Only the storms could claim Max

The amazing reign of Max the goldfish is over.

Max, a footlong behemoth of a fish who was about to turn 22 years old, died as a result of the four-day power outage that afflicted his Mount Prospect home last week.

With the power out that long, oxygen could not be pumped into his tank, said his owner, Steve Bennett.

"The power came back on Sunday, and that's when my dad found Max at the bottom of his tank," Bennett said. "It's weird. We don't even want to go down to the basement anymore."

Bennett, 31, and now living in Palatine, won Max in the fall of 1985 at a fun fair at St. Raymond de Penafort School in Mount Prospect. Bennett was 10 years old at the time.

Most fun-fair goldfish die within days, if not hours, of arriving in their new homes. Max, though, just kept on swimming -- and growing. Max was an inch or two long in 1985. He died measuring at least a foot long from nose to tail.

"He was an absolute monster," Bennett said. "I sometimes wondered if he would ever die. I wasn't exactly a zoologist when it came to caring for him."

After Bennett moved out of his parents' home, his father, Richard, became Max's key caregiver.

Richard tells a story about the time he put an algae-eating fish into Max's tank. When he returned to the tank to see how the algae-eater was doing, he couldn't find it. Then he realized why. Max had eaten it.

"It was like Max was saying 'This is my tank, and no one else's,' " Richard Bennett said.

The Daily Herald first reported about Max in 2004. The article created a bout of Max Fever that spread across the nation.

Radio stations from all over the Midwest and as far away as San Diego called Steve Bennett for an interview. Thousands of people viewed and sent e-mails to Max's now-defunct Web site.

Bennett says he will do what he can to keep Max's spirit alive. He's created a Max-related MySpace page (www.myspace.com/maxthefish), and he's shopping around a children's book he wrote about Max.

"It has a message that says don't stop, always follow your dreams," Bennett said. "I think that's what Max symbolizes."

Bennett hopes to preserve Max's body as well. Right now, the fish sits frozen in his parents' freezer while he searches for a taxidermist willing to take on the tricky task of stuffing a goldfish.

"I couldn't just bury him," Bennett said. "Max is a special guy, and I want to keep him around."

Max online

• Check out Max's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/maxthefish