The Heartwarming Story of Bubba, the First Fish to Undergo Chemotherapy and Survive

Life isn’t always a smooth journey. Abandoned when he was still young, a grouper named Bubba would later develop cancer and become the first fish ever to undergo chemotherapy.

Grouper “Orphaned”

The tale begins in 1987 in Chicago. Staff at the Shedd Aquarium discover a bucket containing a juvenile giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus), measuring no more than 25 centimeters in length at the time. The accompanying mysterious note simply asks for a good home to be found for him.

Off the coast of Queensland, Australia, members of the species are known to be protogynous hermaphrodites, with individuals maturing as females and occasionally changing sex in the absence of a dominant male. Bubba follows a similar arc, measuring 1.37 meters and weighing 70 kilograms in the mid-1990s.

The grouper’s future darkens considerably in 2001 when keepers at the aquarium notice unusual growths on its head. Assuming a bacterial infection, they initially administer antibiotics, without success. A few months later, biopsies reveal that these are malignant tumors.

Cancer and Recovery

After seeking opinions from several oncologists, the aquarium’s veterinary team decides to undertake a pioneering procedure: the first chemotherapy treatment ever performed on a fish. The following year, the cancer recurs, and doctors elect to harvest larger patches of Bubba’s skin. To aid healing, medically approved connective tissue is grafted, and a fresh round of chemotherapy is administered along the edges of the wounds.

This time, the illness does not return, and Bubba recovers, spending the final years of his life in a gleaming new tank alongside his faithful companion, a golden trevally. He ultimately dies in 2008 from “age-related problems and his medical history”, according to the Shedd Aquarium.

“The trials Bubba overcame over the years made him truly unique,” explained George Parsons of the Shedd Aquarium. “Sometimes we receive calls from children with cancer or their parents, who wonder how he’s doing. It is heartbreaking to have to tell them that he is no longer with us.”

To go further, discover these five animals that entered history for very different reasons.