A NELSON home is harbouring a major tourist attraction in the form of a fish!

The albino Oscar fish originally from Singapore was bought for just £10 by Naz Raja, 29, and his brother Kazim Khan, 31, after discovering distinctive markings on the scales which mimicked the Arabic script for Allah'.

And the other side of the two-year-old fish is inscribed with the word Muhammad' which has only served to compound the spectacle.

Now the famous wonder fish has even had a website dedicated to him which invites people to visit Nelson to see the fish in exchange for a donation to a charity set up by his owner.

So far the website has had 4,200 hits from intrigued people and the fish, named Salam, meaning peace, has since had scores of strangers, paparazzi and national television news reporters peering into his tank.

In a bid to put his fame to good use, Mr Khan is in the process of registering a charity to raise money to buy wells and build schools in third world countries.

And up to 2,000 visitors have already travelled to Nelson from as far afield as London and Scotland to catch a glimpse of the swimming miracle.

Mr Khan, who didn't want his address disclosing, said: "I have had emails from all over the world with one message saying It's a beautiful fish, I really like it. If someone was to offer you £2million would you sell him?' "I've not even replied to that message because we are not interested in selling.

"If it was just a fish we would have no problem in selling him. But they would be buying the name of God and the Prophet Muhammad so it would be wrong to sell my God's name it's priceless.

"We have had up to 100 people coming to the house in just one day because word has got round about the fish.

"He's become a real tourist attraction and we wanted to put that to good use by registering a charity so everything is transparent. We want to raise money to put towards building water wells in poor countries to help provide what is a basic human requirement and make it accessible to everyone."

Tony Walker, 47, the owner of Walker Aquatics, Bacup Road, Waterfoot, the shop from where Salam was bought earlier this year, said he does not regret selling the tropical fish for £10.

He said: "The amount of interest the fish has generated is amazing you couldn't buy advertising like this so I really don't have any regrets.

"I would hope it came to me because I'm an honest man.

"I was offered thousands of pounds for the fish but I had given my word to the customer that I would sell it to him and kept my word.

"There has been all kinds of rumours saying the owner has been offered millions of pounds for it but he says he wouldn't sell it."

For more information visit www.fishfromallah.com