A lone sunfish in the Kaikyokan Aquarium has drawn attention online after the staff created cutouts of imaginary visitors dressed in staff’s uniform to keep the fish’s loneliness at bay and posted it on X.
\休館中のマンボウの様子をお届けします！！！//
マンボウの様子が気になる方も多いのではないでしょうか。
実は・・・！？
(コメントに続く) pic.twitter.com/SXEtgk304M— しものせき水族館「海響館」公式 (@shimonoseki_aq) January 3, 2025
The aquarium located in the Yamaguchi prefecture, south of Japan, has been closed for renovations since December 1 of last year.
The fish, having no visitors to look forward to in the daily, seemed to try to communicate its feelings of isolation as it started to lose appetite and constantly bumped its glass tank. With enough resourcefulness, the staff managed to work their way around to cheer up the sunfish. True enough, the fish regained its appetite the next morning after a week of reluctance.
The sunfish, hailed its name as it spent time basking on wthe ater’s surface facing the sun. As bright as their name and personality can be, the sunfish rapidly grows to a size relative to a six-footer man, weighing around 2.5 tons.
In general, they are known for their solitary lifestyle, which is the reason why the sunfish at Kaikyokan Aquarium has the tank all to itself. But, perhaps, as this sunfish has been accustomed to having visitors around, it has adapted to such a busy environment. In retrospect, it is no wonder how despite its biological solitary behavior, sunfish are also likewise curious creatures. In fact, when they’re in the ocean, they usually mingle around human divers they get to encounter.
Come the summer of 2025 in Japan, the sunfish will finally be able to recover from its depressive state as Kaikyokan Aquarium will reopen its doors for tourists once renovations are through. Apart from the sunfish, the famed aquarium houses 500 species of fish in its 65 water tanks and is known to have one of the world’s largest collections of pufferfish on display. Many of these fishes for sure anticipate the flocks of crowds anytime soon.
This upcoming February marks the first year of the stay of the sunfish at the aquarium. Hopefully, by then, the fish will be out of its depressive state while temporarily taking comfort in its makeshift onlookers.
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