Sure, COVID-19 has been tough on human beings. But don’t discount the effect the virus has had on our aquatic friends. 

Take Mikko, a 3-foot-long grouper who lives at the Sea Life Helsinki Sea Lab ocean laboratory, where he had to be isolated because he kept eating his tankmates.

When the aquarium closed because of the pandemic, Mikko appeared depressed, becoming “more still and distant than usual,” his caretakers told Live Science. “To cheer him up ... the caretakers and other staff had lunch and coffee breaks by his tank.” They also had a TV to keep him company, but on October 12, Mikko got the ultimate pick-me-up: a 16th birthday party featuring a salmon “cake.”