Gumbo is a black anglerfish with a purple tail and purple fins. He is unlocked after completing Tank 3-3.
Behavior
Gumbo lures guppies and breeders to a corner of the attack opposite of where an alien is located using his lamp during an alien attack.
Gumbo can find a use in any tank, although tanks with multiple alien signatures may pose a problem if the two aliens are on opposite sides of the tank, preventing Gumbo from picking a secure spot for the player's fish. Using Gumbo bears the risk of leaving all guppies and breeders in one convenient spot for an alien to quickly eat.
Pairing Gumbo with Wadsworth has the potential to maximize the survival of all guppies during an alien attack.
Story
"Many critics of Gumbo say that he is a wolf in sheep's clothing... that he simply leads all of your guppies to one spot to make it easier for his alien friends to kill them all. Gumbo answers his critics by pointing out that the aliens have shown him no mercy in Tank 5. "I am not nor have I ever been a member of the Alien party!" says Gumbo."
Trivia
- He is named after gumbo, a spicy chicken or seafood soup typically made with okra or rice, popular in Cajun cooking.
- Some people actually think Gumbo is a female, as a male anglerfish cannot have an ilium (a modified dorsal fin, the end of which dangles before the mouth) nor an esca (the end of the ilium) and cannot be this size. Despite this, it is very unlikely that the creators of Insaniquarium would describe him as a male, then say that he is a female. This attribution of female-specific characteristics to a supposedly male creature is probably just a failure to research the matter properly, or else a desire to go with what works for the game, rather than realism.
- Additionally, only deep-water anglerfish (which cannot survive anywhere near the surface, much less in an aquarium) have bioluminescent escas; shallow-water varieties have escas resembling worms, as a light would be useless by day.
- Furthermore, since the esca is bioluminescent (due to symbiotic bacteria), it shines constantly; it cannot be switched on or off.
- If players have this pet during the alien battle in the Virtual Tank, he'll lure store-bought guppies and breeders which is redundant since they cannot be killed anyway.
- Gumbo's esca lights up in the Final Boss Fight only when aliens are summoned by Cyrax, but he doesn't swim around frantically.
- He resembles an anglerfish from Typer Shark Deluxe, another game made by PopCap Games. It only appears on Abyss Mode when the player types the wrong letter and carries only a letter, just like piranhas, which is also an enemy on that game. The only difference is its speed and appearance, as it moves very fast and does not have an esca.