SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A Seminole County man is facing fines for keeping fish in his front yard.
Code enforcement doesn't have a problem with the 300 koi fish but the fact that the man's keeping them in an above-ground pool.
That house is along Delaney Drive in Winter Springs.
Someone in that neighborhood anonymously complained to code enforcement.
Several people in the neighborhood said they don't have a problem with the pool full of fish.
Ted Smith said his 300 koi fish are family and he's watched then grow up for 14 years on their strict cat-food diet, but their future is uncertain.
Smith said he has spent more than $30,000 on a bathtub and Jacuzzi set up, but the county said the whole thing has to be behind the house.
After a neighbor complained, Seminole County code enforcement told Smith he needs to move the pool and clean up the rest of the yard by Dec. 4 or officers will fine him $100 a day.
"It's not like moving a little aquarium stand on the corner of the couch," Smith said.
It's especially hard because Smith says he just had a heart attack and has been fighting lung cancer, so the county is giving him extra time and is not slapping him with the usual $250 fine.
Smith is working on moving everything, but says it would be better if someone would just take the fish off his hands so they can keep swimming without him.
"I am not going to be around to enjoy them much longer, you know. A couple years maybe, I don't know," Smith said.
Smith said the only reason he moved the fish into this pool in the first place was because he had problems with his pond.
WFTV
