Japan. Japan. The Kaikyokan Aquarium located in Shimonoseki, Japan, which is home to the sea sunfish and has 20000 fish of 500 species inside 65 water tanks. Now, closed to the public from December 2024 due to renovation work. During the process, the staff noticed that the sunfish was struggling with the change. According to reports, he stopped eating jellyfish and started rubbing his body against the edge of the tank. Initially, the staff thought that the sunfish might have digestive problems or it was infected with parasites. But later they also started considering other reasons for this problem.
Staff gave the solution
Seeing all the antics, an employee suggested that maybe the sunfish was feeling lonely because no person was coming to the aquarium now. Then taking this matter seriously, the staff prepared cardboard cutouts of people and placed them in the aquarium to confuse the fish. Apart from this, the staff also wore their uniforms so that the fish would feel that people were watching it.
Improvement in the health of the sunfish
After the staff turned this unique solution into reality, the health of the sunfish was seen to improve. The next day, the fish started swimming in front of the tank and also started moving its fins, which made it clear that the fish had become healthy again. The aquarium posted and wrote that the fish now appears curious and active again.
Similar experiment was done earlier too
This was not the first time that an aquarium has taken such a unique measure. During the Covid lockdown of the year 2020, Tokyo’s Sumida Aquarium also adopted a similar unique measure to keep its 300 spotted garden eels active. They then encouraged the eels to come out via FaceTime from the volunteers.
People reaction to it
The post featuring the sunfish instantly went viral, racking up more than 13 million views to date. People also made different comments on the post, one person wrote “Everyone is watching, Mr. Sunfish~” while another said “It seems that fish also have feelings of loneliness…”
