Aquarium tapes human cutouts to tank after lonely sunfish refuses to eat alone
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The sunfish ate for the first time in about a week after human cutouts were used. A solitary sunfish has been brought back from the brink with the help of fake humans. The rare fish at an aquarium in southwestern Japan lost its appetite, began banging into the side of the fish tank and appeared unwell days after the attraction closed for renovations.
The large sunfish arrived at the aquarium in February 2024 from the southern coast of Kochi in the Pacific Ocean. The sunfish, a member of the blowfish family known for its unique shape and big eyes, became one of the most popular attractions at the facility.
As a last-ditch measure to save the popular fish, its keepers hung their uniforms and set up human cutouts outside the tank. The next morning, the sunfish ate for the first time in about a week and has been steadily recovering, said Moe Miyazawa, an aquarist at the Kaikyokan aquarium in Shimonoseki.
When the sunfish began looking unwell days after the aquarium closed on December 1 for a six-month renovation, its keepers suspected digestive problems, gave it less food and visited the fish tank to comfort the sunfish when there was construction noise, but to no avail.
Then at a staff meeting, one person suggested that the sunfish might have been affected by the sudden absence of an audience. “We were skeptical but decided to do anything we could,” Miyazawa said. They hung their uniforms and placed human-shaped cutouts with photos of smiling faces outside the tank to cheer on the fish, Miyazawa said.
