NEW YORK (AP) — A few longtime Brooklyn residents were lounging in the heat last week, staring at a tree trunk on the sidewalk that was often flooded by a leaky fire hydrant, when they came up with the idea of ​​a makeshift aquarium.

“We started joking: What if we added fish,” recalls Hajj-Malik Lovick, 47, who has lived in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood his entire life. “Since the water is always in the puddle, why not make it something more interesting?”

After securing the edges of the tree bed with rocks and bricks, they bought 100 common goldfish from a pet store for $16 and put them in. The sight of the peanut-sized fish swimming around in the shallow tank quickly became a neighborhood curiosity, attracting visitors who called it “the Hancock Street Bed-Stuy Aquarium.”

But as Videos And News Rumors about the fish pit have been circulating online, and the project has raised concerns among city officials and sparked backlash from animal rights activists. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, two local residents, Emily Campbell and Max David, led a rescue operation, using nets and plastic bags to pull about 30 fish from the two-inch-deep water.

They say they rescued the fish from inhumane conditions. But the action has sparked a heated debate about the gentrification of the historically black neighborhood, which has seen an increasing number of young white residents move into in recent years.

“I’m very aware of the impact of a white yuppie coming in here and telling this man who’s lived in the neighborhood his whole life that he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” said Campbell, a self-described fish lover who previously worked in aquaponics. “I understand that. I just don’t want to watch 40 fish choking on their own waste in a puddle.”

Campbell, 29, said she is working to find new homes for the rescued fish and keeps many of them in tanks in her apartment. Several people had contacted her worried about the remaining fish in the pit. “I’m still concerned about the welfare of the fish, but I’m even more concerned about the division in the community,” she said Friday.

Those involved in the sidewalk experiment say they have enriched the neighborhood and provided a better life for goldfish, a small species usually sold as food for larger marine animals. They feed the fish three times a day and take turns caring for them to keep the water flowing slowly from the fire hydrant.

“I feel like we’re helping the goldfish,” Lovick said. “These people came here and just want to make a change.”

According to Floyd Washington, one of the pond supervisors, supporters have been coming by in recent days to donate decorations such as beads and shells, as well as food.

“It brings conversations to the community,” he said. “People stop on their way to work, see something quiet and get to know their neighbors. Now we have these fish in common.”

He said the group plans to keep the fish there for about two more weeks and then donate them to neighborhood children. Among the visitors Friday afternoon were grocery store workers, an actor and a wide-eyed toddler whose nanny had heard about the aquarium on the news.

“It’s a really beautiful guerrilla intervention,” said Josh Draper, an architect who keeps his own goldfish in his Bed-Stuy apartment. “It creates a living city.”

Another passerby said the fish would soon become “rat food.”

“Nah,” Washington replied. “That’s Eric Adams,” he said, pointing to one of the few black fish that appears to be named after the city’s current mayor. “Nobody messes with him.”

Adams did not respond to a request for comment. However, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection said there were serious safety concerns about the leaking hydrants. They had sent crews to repair the hydrant several times, but residents turned it back on.

“We love goldfish too, but we know there are better homes for them than on the sidewalk,” said agency spokeswoman Beth DeFalco.

On Friday afternoon, dozens of fish were still swimming in the pit.