A goldfish named Blub reeled in a world record, and all he needed to do was just keep swimming in order to drive his custom-built vehicle to the victory line.
Computer engineer and pet owner Thomas de Wolf and Blub, using a car that detected the fish’s movement inside a water tank to direct the wheels, earned the record for greatest distance covered in a motion-sensing vehicle by a goldfish in one minute, according to Guinness World Records (GWR).
The Dutch man brought his motorized invention and Blub, an Italian goldfish, to GWR’s Italian TV show Lo Show dei Record to secure the record in front of host Gerry Scotti and a GWR adjudicator.
“Normally, my job is quite monotonous, so I wanted to create something that would entertain people, turning my ‘serious’ job into something fun,” he said in a GWR news release. “The objective is to show people what is possible to achieve with this kind of technology.”
In Blub’s 60-second attempt, the goldfish traveled 40 feet and 3.46 inches (a little over 12 meters), which was more than the roughly 16 feet and 4 inches (5 meters) needed to secure the world record.
Sofia Greenacre, the GWR adjudicator, measured the attempt by counting the number of times the colored marks on the wheels hit the ground since the car was moving in several directions, with reverse movement allowed. (People)