The telephone call came at an odd hour, but for John McLaren, curator of Aquaworld Aquarium in Hersonissos, there was nothing strange about that. He was used to receiving requests at all hours to rescue unwanted pets.

However, this one was a lot stranger than most.

The call was from a manager of the Caldera Beach Hotel in Anissara. It seems they had a fish that had "outgrown" its aquarium and needed to be re-homed.

Upon arrival at the hotel, John, although an authority on Cretan marine life, was puzzled.  He was looking at something that resembled a rocket-propelled predatory fish at the tail end, but with a snout full of sharp teeth, remarkably like those of a crocodile, at the business end!

After transporting the fish back to Aquaworld, subsequent research revealed that Garfield, as he is affectionately known, is the largest of all purely freshwater fish in North America – the alligator gar.

"As he can reach up to three metres and over 150 kilos," John reported, "Garfield would soon outgrow any normal home aquarium, but he will be comfortable here for some time to come, and he is already attracting lots of attention from curious visitors."

However, no one seems to know how a croc-like freshwater fish from North America managed to "swim" his way into an aquarium on Crete.