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. The Kaikyokan Aquarium in Shimonoseki, home to the ocean sunfish, has been under renovation since December 2024.
The aquarium remains closed to the public, and the staff noticed their sunfish was struggling with the change. It stopped eating its jellyfish and started rubbing its body against the tank, reported the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.
At first, staff suspected the sunfish had developed digestive issues or was infected by parasites, but then they began to consider other reasons.
On X, the aquarium posted that the fish felt a little unwell right after the closure. “We didn’t know the cause and tried various things to deal with it, but one of the staff members said, ‘Maybe he’s lonely without the visitors?’ I was 99 per cent sure that couldn’t be the case, but I stuck up some staff uniforms as a last resort.”
To create the illusion of people observing the fish, the staff printed cardboard cutouts of visitors and attached them to the aquarium. They also used clothes, and the facility posted a picture of the scene on X, showing the fish, who appeared comforted by the fake guests’ presence.
“And then … the next day, the sunfish felt better!” the aquarium said in a post. “Recently, it has been swimming in front of the tank and waving its fins, so it seems to be in good health again!”
“Honestly, I can’t believe it, but the one currently on display is very curious and would come over when there were visitors, so it may have been in poor health when it suddenly disappeared. Recently, it has been observing in front of the tank and waving its hands, so it seems to be in good health again!” it said
The Kaikyokan Aquarium is not the first aquarium in Japan to use creative ideas to keep the fish happy. During the 2020 COVID lockdown, Tokyo’s Sumida Aquarium used a similar strategy to keep its 300 spotted garden eels active by asking volunteers to FaceTime the creatures and push them to come out from their hiding spots in the tank.
