--- title: Goldfish Gets $500 Life-Saving Surgery After Eating Pebble description: His owner shelled out for the health of her tiny fish, Conquer, who had swallowed a large pebble that obstructed his ability to eat. canonical: https://time.com/4490157/goldfish-surgery-pebble/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-13T20:06:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:30.553Z og:title: This Very Lucky Goldfish Got a $500 Life-Saving Surgery og:description: His owner shelled out for the health of her clearly beloved pet. og:url: https://time.com/4490157/goldfish-surgery-pebble/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Very Lucky Goldfish Got a $500 Life-Saving Surgery twitter:description: His owner shelled out for the health of her clearly beloved pet. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Clearly Beloved Goldfish Got a $500 Life-Saving Surgery > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 13, 2016 8:06 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 13, 2016 8:06 PM UTC Most goldfish [live short, uneventful lives](http://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/?iid=sr-link1). But Conquer — the aquatic pet of 21-year-old Emma Marsh of Brisbane, Australia — is no ordinary goldfish. The one-year-old little fish received a life-saving emergency veterinary surgery last week when Marsh noticed he was making “excessive mouth movements,” [the _Courier Mail_ reports.](http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/brisbane-woman-pays-500-to-save-her-12-goldfish/news-story/6305dc85ef4ee3f51ad47560abdf953e) It turned out that he had consumed a pebble that was about a fifth of his body length, making it impossible for him to chew, eat, or swallow. Marsh rushed him to the Brisbane Bird and Exotics Veterinary Service, where some nimble-fingered veterinarians anesthetized Conquer and extracted the pebble with forceps. The fish even got to stay at the hospital overnight; fancy! And he has since fully recovered and is in stable condition, [according to Buzzfeed News.](https://www.buzzfeed.com/tanyachen/emergency-goldfish-surgery-for-a-pebble?utm%5Fterm=.krWkJVZ96&bffbmain&ref=bffbmain#.mmLQolY9P) For the service, however, Marsh dished out a full $500, according to the _Mail_, while Conquer had initially costed $12\. “I treat fish like they’re any other pet,” Marsh told the _Mail_. A spokesperson for the veterinary hospital noted that it was due to Marsh being so observant that Conquer’s issue was recognized at all. Conquer isn’t the first goldfish to receive special treatment in Australia recently, either; in 2014, ten-year-old (!) George [underwent a rare surgery](http://time.com/3378888/goldfish-surgery/?iid=sr-link3) to remove a life-threatening tumor. 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