One of Scotland's top millennium attractions is proving popular with unusual visitors: fish.

More than 1,000 perch, pike and three-spined sticklebacks have been found in the Falkirk Wheel, the world's only rotating boatlift which connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal.

Scientists said they were encouraged by the find, as the presence of the fish indicated good water quality.

The link, which allows boats to travel from Glasgow to Edinburgh, was reopened last year after 40 years.

The wheel is the world's only rotating boatlift

The �17.5m wheel has already drawn 230,000 visitors since opening in May, making it one of Scotland's top 10 attractions.

It acts as the centrepiece of an �84.5m project to establish a coast-to-coast link across central Scotland.

The fish were discovered during maintenance work at the wheel site, which required the basin, aquaduct and locks to be drained and inspected.

Scientists took advantage of the shutdown to investigate the wheel for signs of freshwater life.

Olivia Lassiere, a scientist with British Waterways, said finding the fish was a positive if unexpected development.

She said: "What is particularly important is that our findings confirm what we believed to be the case - that our, and our partners', ongoing environmental efforts are not only improving the canal banks but also the water within the canals.

'New lifestyle'

"The majority of the fish rescued were quite small specimens of roach and perch which suggests that the new canal, in particular the basin, is acting as a good nursery site for coarse fish.

"Because we found some fish actually in the gondolas on The Falkirk Wheel it is possible that some may already have taken up a new lifestyle choice and be commuting from city to city."

The 30-metre-high (115 ft) structure can lift a boat and water weighing up to 600 tonnes at any one time.

The wheel and the Union Canal are part of the Millennium Link project to restore the historic waterway link between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The project enables boats to travel from the heart of Edinburgh to Glasgow and the Clyde Estuary via the Union Canal, Forth and Clyde Canal and the Falkirk Wheel.