# Is this fish cute? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 17, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-fish-cute/543511 "2010-06-17T03:49:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![auntie\_drama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@auntie\_drama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_drama)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-fish-cute/543511/41 "2010-06-17T23:26:34Z")
That is a fish only its mother could love. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-fish-cute/543511/42 "2010-06-17T23:36:01Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Seriously. What kind of fish is he? What’s his back story? I want him. You can have him. They sell them in pet stores around here for less than $20, and they are even cuter in person. Just so you know, they’re tiny. Perhaps the pet stores only sell babies, but every one I’ve seen is only a couple of inches long. But the OP’s fish…it’s ugly. Not as ugly as the blobfish that looks like an extra from a cheesy post-nuclear holocaust horror movie, but pretty ugly. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-fish-cute/543511/43 "2010-06-17T23:42:11Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > But the OP’s fish…it’s ugly. Probably not a lot of light at 1,500 feet, though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-fish-cute/543511/44 "2010-06-18T00:00:43Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > See this? This is a cute fish: [http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Random/cute\_fish.jpg](http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Random/cute_fish.jpg) > > He’s all bug-eyed and grinning and whatnot. Adorable! Note how he is almost, but not entirely, completely unlike the fish you posted. This is what makes a cute fish. Plus, pufferfish are _smart_ (well, smart for a fish, largest brain-to-body-weight ratio of any “pet” fish), have distinct personalities, recognize their pet humans, learn to beg for food, and have the ability to hover motionless in the tank, like little piscine helicopters I had a pet [Green Spotted pufferfish](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Green+Spotted+Puffer%22&aq=f) as a pet for a while, neat little fish, closer to a “puppy with fins” than a fish, Zaphod was his name, he was hand-tame, I could “pet” him with a moistened finger, cup my hand in the tank and he’d swim into it and sit" in my hand, I could finger-feed him shrimp or snails, he’d beg for food, and even though he had other fish in the tank with him, including some “snack sized” Bumblebee gobies, he ignored them totally, he’d rather spend time with his pet human Sadly, near the end of his all-too-short life, he developed a gas pocket on his right side, it would float him near the top of the tank, and he had to struggle to swim, I took him to the local pet shop to have one of their saltwater experts/breeders who was an expert in aquaria/fish see if he could help Zaph We decided to try to lance the gas pocket, that is, we _tried_ to lance it, puffer skin is very tough, we ended up bending two hypodermic needles, and dulling the tip of a scalpel trying to make a tiny hole to vent the gas buildup Throughout all this _torture_ poor Zaph had to endure, not _once_ did he ever inflate or puff up, and we were certainly acting like “predators”, it was almost like he _knew_ I was trying to help him, and he trusted me, sadly, nothing worked, and Zaph was clearly not leading a happy life with the gas pocket, he looked sad all the time, so the decision was made to put him down, I apologized to him, offered him a final shrimp, which he declined (at that point, he was not eating anyway ☹ ) said goodbye, and had him put in a humane anesthetizing bath, where he quietly drifted off to “sleep” Dammit, I’ve got dust in my eyes again, never thought I’d get so emotional over a “simple fish” ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-fish-cute/543511/45 "2010-06-18T00:07:58Z")
Fun puffer trivia, their flesh contains Tetradotoxin, one of the most powerful and potent paralytic neurotoxins in nature, the same toxin found in the Blue Ring Octopus and the Cone Snail, and the same toxin that gives properly prepared Fugu sushi it’s characteristic “tingle” Yep, it’s a _poisonous_ pet 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-fish-cute/543511/46 "2010-06-18T00:59:40Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > [Eddie McBlobbules](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/photogalleries/topten-pictures/photo7.html) _is_, but ‘he’ makes me giggle in a way completely unbecoming of an adult. (Googling his species name, he’s apparently a squid.) Some scientist got some googly eyes from the craft store and went to town with the glue. I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-fish-cute/543511/47 "2010-06-18T03:33:34Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > You can have him. They sell them in pet stores around here for less than $20, and they are even cuter in person. Just so you know, they’re tiny. Perhaps the pet stores only sell babies, but every one I’ve seen is only a couple of inches long. I think I remember seeing them as a kid at the pet store. (I went with a pet frog, though.) They didn’t look as cute as this guy, though! He’s SO sweet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-fish-cute/543511.md?page=2)