First fish to survive chemotherapy

The first fish to survive chemotherapy was a giant grouper Epinephelus lanceolatus named Bubba, which lived at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Bubba arrived at the aquarium in 1987, when she was found abandoned at its reception desk in a bucket of water, but was nursed back to health by staff and became a popular exhibit. As groupers often do, Bubba later changed sex, becoming a male in the 1990s, but in 2001 he was diagnosed with cancer. However, because of Bubba's large size, weighing almost 70 kg, staff decided to take the unprecedented step of treating him with chemotherapy – never previously attempted with a fish – to which he responded well, surviving both the treatment and the cancer. Bubba died of age-related issues in August 2006.

As the first fish to be treated with chemotherapy for cancer and to survive both, Bubba became an inspiration to many human cancer sufferers, especially children, the aquarium receiving many phone calls from such children and their parents asking how Bubba was, and gaining strength and courage from the knowledge that he had survived his own ordeal and that chemotherapy had extended his life.