - and this is in addition to the ongoing costs associated with caring for sick fish (medications, water treatments, heaters and filters, etc.) Ideally, I'm looking to raise money to cover at least the first few months of rent as well as the up-front cost of getting the aforementioned system set up.

Thank you all very much for taking the time to check this out, and thank you sincerely to everyone who has followed along on my fishy journey thus far and offered their support and words of kindness.

Below are some pictures and videos of some (not all!) of the fish I've rescued.

Squash before and after (he had buoyancy issues but is now a big chunky boy who gets around swimmingly):

Calisto before and after (he was missing a chunk of his tail and it has started - though not finished - growing back. He's getting adopted in a couple days!):

Kiku: (He didn't end up making it, but he was a wonderful boy who got to experience the joy of taking naps on leaves):

Pluto: (His vision is impaired and he is going blind, but he's still such a cutie and loves napping on leaves. He was adopted!)

Bugs before and after: (He came to me very stressed and sick and was consequently lacking color and had a nasty case of fin rot. Yes, that's the same fish! Yes, he was adopted!):

Benji before and after (he had been doing badly in the cup at the store for a while - his color was faded and his fins were rotted away. He's not 100% recovered but he's on an amazing upwards trajectory...and is available for adoption!):

Bagel before and after (absolutely horrible case of fin rot and ammonia burns. I thought he was going to die but he's since recovered and is living happily in my fancy goldfish tank...and has started turning orange!!):

Neptune before and after (he's my most recent rescue. He could barely swim and was having trouble staying upright and swimming more than a few inches upwards. He has since fully recovered and is available for adoption!):