Without its usual crowd of spectators, Kaikyokan’s sunfish essentially started to fall into a deep-sea depression.

Some say loneliness made a Japanese sunfish stop eating after its aquarium closed. One expert says it’s probably more complicated than that.

To prevent the fish from feeling lonely during renovations, an aquarium in Japan placed cardboard visitors to keep it company. O post Viral: Fish in aquarium in Japan gets cardboard friends to cure depression apareceu primeiro em TechBreak.

A sunfish at a municipal aquarium undergoing renovation in this west Japan city became unwell, but recovered after its tank

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.

SHIMONOSEKI: A lonely ocean sunfish in a Japanese aquarium, which seemed to be missing its human visitors and caretakers during the facility’s closure, has found a surprising source of comfort.

The Kaikyokan Aquarium in Shimonoseki, Japan, which is undergoing renovations, revealed in a post on X that its staff had to think out of the box to help one of its sunfish struggling with the change.

A sociable sunfish who was reportedly missing its human audience during a temporary closure of its aquarium in Japan has been comforted in an unorthodox way. In a photo posted by the aquarium in Kaikyokan, Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi prefecture, the sunfish ...

"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?

The Japanese aquarium posted a photo on its official X (formerly Twitter) account on 3 January, showing the sunfish named Mambo swimming in its tank, surrounded by cutouts of smiling faces and staff uniforms on hangers stuck to the glass. The heartwarming but hilarious post has gone viral, receiving more than 12.5 million views and comments.

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, has signed a contract with the Indonesian Maritime

The Shimonoseki City Aquarium in Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture needed to undergo renovations, and temporarily closed to the public in December, 2024. Staff said the aquarium's sunfish lost his appetite after a week without guests.