Famous fish that ate all his friends gets cheered up by 16th birthday party - Live Science

Famous fish that ate all his friends gets cheered up by 16th birthday party - Live Science

Famous fish that ate all his friends gets cheered up by 16th birthday party - Live Science

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:13 AM PDT

A grumpy-faced grouper named Mikko in a Finland aquarium was more down-in-the-mouth than usual, after the facility temporarily closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic. So the aquarium's staff threw him a birthday party. 

Mikko missed seeing human visitors at the Sea Life Helsinki's Sea Lab ocean laboratory, because he had no fish companions in his tank ... due to the fact that he wouldn't stop eating them, an aquarium representative told Live Science in an email.

Since the COVID-19 shutdown in the spring, Mikko's caretakers noted that the already-solitary fish seemed listless and apathetic, though he was still physically healthy. To cheer him up, they recently brought him a special treat to celebrate his 16th birthday: a salmon "cake." In a video shared on Facebook on Oct. 12, the birthday fish enthusiastically devoured the delicacy — and he didn't have to share it with anyone.

Related: Photos: The world's freakiest-looking fish

Mikko, who arrived at the aquarium in 2007, is a hefty fish, measuring about 3 feet (1 meter) long and weighing about 35 lbs. (16 kilograms). The pet store that was Mikko's former home gave him up because he outgrew all their tanks (and because he kept eating his tank-mates), the Sea Life representative said. 

At the aquarium, Mikko is fed three to four times a week on a diet of squid and small fish such as herring, mackerel or whiting. Unfortunately for Mikko's neighbors at Sea Life, he also demonstrated a hearty appetite for whatever happened to be sharing his tank — he even scarfed down a venomous lionfish.

And Mikko isn't the only grouper with a taste for large, dangerous prey — scientists have previously documented groupers swallowing sharks in a single gulp. 

Now 16 years old, Mikko has been at Sea Life Helsinki since 2007. (Image credit: Sea Life Helsinki)

After the so-called "lionfish incident," caretakers moved Mikko into a tank by himself. Deprived of the company of his fellow fish, he appeared "depressed" when people stopped coming to visit him at the aquarium during the spring shutdown, and was "more still and distant than usual," the representative said. 

"To cheer him up during the time that we were closed, the caretakers and other staff had lunch and coffee breaks by his tank," the representative said in the email. "They brushed him with a soft brush to activate him a bit, and he also had a TV to keep him company."

However, they had to be very careful when using the brush. In December 2019, Mikko snatched a brush from a keeper's hand and swallowed it. The brush lodged in his throat, and aquarium staff had to anesthetize Mikko so the brush could be safely removed, Finnish news site Ilta-Sanomat reported.

Mikko will sometimes change color in response to a gentle brushing, shifting from dark blue to a lighter blue. (Image credit: Sea Life Helsinki)

Fish depression

RELATED CONTENT

Though Mikko's behavior has changed since the COVID-19 lockdown, was he truly depressed? His story might sound fishy — an example of people interpreting animal behavior through a human lens. However, biologists have found that fish do exhibit signs of depression. Depressed zebrafish are withdrawn and lose interest in stimuli, much as people do when they are clinically depressed; in experiments, zebrafish with those "symptoms" also usually floated near the bottom of their tanks, biologists at Troy University in Alabama said in a statement in 2017. By comparison, "happy" fish in those experiments were more active and spent time close to the surface, the researchers said.

While Mikko's many fans may not have visited him in person during the shutdown, they didn't forget him. On Oct. 5, Sea Life Helsinki posted a photo on Facebook of Mikko's "fan wall" — a display next to the tank showing notes and drawings sent by admirers of the dour grouper.

Mikko seemed to enjoy his birthday "cake," and the festivities continued throughout the week, Sea Life representatives wrote on Facebook. With visitors now returning to the aquarium, the future may look a little brighter to the famous grouper. In fact, his caretakers are already making plans for his 17th birthday party, according to the post.

"Next year, you will be celebrated again, Mikko," aquarium representatives wrote.

Originally published on Live Science.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This fish is worth $300,000 - New York Post

This fish is worth $300,000 - New York Post This fish is worth $300,000 - New York Post Posted: 05 Jun 2016 12:00 AM PDT With exacting precision, the surgeon inserted the scalpel above the eyeball and cut out a snotty deposit of fatty tissue. The routine eye-lift was nearly complete when suddenly the patient awoke, suffocating, and began to flop about on the table. The audience gasped. Knowing time was of the essence, the surgeon scooped up the patient in his arms, raced across the stage, and dropped her into a tank of water. She revived. Because she was a fish. Yes, fish eye-lifts exist. As do fin jobs and tail tucks. The operating theater was a mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, where a pet expo was under way. As for the patient, she survived, her formerly droopy eyes now bright and perky. A good thing, too, as this was no ordinary goldfish but rather an Asian arowana, the world's most expensive aquarium denizen, rumored to sell for as mu
Read more

Catching Dory: selling aquarium fish supports coastal livelihoods in Indonesia | npj Ocean Sustainability - Nature.com

Image
Abstract The global marine aquarium trade has created new local markets across the planet, including in Indonesia, now the second-largest exporting country of marine aquarium fish in the world. Participating in the global aquarium trade has been touted as a potentially sustainable addition to fisher livelihoods, but scant data exist showing the numbers of fish coming off the reef and how those fish contribute to income. To determine how participants in the trade incorporate aquarium species in their livelihoods, we examine source-level aquarium fish collecting and trading data in the Banggai Archipelago, a region in Central Sulawesi that has become a significant source for popular aquarium, also known as ornamental, fish species. Using a sustainable livelihoods lens, we examine this data to understand how participants in the aquarium trade both contribute to as well as benefit from the trade and consider how their participation relates to emerging Blue Justice principles. From one year
Read more

NilocG Launches New Website for the Only All-in-One Thrive Fertilization Solution for Planted Aquariums - PRNewswire

Image
NilocG Launches New Website for the Only All-in-One Thrive Fertilization Solution for Planted Aquariums - PRNewswire NilocG Launches New Website for the Only All-in-One Thrive Fertilization Solution for Planted Aquariums - PRNewswire Posted: 11 Mar 2021 02:00 AM PST ALBANY, Ore. , March 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NilocG launches a new website for planted tank enthusiasts to gather and make THRIVE, a plant fertilizer that assures planted tank aquascapes flourish while eliminating the need for multiple products more readily available online. The company also takes it a step further in the industry, making its flagship product easy to dose, super-concentrated, and an all-in-one solution based on an effective EL dosing method with all essential micro and macronutrients. Continue Reading Thrive fertilizer: North America's most trusted aquarium plant fertilizer Colin Grice , CEO, a self-described planted tank lover, re
Read more