Sometimes, loving something too much can have negative consequences as one little boy found out the hard way after killing his pet goldfish on accident.

Everett Hamlin from Bonaire, Georgia, was off to sleep when he decided to give his fish buddy a cuddle before bed, scooping him out of the tank and taking him with him, completely unaware that it would kill him.

The toddler’s mom, Tori, caught the tragic accident on camera when she went to check the room following the discovery that Nemo was missing from his tank. That’s when she found him in her sleeping son’s hand. She then woke up Everett, who was devastated to be told his fish was dead, as he ‘just wanted tot pet’ Nemo.

Tori said, “I was shocked at first, but then when he said he just wanted to pet it I was thinking, oh my god, that’s so sad. I didn’t think it was funny that he killed it. He had no understanding of what he was doing. Honestly, I’m surprised he caught it. He’s got some good skills there.”

The 29-year-old mom added, “He loved the goldfish. It’s always been in his bedroom. He loved looking at it. He’s never tried to get it before it happened that night. I explained it to him again and he said, ‘that’s alright. We’ll have to get another fish and I won’t touch it. I’m only allowed to touch fish when I go fishing’. I said, ‘yep, that’s right’.”

She continued, “Everett has to do stuff like that to learn. Not every kid listens to their parent and learns from that. Sometimes they have to make mistakes to learn from them. It’s part of parenting and growing up.”

Tori and husband Corey had bought Nemo for Everett when he was just a few months old.

Since sharing the story online, Tori has received more than 65,000 comments, likes and shares, and the family have been flooded with sympathetic offers to buy Everett a new fish.

Everett now has some new goldfish friends but plans to leave them in their tank at night.

Tori, who is a stay at home mom, said, “He’s always loved it. The fish was bought specifically for him. When we got it for him, he could look into the tank and enjoy looking at the bubbles and the lights. We had that goldfish for so long that when we bought it he was orange and by the time he died he had outgrown all the orange. It was so crazy. Most people don’t have goldfish for that long. We’ve always been big fish people. We take care of our fish. He lived a longer life than most goldfish.”

RIP Nemo. But hopefully Everett enjoys his new fishy friends for many years.