Steve Gruebel with Buttkiss © Erik Freeland / Barcroft USA
Spending each day swimming round his four-foot-long, 75-gallon tank, Buttkiss the 43-year old Black Pacu is thought to be the world’s oldest living common-pet-fish.
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In a remarkable feat of endurance the 15 pound, 22 inch long fish’s is incredibly swimming towards his sixth decade of life.
Turning 44 on April 1, the age-old fish is more likely to draw gasps of admiration from the crowds who flock to see him at New York’s Cameo Pet Shop – rather than laughter on the famous fool’s day.
Buttkiss’s owner and pet shop proprietor Steve Gruebel, 60, said his fish has become a local celebrity in the Queens neighbourhood of Richmond Hill in the Big Apple.
“I have worked in this shop for 46 years and we first got him in to sell as a pet in 1967,” said monster fish keeper Steve.
“I sold him on in 1968, but that owner returned him when Buttkiss outgrew the tank he was living in at the beginning of 1970.
“He has been with me ever since.”
A member of the Black Pacus species of fish, Buttkiss is a larger relative of flesh eating piranha’s found in the South American Amazon river.
“He doesn’t eat your everyday fish food,” explained Steve.
“I actually feed him up to 20 goldfish every other day and he devours them like a vacuum cleaner, sucking them up.
“Amazingly, when I looked up the Black Pacus in the wildlife books, I saw that they are only supposed to live for 20 years max.”
Named after famous American Football player, Dick Butkus, this old age pet is already comparable in age to other ancient tank-bound fishes.
Goldie, the 45-year-old goldfish passed away in Bradnich, Devon in 2005 and held the Guinness World Record for an old aged pet fish.
“Unfortunately Buttkiss is definitely getting on,” said Steve.
“He has become slow and cumbersome. He has a glaucoma in his right eye and he isn’t so bright anymore when I arrive to feed him.
“He has always come straight to the corner of his tank when he sees me, thinking he is going to be feed, but these days he is a bit slow.”
Scared to move him from his tank of 40 years unless the change of scene and stress might push him to the great fish tank in the sky, Steve enjoys Buttkiss’s min-celebrity.
“He has been a fixture here for 40 years.
“People come in to the store just to see Buttkiss, although I wish they would buy something.”
Words by James Nye
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