This lad ‘missed swimming so much’ during his pool’s coronavirus lockdown that he took a dip in his dad’s fish tank – complete with dozens of colourful but confused fish around him:

Jaden Melton was filmed taking a dip inside his dad Todd’s four-foot-long fish tank last Monday (23 March) wearing his swimming gear alongside more than 20 fish including cichlids and angelfish.

The 13-year-old took the plunge while his brother Jude, 10, filmed his escapade in a bid to show Jaden’s teammates how much he was missing not being able to train like usual.

Quarantine has forced the dedicated Okotoks Mavericks swimming team to miss training, competitions and even this week’s Olympic trials, so head coach Todd set up a contest to ‘make light of a hard situation’.

The team were invited to all submit clips showing how much they miss the sport and, while there was no prize for the winners, it was agreed that Jaden’s had blown the others out of the water.

In the footage, Jude pretends to grass on his younger brother by telling their father he’s ‘in the fish tank again’ before Todd enters the room saying ‘I get you miss swimming, but get out of the tank’.

Jaden, of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada, said: “The reason I miss swimming is because it’s more than just a sport, it’s a lifestyle.

“I swam almost every day, and now since Covid-19 I can no longer see my friends from swimming, and with all sports cancelled I feel lazy and less productive. Being in the tank was somewhat fun because it was funny and I thought why not go into the fish tank as a joke.”

Todd said: “I’m the head coach at the swim club here and we created a contest with the swimmers about who misses the sport the most.

“We had one girl who did a video of her swimming in the snow and another pretended to swim in their living room with a bucket of water in their face.

“I was sitting in bed one night talking to them over a group chat about one of their videos, and then I looked at the fish tank and pictured my son Jaden in there.

“I said to him that it would be hilarious if we put him inside and did a video – I think we’d win the contest. And he said ‘absolutely’ – and the next thing you know he’s in the fish tank.”

Preparing the scene involved the 42-year-old emptying and cleaning the entire 4ft x 1.5ft x 2ft tank, removing most of the decorations, filtering the new water, then using a chair to put Jaden feet first inside.

Todd said: “We did about three takes, got him out and then chose the best video. It was really quick as we decided what to say beforehand – he was only in there for about five minutes.

“The tank is about 28 degrees and that’s not cold for him – he actually thought it was quite comfortable. He’s got to keep his gills wet right, otherwise they’ll grow over – and what a way to do it.

“That was the last chance he’d ever have of doing something like that – he’s growing pretty fast. There was no prize for the contest but as soon as I showed our video to the others, they agreed that we’d won.”

When sharing the video on Facebook, the father-of-two made it absolutely clear that no fish or child was harmed in its making – and even put a ‘don’t try this at home’ note on his post.

Todd said: “He showered before and after he went into the tank to make sure he didn’t have anything on his skin or chemicals in his hair. And I put a note at the top of the post for people to understand that my son was not going to get salmonella poisoning.

“A couple of people were angry as they thought we’d harmed the fish – which is ridiculous. The fish are happy and are very tame – my son can actually pet them, but he doesn’t do it because I don’t think it’s good for them. When you go over to the tank in the morning, they’ll swim over to you and expect to be fed.”