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 SUNFISH that was literally dying of loneliness has been saved with a group of cardboard cutouts friends keeping it company. The fish became unwell when the Kaikyokan aquarium where it lives in

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?’ "

"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?

Japanese aquarium staff used cut-out human companions to cheer up a lonely sunfish, leading to improved health.

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.