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.

How do you perk up a lonely fish? This may sound like the start of a particularly silly joke, but it was a very real challenge faced by staff at a Japanese aquarium when they noticed their sunfish was ailing.

A video obtained by Reuters on Tuesday (January 21) showed how an aquarium in Japan's Yamaguchi has come up with a unique solution to improve the deteriorated health of its beloved sunfish affected by the lack of visitors - making cutouts of human faces to paste them on the tanks.

The aquarium noted, “We didn't know the cause [of the fish feeling unwell] ... but one of the staff members said, ‘Maybe he's lonely without the visitors?’ "