A junior doctor who found a goldfish on his garden lawn has gone viral on social media after saying he had “no idea” how it got there.

Dr Ben Beska, from Newcastle, made the discovery on Saturday after he heard a group of magpies squawking and went out to investigate – and then spotted the fish lying in the grass.

The NHS cardiology doctor rushed to retrieve the fish and placed it in a freezer drawer filled with water – the only large container he could find.

Locking the fish away from his two pet cats, Dr Beska visited his nearest aquatic shop and purchased a tank for the fish.

The 33-year-old has named it Alice after a text message he sent to a friend autocorrected “it’s alive” to “it’s alice”.

Dr Beska posted about his discovery on X, formerly Twitter, and it has now been viewed more than 19 million times, according to figures from the social network.

He described the reaction as “bonkers” and added: “It’s pretty mad really, finding a fish on the lawn. I have no idea how it got in the garden…

“Then I saw this thing on the floor and I was like: ‘What the hell?’

“I went out and I was like, as if it’s an actual fish, so took a photo to send to my fiance to say: ‘How the hell is there a fish on the floor’, and then it moved – I couldn’t just leave it.”

Dr Beska said he picked up the “flapping” fish and put it in the freezer drawer after filling it with water.

He said: “It started to swim around so it was alive…

“I think it was seconds from death, so it’s a lucky fish.”

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Dr Beska suspects a bird picked up the fish from a nearby pond and dropped it while carrying it away – but said it must have travelled a “reasonable distance” because there were no ponds nearby.

The mystery of the goldfish has gone viral on X, with Dr Beska’s original post attracting more than 174,000 likes and nearly 5,000 comments.

He said: “It’s very odd, I mainly use [social media] for medical stuff, so this is very, very different.”

One X user has even gone as far as creating an account for the fish, with the username @alicebeska, which Dr Beska said was “very funny”

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Dr Beska now intends to keep the fish as a pet, and plans to purchase a larger tank – and possibly another fish to keep it company.

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