A solitary sunfish at an aquarium in Japan lost its appetite, began banging into the side of the fishtank and appeared unwell days after the facility closed last month for renovations.

The solitary fish named Mambo stopped eating and seemed to be missing its human visitors—so aquarists attached photos of human faces and uniforms to the side of its enclosure

The aquarium noted, “We didn't know the cause [of the fish feeling unwell] ... but one of the staff members said, ‘Maybe he's lonely without the visitors?’ "

How do you perk up a lonely fish? This may sound like the start of a particularly silly joke, but it was a very real challenge faced by staff at a Japanese aquarium when they noticed their sunfish was ailing.

"When an aquarium in Japan closed to the public for restorations, the aquarium's beloved sunfish grew lonely without visitors and lost its appetite — until aquarium staff pasted cutouts with photos of human faces onto the tank," the video caption explains. That's right — they made people! Have you ever seen something so sweet?

In a photo posted by the aquarium in Kaikyokan, Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi prefecture ... their animals were becoming lonely due to a lack of visitors, an aquarium in Tokyo organised an "emergency" video call event for its eels, which they believed had ...

An aquarium in Japan has come up with a unique and out-of-the-box idea to cheer up its lonely resident sunfish after the facility closed for renovations.

TOKYO — A solitary sunfish at an aquarium in southwestern Japan lost its appetite, began banging into the side of the fishtank and appeared unwell days after the facility closed last month for renovations. As a last-ditch measure to save the popular fish, its keepers hung their uniforms and set up human cutouts outside the tank.

TOKYO -- A solitary sunfish at an aquarium ... an aquarist at the Kaikyokan aquarium in Shimonoseki. The large sunfish arrived at the aquarium in February 2024 from the southern coast of Kochi ...

TOKYO — A solitary sunfish at an aquarium ... an aquarist at the Kaikyokan aquarium in Shimonoseki. The large sunfish arrived at the aquarium in February 2024 from the southern coast of Kochi ...

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To test the theory, aquarium staff decided to attach large cut-out photos of human faces to a row of uniforms along the side of the tank. The results were immediate and surprising. Within a day, the sunfish began to eat again and showed signs of being more content.